The Name, taste ever new
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बहुत प्रकार परि ते गव्हाचे । जिव्हा नाचे आवडी॥1॥
सरलें परि आवडी नवी । सिंधु दावी तरंग ॥ध्रु.॥
घेतलें घ्यावें वेळोवेळां । माय बाळा न विसंबे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे रस राहिला वचनीं । तो चि पडताळूनि सेवीतसें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Wheat appears in many forms, yet the tongue delights in each one. The taste is complete, yet the appetite is ever new, just as the ocean displays fresh waves. What has already been received must be taken again and again; a mother never tires of her child. Says Tuka, the nectar remains in the words; I savor them by testing their truth over and over.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Wheat comes in many forms, and the tongue delights in every one. The taste is complete, yet the hunger for it is always new, the way the ocean keeps showing fresh waves. What I have taken, I must take again and again. A mother never tires of her child. Tuka says: the nectar stays in the words; I keep tasting it by testing its truth over and over.
What it means
Tukaram is describing why the Name and the words of God never grow stale. Wheat can be cooked a hundred ways and the tongue loves each, and that is his picture for the divine word: fully satisfying, yet leaving the appetite renewed, like an ocean that never stops sending new waves. He compares the longing to a mother's love for her child, which does not wear out with repetition. The point he lands is that the nectar lives inside the words themselves, and he draws it out not by hearing them once but by returning to them and proving their truth again and again.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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