Humility before the saints, mercy over might
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
एकाएकीं हातोफळी । ठाया बळी पावले ते ॥1॥
आह्मी देवा शक्तिहीनें । भाकुं तेणें करुणा ॥ध्रु.॥
पावटणी केला काळ । जया बळ होतें तें ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे वीर्यावीर । संतधीर समुद्र ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Those mighty ones reached that exalted place in an instant, in a single stroke. We who are without strength, O God, plead for Your mercy with our very lowliness. Those who had strength made even time their stepping stone. Says Tuka, the saints are heroes of valor, patient and vast as the ocean.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Those mighty ones reached that high place in a single moment, in one stroke. We have no strength, God. With this very weakness we beg for your mercy. Those who had strength made time itself their stepping stone. Tuka says: the saints are heroes of valor. They are patient and vast as the ocean.
What it means
Tukaram contrasts two ways to reach God. The mighty saints crossed in an instant; they were strong enough to make even time a stair beneath their feet. He places himself outside that company, owning that he has no such strength. But he turns the lack into his plea: weakness itself becomes the appeal to mercy, the one thing the helpless can offer. He still honors the saints as true heroes, ocean-deep and patient, while staking his own hope not on strength but on God's compassion for those who have none.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
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