The saints, God's credit is theirs
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सांग त्वां कोणासी तारिलें । संतांवेगळें उद्धरिलें॥1॥
संत शब्द उपदेशी । मग तूं हो ह्मणशी ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे नाहीं तुझा उपकार । करूं संतांचा उच्चार ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Tell me, whom have You saved apart from the saints? Whom have You liberated on Your own? The saints speak the word of guidance, and then You say, "Yes, I did it." Says Tuka, the credit is not Yours at all. Let us praise the saints instead.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Tell me, whom have you saved? Whom have you ever lifted up without the saints? The saints speak the teaching. Then you say, I did it. Tuka says: the favor is not yours at all. Let us speak the praise of the saints.
What it means
Tukaram presses God with a blunt question and will not let Him take the credit. He claims that God has never saved a single soul on His own; it is always the saints who first speak the word of teaching that turns a person toward God. Only afterward, he says, does God step in and announce that He did the saving. The signature line drives the correction home: the favour belongs to the saints, not to God, so it is the saints whose praise should be sung. The poem is really about where a seeker should look for help, at the living teachers through whom grace actually arrives.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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