Adoration, the saints lift the lowly
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संतांनीं सरता केलों तैसेपरी । चंदनीं ते बोरी व्यापियेली॥1॥
गुण दोष याती न विचारितां कांहीं । ठाव दिला पायीं आपुलिया ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे आलें समर्थाच्या मना । तरि होय राणा रंक त्याचा ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The saints made me worthy, just as a thorn-bush is transformed by the proximity of sandalwood. Without considering my virtues, faults, or caste, they gave me a place at their own feet. Says Tuka, when it pleases the powerful one, even his pauper becomes a king.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The saints made me worthy. I was a thorn-bush, and the nearness of sandalwood passed into me. They did not weigh my virtues, my faults, or my caste. They gave me a place at their own feet. Tuka says: when it pleases the powerful one, even his pauper becomes a king.
What it means
Tukaram is saying that his worth came from outside himself, given by the saints. He pictures himself as a worthless thorn-bush that takes on fragrance only because sandalwood grows beside it; the change is borrowed, not earned. The point lands when he says the saints never checked his merit, his sins, or his caste before taking him in: their grace ignores exactly the things that the world uses to rank a man. The closing line names the stakes plainly: a great one's favor can raise a beggar to a throne, so everything depends on being claimed, not on deserving it.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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