Surrender, the self as instrument
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
खरें नानवट निक्षेपीचें जुनें । काढिलें ठेवणें समर्थाचें ॥1॥
मजुराच्या हातें मापाचा उकल । मी तों येथें फोल सत्ता त्याची ॥ध्रु.॥
कुलाळाच्या हातें घटाच्या उत्पित्त । पाठवी त्या जाती पाकस्थळा ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे जीवन तें नारायणीं । प्रभा जाते कीणाअ प्रकाशाची ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
This is genuine treasure, manifold and old, from the treasury. Brought forth is the deposit of the Capable One. By the laborer's hand the measure is opened. I am merely empty here; the authority is His. By the potter's hand, vessels come into being and are sent on their way to the kitchen. Says Tuka, life belongs to Narayana. The radiance that goes forth is a ray of His light.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
This is genuine treasure, old and abundant, brought out from the store. It is the deposit of the Capable One. By the laborer's hand the measure is opened. I am only empty here; the power is his. By the potter's hand the pots come into being and are sent off to the kitchen. Tuka says: life belongs to Narayana. The radiance that goes out is a ray of his light.
What it means
Tukaram is denying that anything he does is his own and giving it all back to God. What seems to pass through him is real treasure, but it is the deposit of the Capable One, God; it was never his stock. He casts himself as the hired laborer who only opens the measure, the empty hand through which another's authority works. The potter image makes it plainer still: the pots are made and dispatched by the potter, not by themselves. So too his life is Narayana's, and whatever light shines out of him is only a ray of God's own light, never a source of its own.
Surrender and Acceptance
The conditions of spiritual receptivity and the letting go of the separate self.
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