Longing for the saints, the worn step
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
ऐशा भाग्यें जालों । तरी धन्य जन्मा आलों ॥1॥
रुळें तळीले पायरी । संत पाय देती वरी ॥ध्रु.॥
प्रेमामृतपान । होईल चरणरजें स्नान ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे सुखें । तया हरतील दुःखें॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If such fortune comes to me, then indeed this birth is blessed. Like the bottom step that lies worn under foot, upon which the saints place their holy feet. The nectar of love will flow, and the dust of their feet will become my bath. Says Tuka, in their happiness, they will take away all my sorrows.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If such fortune comes to me, then my birth is blessed. Let me be the bottom step, worn down, lying low, where the saints set their feet as they climb. Let me drink the nectar of their love. Let the dust of their feet be the water I bathe in. Tuka says: in their joy, my sorrows will be carried away.
What it means
Tukaram prays to be placed not above but underneath. He asks to be the lowest step of the stair, the one rubbed smooth because every foot lands on it, so that the saints will tread on him as they pass. He does not ask for their notice or their blessing from a height; he asks for their feet, their love as nectar, the dust they leave behind as his bath. The whole desire is downward, and that is the fortune he calls blessed: when their happiness touches him, his own griefs are simply taken away.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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