The mother God, never forgetting
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बाळ माते निष्ठ होये । परि तें स्नेह करीत आहे॥1॥
तैसा तूं गा पुरुषोत्तमा । घडी न विसंबसी आह्मां ॥ध्रु.॥
नेणती भागली । कडे घेतां अंग घाली ॥2॥
भूक साहे ताहान । त्याचें राखे समाधान ॥3॥
त्याच्या दुःखें धाये । आपला जीव देऊं पाहे॥4॥
नांवें घाली उडी । तुका ह्मणे प्राण काढी ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A child may be cross with its mother, yet the mother keeps on loving. Such are You, O Purushottama. Not for a moment do You forget us. When the tired child falls, the mother catches it and takes it on her hip. She endures hunger and thirst herself to keep the child content. When the child suffers, she would give her very life. Says Tuka, for the sake of the child she would leap into the fire and surrender her last breath.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A child may be cross with its mother. Still the mother keeps on loving. You are like that, Purushottama. Not for a moment do you forget us. When the tired child stumbles and does not understand, the mother lifts it and sets it on her hip. She bears hunger and thirst herself to keep the child content. When the child suffers, she would give her own life. Tuka says: for the child she leaps into the fire and gives up her last breath.
What it means
Tukaram answers the fear that God grows tired of our faults by setting God in a mother's place. A small child sulks and turns against its mother, yet her love does not waver; just so, Purushottama does not forget us even for an instant, however we behave. He follows the mother through her acts: she catches the falling child, goes hungry and thirsty so the child is fed, and would spend her own life for it. The final image lands the claim at full force, the mother flinging herself into the fire and surrendering her last breath; God's care for us is that total, that unearned, that fierce.
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