Metaphor, merit ripens the mind
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
चोरासी चांदणें वेश्येसी सेजार । परिसेंसी खापर काय होय ॥1॥
दुधाचे आधणीं वैरिले पाषाण । कदा काळीं जाण पाकनव्हे ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जरि पूर्वपुण्यें सििद्ध । तरि च राहे बुिद्ध संतसंगीं॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Moonlight is wasted on a thief, and a courtesan's bed on a potsherd; a touchstone cannot change a potsherd into gold. Stones placed in boiling milk will never cook, no matter how long you wait. Says Tuka, only if past merit is ripe does the mind come to rest in the company of saints.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Moonlight is wasted on a thief. A courtesan's bed is wasted on a potsherd. A touchstone cannot turn a potsherd into gold. Put stones in boiling milk and they will never cook, however long you wait. Tuka says: only if past merit is ripe does the mind come to rest in the company of saints.
What it means
Tukaram strings together images of the wrong thing meeting the wrong receiver: light on a thief who fears it, a touchstone helpless against a potsherd, stones that will not soften in milk. The point is that the best gift does nothing if the one receiving it has no capacity to take it in. He then turns this to the inner life: keeping company with saints is the same kind of gift, and the mind only settles there when something in you is already ripe. He calls that ripeness past merit, naming a sober truth that the receiver, not just the giver, decides whether grace lands.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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