Metaphor, love binds God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
नाही काष्ठाचा गुमान । गोवी भ्रमरा सुमन ॥1॥
प्रेम प्रीतीचेे बांधलें । तें न सुटे कांहीं केलें ॥ध्रु.॥
पदरीं घालीं पिळा। बाप निर्बळ साटी बाळा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे भावें । भेणें देवा आकारावें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The bee cares nothing for dry wood; it is the flower's fragrance that captivates it. What is bound by love and affection cannot be released by any means. A weak father places his child in the lap of another for its sake. Says Tuka, with devotion, one can summon God Himself to appear.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The bee pays no attention to dry wood; it is the flower's fragrance that holds it fast. What love and affection have bound cannot be loosed by any effort at all. A weak father lays his child in another's lap for the child's own good. Tuka says: with true feeling, you can call God Himself into form.
What it means
Tukaram is showing how God is held, and it is never by force. The bee is not trapped by hard wood but drawn helplessly by the flower's scent, an image of how sweetness, not strength, binds. So too the bond of love between devotee and God cannot be undone by any contrivance, because nothing made it but love. The picture of a powerless father entrusting his child to stronger arms is the devotee handing himself over for safekeeping; and the close states the law of it, that sincere feeling, bhava, is what summons the formless God to take a form you can hold.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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