Faith, the strayed path set right
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चुकली ते वाट । पुढें सांपडवी नीट ॥1॥
ह्मणउनी गर्भवास । नेणती ते हरिचे दास ॥ध्रु.॥
संचिताचा संग । काय जाणों पावें भंग ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे दृष्टी उघडितों नव्हे कष्टी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If one has strayed from the path, God sets it right again further along. Therefore, the servants of Hari never know the womb of rebirth. What of past karma? Who knows when it might lose its hold? Says Tuka, when one's eyes are opened, there is no more suffering.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If I have lost the path, He sets it straight again further on. So the servants of Hari do not know the womb of rebirth. As for the karma stored up from before, who knows when it loses its hold? Tuka says: once the eyes are opened, there is no more suffering.
What it means
Tukaram is answering the fear that one stumble dooms a devotee. If you wander off the road, he says, God simply sets it straight again up ahead, so Hari's servants are spared the womb of rebirth that wandering would otherwise earn. He raises the obvious objection himself, the weight of karma stored up from the past, and leaves it as an open question, suggesting it can lose its grip in a way no one can predict. The closing line names the real turning point. The end of suffering comes not from a clean record but from opened eyes, the seeing that changes everything.
Faith and Trust
The boldness of faith, steadfastness, and the security of trusting in God.
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