Metaphor, blows that make a stone divine
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
साहोनियां टांकीघाये । पाषाण देव चि जाला पाहें॥1॥
तया रीती दृढ मन । करीं साधाया कारण ॥ध्रु.॥
बाण शस्त्र साहे गोळी । सुरां ठाव उंच स्थळीं ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे सती । अग्न न देखे ज्या रीती ॥3॥ ॥2॥
तेणें वेशें माझीं चोरिलीं अंगें । मानावया जग आत्मैपणे।
नाहीं चाड भीड संसाराचें कोड । उदासीन सर्व गुणें ।
भय मोह लज्जा निरसली शंका । अवघियां एक चि पणें ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
By enduring the blows of the chisel, the stone itself becomes God. In the same way, make the mind firm to accomplish the true purpose. The hero who bears sword, arrow, and bullet earns a place on the highest ground. Says Tuka, just as the devoted wife does not see the fire she enters.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By bearing the blows of the chisel, the stone itself becomes God. In the same way, make the mind firm to accomplish the true purpose. The warrior who bears sword, arrow, and bullet wins a place on the highest ground. Tuka says: like the faithful wife who does not see the fire she enters. By that disguise my limbs were stolen away, so the world would take me for the Self. I have no want, no shame, no fondness for the world; in every quality I am indifferent. Fear, delusion, and shame are gone, and doubt with them; all of it has become one single thing.
What it means
Tukaram strings together images of what it costs to be transformed. The stone becomes the temple image only by enduring the chisel; the warrior earns the high ground only by standing under the weapons. Each says the same thing: greatness is bought by bearing the blows, so the mind must be made firm. He even reaches for the image of one so set on the goal that the surrounding danger is no longer felt. In the lines that follow he describes the result, a person emptied of fear, shame, delusion, and craving, indifferent to the world, where every distinction has melted into one. The point is that the firmness is not hardness but a steadiness that lets the self be remade.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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