Teaching by patience, not by force
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कौलें भरियेली पेंठ । निग्रहाचे खोटे तंट ॥1॥
ऐसें माता जाणे वर्म । बाळ वाढवितां धर्म ॥ध्रु.॥
कामवितां लोहो कसे। तांतडीनें काम नासे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे खडे । देतां अक्षरें तें जोडे ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The marketplace is full of counterfeit goods, and stubborn disputes are worthless. A mother knows the secret of raising a child in righteousness. If iron is hammered too hastily, the work is ruined. Says Tuka, by giving the child small pebbles of practice, the letters of wisdom are eventually mastered.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The marketplace is full of false goods. Stubborn quarrels are worthless. A mother knows the secret of it: you raise a child into right living slowly. Hammer iron too fast and the work is ruined. Tuka says: give the child small pebbles to play with, and in time the letters are learned.
What it means
Tukaram is teaching how the soul is trained, and the lesson is patience over force. He sets the marketplace of counterfeit goods and stubborn argument against the quiet wisdom of a mother who shapes a child little by little. Forcing the work, like hammering iron in haste, only ruins it. The closing image is the gentlest: a child is handed small pebbles to count with and only later masters the letters, so the deepest practice is grown step by small step, not seized all at once.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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