Saints, service is the inheritance
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संतसेवेसि अंग चोरी । दृष्टी न पडो तयावरी ॥1॥
ऐसियासी व्याली रांड । जळो जळो तिचें तोंड ॥ध्रु.॥
संतचरणीं ठेवितां भाव । आपेंआप भेटे देव ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे संतसेवा । माझ्या पूर्वजांचा ठेवा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who withholds oneself from serving the saints should never cross one's sight. Cursed be the mother who bore such a person. By placing devotion at the feet of the saints, God Himself comes to meet you of His own accord. Says Tuka, service to the saints is the treasure of my ancestors.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
One who holds back from serving the saints, let them never fall in my sight. Cursed, cursed be the mouth of the woman who bore such a one. Place your devotion at the feet of the saints, and God comes to meet you on His own. Tuka says: service to the saints is the treasure my ancestors left me.
What it means
Tukaram speaks with deliberate heat about a refusal he finds unbearable: shrinking back from the service of holy company. The harshness is aimed at the pattern of withholding oneself, not at any one person to be despised; it measures how much he treasures what is being scorned. His reason is plain: lay your love at the saints' feet and God arrives unbidden, the saints being the open door to Him. He ends by claiming this service as a family inheritance, a wealth handed down to him.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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