The saints, no flaw in the good
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चंदनाचे हात पाय ही चंदन । परिसा नाहीं हीन कोणी अंग ॥१॥
दीपा नाहीं पाठीं पोटीं अंधकार । सर्वांगें साकर अवघी गोड ॥ध्रु.॥
तुका म्हणे तैसा सज्जनापासून । पाहातां अवगुण मिळे चि ना ॥२॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The hands and feet of a sandalwood tree are all sandalwood. No limb of the philosopher's stone is inferior to any other. A lamp has no darkness on its front or back; sugar is entirely sweet throughout. Says Tuka, in the same way, if you look closely at a noble person, you will never find a single flaw.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The hands and feet of sandalwood are also sandalwood. No part of the philosopher's stone is lesser than another. A lamp has no darkness in front or behind. Sugar is sweet through and through. Tuka says: look closely at a good person and you will not find one fault.
What it means
Tukaram piles up images of things that are the same all the way through to describe the goodness of a true saint. Sandalwood is fragrant in every limb, the philosopher's stone has no inferior part, a lamp carries no darkness on any side, and sugar is sweet in every grain. The point is wholeness: there is no hidden bad patch, no back side that betrays the front. Applied to the sajjana, the noble soul, it means that close inspection turns up no flaw, because the virtue goes all the way down rather than being a surface.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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