Steadfastness, finish what you begin
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वंदिलें वंदावें जीवाचिये साटीं । किंवा बरी तुटी आरंभीं च ॥1॥
स्वहिताची चाड ते ऐका हे बोल । अवघें चि मोल धीरा अंगीं ॥ध्रु.॥
सिंपिलें तें रोंप वरीवरी बरें । वाळलिया वरी कोंभ नये ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे टाकीघायें देवपण । फुटलिया जन कुला पुसी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
What is honored should be honored for the jiva's own sake; otherwise it is better to break the bond at the very outset. If your own welfare matters to you, hear these words: the true worth of everything lies in steadfastness. A sapling well-watered thrives on the surface, but once dried up from within, no amount of tending will bring forth new growth. Says Tuka, it is through the sculptor's chisel-blows that divinity emerges from the stone; once broken, it is too late for the world to ask about the lineage of the fragments.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
What you honor, honor for your own soul's sake; or else it is better to break it off at the very start. If your own good matters to you, hear these words: the whole worth lies in steadfastness. A watered sapling looks well on the surface, but once it dries from within, no tending brings out a new shoot. Tuka says: under the sculptor's blows the godhood comes out of the stone. Once it cracks, it is too late for the world to ask the lineage of the broken pieces.
What it means
Tukaram is warning against half-hearted devotion, the kind taken up and then abandoned. Reverence is worth keeping only if it serves your own deepest good; if you will not hold to it, it is cleaner to never begin. The whole value, he says, is in steadfastness, and he gives two images for it: a sapling watered only on the surface looks healthy yet cannot sprout once it has dried inside, and a stone becomes a god only by enduring the chisel's blows. The closing edge is sober: if the stone cracks under the carving, no one afterward will care what it might have become, so see the work through or do not start it.
The Moral Ideal
Purity, sincerity, truthfulness, humility, peacefulness, and service.
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