Faith, God protects his own
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
देव सखा जरी । जग अवघें कृपा करी ॥१॥
ऐसा असोनि अनुभव । कासाविस होती जीव ॥ध्रु.॥
देवाची जतन । तया बाधूं न शके अग्न ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे हरी । प्रर्हा दासि यत्न करी ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
When God is your friend, the whole world treats you with kindness. Yet even with such experience at hand, why does the soul remain tormented? When God protects someone, even fire cannot harm them. Says Tuka, Hari attends to the efforts of his devoted servant with great care.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
When God is your friend, the whole world treats you with kindness. Even with such experience at hand, why does the soul still torment itself? When God guards someone, not even fire can harm them. Tuka says: Hari himself takes care of the efforts of his servant.
What it means
Tukaram is steadying a frightened heart by pointing to plain experience. If God is truly your friend, the world itself softens toward you, and you have surely seen this happen. So why, he asks, does the soul keep wringing itself with anxiety? The answer he offers is that whatever God protects cannot be touched, and he reaches for the strongest image: even fire cannot burn it. The closing line names the reason for confidence: the servant does not have to manage everything, because Hari himself attends to the devotee's efforts.
Faith and Trust
The boldness of faith, steadfastness, and the security of trusting in God.
More in this theme →