Surrender, the puppeteer God
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कासया जी ऐसा माझे माथां ठेवा । भार तुह्मी देवा संतजन ॥1॥
विचित्र विंदानी नानाकळा खेळ । नाचवी पुतळे नारायण ॥ध्रु.॥
काय वानरांची अंगींची ते शक्ति । उदका तरती वरी शिळा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे करी निमित्य चि आड । चेष्टवूनि जड दावी पुढें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Why, O God and saints, have You placed this burden upon my head? The Lord of wondrous design plays manifold arts and makes the puppets dance. What power did the monkeys possess in their own bodies? Yet stones floated on the water by His will. Says Tuka, He merely places a pretext before the world, and through it makes even the inert move and act.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Why have you set this weight on my head, O God, O saints? You carry it. The Lord of strange and wondrous skill plays his countless games; Narayana makes the puppets dance. What strength was in the monkeys' own bodies? Yet stones floated on the water by his will. Tuka says: he only sets up a pretext as a screen; he stirs even the dull and lifeless thing and makes it act before us.
What it means
Tukaram is handing back a burden he was never carrying alone. He asks why the work was laid on his head, then answers his own question: God is the one moving everything. The monkeys did not float the stones at Lanka by their own power; the power was Narayana's, working through them. So God uses each creature as a pretext, a screen to act behind, and makes even the inert move. The point lands on the devotee: what looks like my doing is his doing, so the weight is his to carry, not mine.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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