Metaphor, hard outside, sweet within
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कठिण नारळाचें अंग । बाहेरी भीतरी तें चांग ॥1॥
तैसा करी कां विचार । शुद्ध कारण अंतर ॥ध्रु.॥
वरि कांटे फणसफळा । माजि अंतरीं जिव्हाळा ॥2॥
ऊंस बाहेरी कठिण काळा । माजी रसाचा जिव्हाळा ॥3॥
मिठें रुचविलें अन्न । नये सतंत कारण ॥4॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The coconut is hard on the outside, but it is good both outside and within. Make such a resolve: let the inner purpose be pure. The jackfruit is covered with thorns on the surface, but inside there is tender sweetness. Sugarcane is hard and dark on the outside, but within flows sweet juice. Salt seasons the food, yet its function is not always visible. Consider things in this way.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The coconut's body is hard, yet good both outside and within. Make your resolve like that: let the inner purpose be pure. The jackfruit is covered with thorns on top, but inside there is tender sweetness. Sugarcane is hard and dark outside, but inside flows sweet juice. Salt gives food its taste, though its working is not seen. Consider things in this way.
What it means
Tukaram teaches that a rough or unpromising surface can hold real sweetness within, and that what matters is the purity of the inner core. The coconut, the thorny jackfruit, the dark hard sugarcane all hide tenderness and sweet juice behind a forbidding outside. Salt makes a step further: it does its work unseen, flavoring everything while dissolving out of sight. The lesson is to set one's intention on the inner reality and not be deceived by appearances, neither put off by a hard exterior nor fooled by a pleasing one.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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