Nature of God, the love that refuses to comfort
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देव भक्तालागीं करूं नेदी संसार । अंगें वारावार करोनि ठेवी ॥1॥
भाग्य द्यावें तरी अंगीं भरे ताठा । ह्मणोनि करंटा करोनि ठेवी ॥ध्रु.॥
स्त्री द्यावी गुणवंती नसती गुंते आशा । यालागीं कर्कशा पाठी लावी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मज प्रचित आली देखा । आणीक या लोकां काय सांगों ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
God does not let His devotee settle into comfortable worldly life; again and again He keeps the devotee on edge. If He were to grant wealth, the devotee's body would stiffen with pride; therefore He keeps the devotee poor. If He were to give a virtuous wife, the devotee would be entangled in desire; therefore He saddles the devotee with a quarrelsome one. Says Tuka, I have seen this proven in my own life. What more can I tell the world?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
God will not let his devotee settle into worldly ease. Again and again he keeps the devotee on edge. If he gave wealth, the body would stiffen with pride. So he keeps the devotee poor. If he gave a good and gifted wife, the devotee would get tangled in desire. So he sets a quarrelsome one at his back. Tuka says: I have seen this proven in my own life. What more can I tell the world?
What it means
Tukaram is reading his own hardships as the deliberate care of God, not as God's absence. He says the Lord refuses to let a devotee grow comfortable, because comfort breeds the pride and desire that pull the heart away. Wealth would harden into arrogance, so poverty is given; an agreeable wife would feed attachment, so a harsh one is sent instead. The frame the poem leaves unspoken is that every deprivation is a guardrail keeping the devotee turned toward God. And he stakes it on experience, not theory: I have seen this in my own life, so what more is there to say.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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