Saints, the quietly good
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आपुलिया हिता जो असे जागता । धन्य माता पिता तयाचिया ॥१॥
कुळीं कन्यापुत्र होतीं जीं सात्त्विक । तयाचा हरिख वाटे देवा ॥ध्रु.॥
गीता भागवत करिती श्रवण । आणीक चिंतन विठोबाचें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे मज घडो त्याची सेवा । तरी माझ्या दैवा पार नाहीं ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who stays awake to one's own good, blessed are the mother and father of such a one. When daughters and sons born in the family are sattvic, even God feels joy. They listen to the Gita and the Bhagavata, and contemplate upon Vithoba. Tuka says: may it come to pass that I serve such souls; my fortune would be without limit.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Blessed are the mother and father of the one who stays awake to his own true good. When the daughters and sons born into a family are pure-hearted, even God feels glad. They sit and listen to the Gita and the Bhagavata, and they keep their thoughts on Vithoba. Tuka says: if I am granted the chance to serve such people, then my good fortune has no limit.
What it means
Tukaram praises not the famous or the powerful but the quietly good: the person awake to his own real welfare, and the family whose children grow up pure-hearted, listening to scripture and keeping God in mind. Such a household, he says, gladdens even God. And he places himself below them, asking for nothing grander than the chance to serve such people. To him that service would be the height of good fortune. Holiness here is ordinary and domestic, and he honors it.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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