Nature of God, the Lord who plays among the lowly
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
आचरती कर्में । तेथें काळें कर्मधर्में ॥1॥
खेळे गोविळयांसवें । करिती तें त्यांचें साहावें ॥ध्रु.॥
यज्ञमुखें घांस । मंत्रपूजेसी उदास ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे चोरी । योगियां ही सवें करी ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Where people perform their rites, He plays His part in the customs of dharma. He plays with the cowherd boys, enduring whatever they do. At the sacrificial altar He eats morsels, indifferent to the mantras and worship. Says Tuka, He even commits the theft of butter; such is His mischief with all.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Where men perform their rites, there he too acts within the customs of dharma. He plays with the cowherd boys and bears whatever they do to him. At the sacrifice he takes his morsel by the mouth, careless of the mantras and the worship. Tuka says: he even steals, the thief, joining in the mischief, and he does it with the yogis too.
What it means
Tukaram shows a God who is not bound to one kind of worshipper. Where people keep the rites, he plays his part within the forms of dharma; among the cowherd children he plays as one of them and endures their roughness. At the formal sacrifice he will quietly take his portion while remaining indifferent to the mantras and ceremony around it. He even takes part in their pranks, the butter-thief joining the mischief, and the same intimacy he shows the simple cowherds he shows the yogis. God meets each one in their own measure, the high discipline and the low play alike.
The Nature of God
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