Praise, grace alone purifies
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अहो पुरुषोत्तमा । तुह्मां काशाची उपमा ॥1॥
सतंत तो नाहीं बुद्धी । नाळवितां नाहीं शुिद्ध ॥ध्रु.॥
जागविलें तरी । तुह्मां वेक्तियेणें हरी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे देवा । तुम्हा नित्य दिस नवा॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O Purushottama, to what can You be compared? No metaphor is truly adequate. When one tries to cleanse the intellect, it still does not become pure. But if You awaken it, O Hari, it happens through Your power alone. Says Tuka, O God, every day is ever new for You.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
O Purushottama, what could you be compared to? No likeness is enough for you. The mind by itself does not stay steady. Try to scrub it, and it still does not come clean. But if you wake it, O Hari, it happens by your power alone. Tuka says: O God, for you every day is new.
What it means
Tukaram praises the supreme Person as beyond all comparison, then turns to his own helplessness. Left to itself the intellect cannot hold steady, and no amount of self-scouring makes it pure. Purity comes only one way: God awakening the mind by His own power, not by the seeker's effort. The closing line praises God's endless freshness, that for Him every day is new, hinting that His grace is never stale or exhausted and can renew even a mind that cannot cleanse itself.
The Nature of God
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