God's love, the test of a true mother
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कोड आवडीचें । पुरवीना बाळकाचें ॥1॥
तेव्हां कैसी ते माउली । जाणा काशासाटीं व्याली ॥ध्रु.॥
वत्साचिये आसे। धेनु धांवेना गोरसें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे धरि । बाळ टाकिलें वानरीं ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
If a mother will not fulfill the fond wishes of her child, then what kind of mother is she, and why did she give birth at all? If a cow will not run with milk for the sake of her calf, then, Says Tuka, she is like a monkey that drops its young and moves on.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
If she will not grant her child's fond wish, what kind of mother is she? Know this: then why did she give birth at all? If a cow will not run with milk for the sake of her calf, Tuka says: she is like a monkey that holds its young and then throws it away.
What it means
Tukaram presses God with the logic of motherhood itself. A mother who refuses her child's longing, a cow whose milk does not flow for her calf, has betrayed the very bond that made her a mother. He sharpens it with a hard image: a monkey that carries its young only to fling it away. The poem is really an argument addressed upward: if God is mother to us, then he cannot withhold himself from the one who cries for him, or the name mother means nothing.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
More in this theme →