The child's claim on God, love as power
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
प्रीति करी सत्ता । बाळा भीती मातापिता ॥1॥
काय चाले त्याशीं बळ । आळी करितां कोल्हाळ ॥ध्रु.॥
पदरीं घाली मिठी । खेदी मागें पुढें लोटी ॥2॥
बोले मना आलें । तुका साहिला विठ्ठलें ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Love grants authority; even the mother and father yield to the child's affection. What force can prevail against a child who clamors and wails? The child seizes the mother's garment, tugs at her, pushes from behind and in front. He speaks whatever comes to his mind. Says Tuka, Vitthal has endured it all.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Love makes its own authority. Mother and father give way before the child. What strength can stand against a child who frets and wails? He grabs the edge of her garment, frets, pushes her back and pulls her forward. He says whatever comes into his head. Tuka says: Vitthal has borne it all.
What it means
Tukaram uses the picture of a willful child to show how love overturns ordinary power. A child has no strength, yet its crying and clinging bend even its parents to its will. It clutches the mother's clothes, tugs and shoves, and blurts out whatever it likes, and she endures it because she loves it. Tukaram places himself as that child and Vitthal as the parent who simply bears all of it. The point is that the devotee's claim on God is the helpless, demanding love of a child, and God's response is patient endurance.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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