Metaphor, the mind tempered in fire
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तापल्यावांचून नव्हे अळंकार । पिटूनियां सार उरलें तें ॥1॥
मग कदाकाळीं नव्हे शुद्ध जाति । नासें शत्रु होती मित्र ते चि ॥ध्रु.॥
किळवर बरें भोगूं द्यावें भोगा । फांसिलें तें रोगा हातीं सुटे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मन करावें पाठेळ । साहावे चि जाळ सिजेवरि ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Without heating in the fire, no ornament can be fashioned. Only what survives the hammering endures. Once tested, the pure essence never degrades; enemies are turned into friends. One should allow the gross to be consumed by experience. That which is refined endures and is freed from disease. Says Tuka, make the mind as tough as leather. Endure the burning until it is fully cooked.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Without being heated, gold becomes no ornament; only what survives the hammering is left. Once tested, the pure kind never spoils; what was an enemy turns into a friend. Let the body spend its given experience to the full; what is so consumed slips free of disease. Tuka says: make the mind tough as leather. Bear the burning until you are fully cooked.
What it means
Tukaram uses the goldsmith's fire to explain why suffering is not punishment but making. Gold cannot become an ornament without being heated and hammered; only the part that endures the blows remains and becomes the true shape. Once it has passed through the fire, the pure metal no longer degrades, and what attacked it now serves it. So with a life: let experience burn through you completely, and what is consumed lets you go free. The closing instruction is stark, make the mind as tough as leather and endure the burning to the end, because only the fully cooked is finished.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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