Devotion as watchdog, guarding the door
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाठी लागे तया दवडीं दुरी । घालीं या बाहेरी संवसारा ॥1॥
येउनि दडें तुमच्या पायीं । धांवें तई छो ह्मणा ॥ध्रु.॥
पारखियाचा वास पडे । खटबड उठी तें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे लाविला धाक । नेदी ताक खाऊं कोणी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When worldly life pursues me, I drive it away and cast it out. I come running to Your feet; then say to me, Hush, be at ease. When a stranger's presence is sensed, the watchdog leaps up in alarm. Says Tuka, he has set up such a guard that he will not let anyone even touch the buttermilk.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When worldly life chases me, I drive it far off; I throw it out. I come and crouch at Your feet; I run when You say, Sic him. When a stranger's scent falls near, the clamor rises up. Tuka says: he has set such a guard that he lets no one even eat the buttermilk.
What it means
Tukaram casts himself as God's watchdog and worldly life as the intruder he drives off. He stays crouched at God's feet and springs into action at God's command, sensing a stranger and raising the alarm the moment anything foreign comes near. The point is the fierceness of a guarded devotion: the dog he has become will not let even the cheapest thing, the buttermilk, be carried off by an outsider. The vigilance is offered as love, the soul standing watch over its master's house against everything that is not God.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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