Nature of God, the one who carries all
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
संसारींचें ओझें वाहता वाहाविता । तुजविण अनंता नाहीं कोणी ॥1॥
गीतेमाजी शब्द दुंदुभीचा गाजे । योगक्षेमकाज करणें त्याचें ॥ध्रु.॥
चतुर्भुजा करीं वारू शृंगारावे । सारथ्य करावें अर्जुनाचें ॥2॥
श्वपच अंत्यज भक्तिस्नेहें जाला । अचळपदीं केला ध्रुव तुका ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The burden of worldly life, whether borne or caused to be borne, no one but You can carry it, O Ananta. In the Gita, the words thunder like a great drum: it is He who provides and protects. With four arms, He adorned the horses and drove Arjuna's chariot. The excluded and the overlooked were embraced through devotion. Says Tuka, Dhruva was established on the imperishable seat.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The burden of worldly life, whether You carry it or have it carried, no one but You can bear it, Ananta. In the Gita the words sound like a great drum: it is He who provides and protects. With four arms He decked the horses and drove Arjuna's chariot. The outcast and the lowborn were made His own through love. Tuka says: Dhruva was set on the unmoving seat.
What it means
Tukaram names God, Ananta, as the only one who can truly carry the weight of worldly existence, whether He bears it directly or arranges for it to be borne. He points to the Gita, whose promise of providing for and protecting His own thunders like a war drum, and to its scene of the four-armed Lord stooping to drive Arjuna's chariot. The thread running through his examples is that this great God comes low for the lowly: the outcast and the despised are taken in through devotion, and the child Dhruva is fixed on the unshakable, eternal place. The point is that God's care reaches exactly those the world counts as least.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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