Saints, the servant at their door
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संतांचे घरींचा दास मी कामारी । दारीं परोपरीं लोळतसें ॥1॥
चरणींचे रज लागती अंगांस । तेण बेताळीस उद्धरती ॥ध्रु.॥
उिच्छष्ट हें जमा करुनि पत्रावळी । घालीन कवळी मुखामाजी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मी आणीक विचार । नेणें हे चि सार मानीतसें ॥3॥ ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I am a servant and laborer in the household of the saints, rolling at their door in every manner. The dust of their feet touches my body, and by that dust, forty-two generations are purified. I gather their leftover food on leaf-plates and place each morsel in my mouth. Says Tuka, I know no other way; this alone I hold as the highest truth.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I am a servant, a laborer, in the house of the saints. I roll about at their door in every way. The dust of their feet touches my body. By that dust, forty-two generations are lifted up. I gather their leftover food from the leaf-plates. I put each morsel into my mouth. Tuka says: I know no other plan. This alone I hold as the heart of everything.
What it means
Tukaram takes the lowest possible place on purpose, a hired drudge rolling in the dirt at the saints' threshold. The images are deliberately humbling: foot-dust on his skin, leftover scraps from their leaf-plates eaten as prasad. But the lowliness is the whole power of it, since that very dust is said to redeem forty-two generations of his line. He ends by refusing all cleverness: he knows no other method, and treats this surrender to the company of saints as the single essential thing.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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