Saints, soft as wax and hard as diamond
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मऊ मेनाहूनि आह्मी विष्णुदास । कठिण वज्रास भेदूं ऐसे ॥1॥
मेले जित असों निजोनियां जागे । जो जो जो जें मागे तें तें देऊं ॥ध्रु.॥
भले तरि देऊं गांडीची लंगोटी । नाठएाळा चि गांठीं देऊं माथां ॥2॥
मायबापाहूनि बहू मायावंत । करूं घातपात शत्रूहूनि ॥3॥
अमृत तें काय गोड आह्मांपुढें । विष तें बापुडें कडू किती ॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे आह्मी अवघे चि गोड । ज्याचें पुरे कोड त्याचेपरि ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
We Vishnu-servants are softer than wax, yet such that we can pierce the hardest diamond. Dead yet alive, asleep yet awake: whatever anyone asks of us, that we give. To the worthy we give the loincloth off our arse; to the obstinate we deal a knot on the head. More loving than mother and father, yet more capable of striking down than an enemy. What is nectar's sweetness before us? How bitter, after all, is poor wretched poison? Says Tuka, we are altogether sweet, in the manner of one whose longing is fully met.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
We servants of Vishnu are softer than wax, yet able to pierce the hardest diamond. Dead yet alive, asleep yet awake: whatever anyone asks of us, that we give. To the deserving we give the loincloth off our body; to the stubborn we deal a knock on the head. More loving than mother and father, yet more able to strike down than an enemy. What is nectar's sweetness before us? How bitter, after all, is poor wretched poison? Tuka says: we are wholly sweet, taking the form each one's longing calls for.
What it means
Tukaram describes the strange double nature of God's servants. They are tender past softness toward the humble, and at the same time strong enough to break what is hardest; they are beyond the usual states of living and dead, sleep and waking. To the deserving they will give everything, down to the cloth on their body, but to the obstinate they answer with a blow that wakes them up. They outdo a mother in love and an enemy in striking power, beyond both nectar and poison, because they simply become whatever shape each seeker's longing requires.
The Saints
The character and service of true saints: softer than butter, harder than diamond.
More in this theme →