The saints, trust them or lose both worlds
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संतांसी क्षोभवी कोण्या ही प्रकारें । त्याचें नव्हें बरें उभयलोकीं ॥1॥
संतांपाशीं ज्याचा नुरे चि विश्वास । त्याचे जाले दोष बिळवंत ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे क्षीर वासराच्या अंगें । किंवा धांवे लागें विषमें मारूं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whoever offends the saints in any manner will find no good in either world. One who fails to maintain trust in the saints finds his sins growing powerful. Says Tuka, a cow yields milk for the sake of her calf; would she not charge at a venomous creature that threatens it?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whoever angers the saints in any way will find no good in either world. The one who keeps no trust in the saints sees his sins grow strong. Tuka says: a cow gives milk for the sake of her calf; will she not charge at the venomous thing that comes to harm it?
What it means
Tukaram warns against offending the saints and against losing faith in them. To wound them in any way, he says, ruins a person in this world and the next, and once trust in them is gone, one's own faults gain power. Then he gives the saints' two faces in one image: the cow that yields gentle milk for her calf is the same cow that will charge a snake threatening it. The warning is meant to turn a person toward self-examination, to ask whether his own scorn is the venom the saints must meet, not to despise anyone.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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