Metaphor, grace plays no favorites
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नाहीं विचारीत । मेघ हागनदारी सेत ॥1॥
नये पाहों त्याचा अंत । ठेवीं कारणापें चित्त ॥ध्रु.॥
वर्जीत गंगा । नाहीं उत्तम अधम जगा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मळ । नाहीं अग्नीसी विटाळ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The rain cloud does not choose where it falls, whether on a field or a wasteland. One should not try to fathom its intent but keep the mind on the purpose at hand. The Ganga does not refuse anyone, high or low, in all the world. Says Tuka, fire knows no pollution; it purifies everything.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The rain cloud does not stop to consider; it pours on a foul dunghill and on a good field alike. Do not try to measure out its reasons; keep your mind fixed on what it is for. The Ganga turns no one away; in all the world there is no high and no low to her. Tuka says: there is no filth that can defile fire.
What it means
Tukaram stacks three images of grace that does not sort people into worthy and unworthy. The cloud, the river, the fire all give themselves the same way to clean and unclean, high and low, without weighing who deserves it. The line he plants in the middle is the instruction: do not waste yourself trying to fathom why grace comes where it comes; keep your attention on the purpose it serves. Read against himself and his hearers, it is a warning not to set up our own rankings of who may receive God, because the divine giving recognizes none of them.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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