Nature of God, three kinds of people
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
एकांचीं उत्तरें । गोड अमृत मधुरें ॥1॥
ऐशा देवाच्या विभुती । भिन्न प्रारब्धाची गती ॥ध्रु.॥
एकांचीं वचनें । कडु अत्यंत तीक्षणें ॥2॥
प्रकाराचें तीन । तुका ह्मणे केलें जन ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The words of some are sweet and nourishing like nectar. Such are God's different manifestations; each soul's destiny takes its own course. The words of others are bitter and piercingly sharp. Says Tuka, God has fashioned people of three kinds.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The words of some are sweet, like nectar, gentle and nourishing. Such are God's different forms; each person's destiny runs its own way. The words of others are bitter, sharp, cutting. Tuka says: God has made people of three kinds.
What it means
Tukaram looks at the range of human speech and reads it as God's own diversity. Some people's words are sweet as nectar, gentle and feeding; others' are bitter and cutting; and he names a third kind besides. Rather than judge this, he says these are God's varied manifestations, that the divine shows itself even through clashing temperaments. Each person's prarabdha, the destiny ripening from past action, sends them down its own track. The quiet point for self-examination is to see all three as God's making, including the sharp-tongued one you might rather condemn.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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