Saints as holy thieves, a warning in jest
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वैष्णवें चोरटीं । आलीं घरासी करंटीं ॥1॥
आजि आपुलें जतन । करा भांडें पांघुरण ॥ध्रु.॥
ज्याचे घरीं खावें ।त्याचें सर्वस्वें ही न्यावें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे माग । नाहीं लागों देत लाग॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
These Vaishnava thieves have crept into the house of this unfortunate soul. Guard your belongings today: pots, covers, and all. Those whose home you eat in, they will take everything you own. Says Tuka, they leave no trace of attachment behind.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
These Vaishnava thieves have come into the house of this poor wretch. Guard your things today: your pots, your covering, all of it. In whoever's house they eat, they will carry off everything that person owns. Tuka says: they take it so that they leave no trace behind.
What it means
Tukaram opens his playful run of poems that praise the saints by calling them thieves. The mock alarm to guard your pots and your covering is the warning of a householder, but the saints are after something else entirely. Wherever they are fed and welcomed, they strip the host of all he owns, meaning they carry off his sense of mine. The closing line says they do it so cleanly that no trace of attachment is left, which is exactly the deliverance the warning pretends to fear.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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