Praise of the saints, the sandalwood nature
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुह्मी संत मायबाप कृपावंत । काय मी पतित कीर्ती वाणूं ॥1॥
अवतार तुह्मां धराया कारणें । उद्धरावें जन जड जीव॥ध्रु.॥
वाढविलें सुख भक्ति भाव धर्म । कुळाचार नाम विठोबाचें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे गुण चंदनाचे अंगीं । तैसे तुह्मी जगीं संतजन ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You saints are my parents, my benefactors. How can I, a lowly wrongdoer, begin to praise your glory? You have taken birth for this very purpose: to uplift the dull and fallen jivas of this world. You have nourished the joy of devotion, righteous conduct, and the Name of Vitthal as the family tradition. Says Tuka, just as sandalwood carries fragrance in its very nature, so do you saints pervade the world with goodness.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You saints are my mother and father, full of mercy. What glory can I, a fallen one, sing of you? You took birth for this very reason: to lift up the dull and heavy jivas of the world. You grew the joy of devotion, of faith, of dharma, and made the Name of Vithoba the custom of the family. Tuka says: as fragrance lives in the body of sandalwood, so do you saints live in the world.
What it means
Tukaram addresses the saints as his true parents and confesses he is too low to praise them rightly. He names what they are for: they take birth in order to raise the dull and burdened souls who could not raise themselves. Their work is to make devotion, faith, and the Name of Vithoba into something handed down like a family custom, so that ordinary people inherit it. The sandalwood image lands the claim: goodness is not something the saints perform, it is their very nature, given off to everyone near them as scent is given off by the wood.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
More in this theme →