The mother's heart, God who cannot stay aloof
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
प्रीतीचा तो कळवळा । जिव्हाळाचि वेगळा ॥1॥
बहु नेदी रडों माता । दुिश्चत होतां धीर नव्हे ॥ध्रु.॥
वरी वरी तोंडापुरतें । मोहोरी तें कळतसे ॥2॥
जाणोनियां नेणता तुका । नव्हे लोकांसारिखा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The stirring of love has its own distinct warmth. A mother does not let her child cry for long. When the child is distressed, she cannot maintain her composure. On the surface things may seem one way, but the true feeling beneath is recognizable. Says Tuka, though he knows, he acts as one who does not know, for he is not like ordinary people.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The tenderness of love has a warmth all its own; it is something apart. A mother will not let her child cry for long. When the child is in distress, she cannot keep her calm. On the surface things may look one way, but the feeling underneath is plain to see. Tuka says: knowing, he acts as if he does not know, for he is not like ordinary people.
What it means
Tukaram is saying that God's love works the way a mother's does. The warmth of real love is its own kind of thing, not learned and not faked, and a mother simply cannot bear to hear her child cry; she breaks. So whatever face God shows on the surface, the heart beneath is moved and cannot stay distant. The last line turns to Tuka himself, or to God: he knows, yet plays at not knowing, because he does not run on the cold calculation of ordinary people. The point is to trust the hidden tenderness over the outward appearance.
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