Wrestling, the Lord who undoes you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
सहस्र मुखावरी हरी । शेष शिणविलें ॥१॥
चेंडुवासवें घातली उडी । नाथिला काळिया देऊनि बुडी ॥२॥
अशुद्ध पीतां करुणा नाहीं । तुवां माउशी ही मारियेली ॥३॥
रावणाचें घर बुडविलें सारें । त्याचीं रांडापोरें मारियेलीं ॥४॥
जाणो तो ठावा आहेसि आम्हां । तुवां आपुला मामा मारियेला ॥५॥
याशीं खेळतां नाश थोरू । तुकयास्वामी सारंगधरू ॥६॥
हमामा - अभंग २
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Even with a thousand mouths, Hari exhausted Shesha in the telling. He leapt with the ball into the Yamuna and subdued the serpent Kaliya by pushing him under. Drinking the impure without a trace of pity, you even killed your own maternal aunt Putana. You destroyed the entire house of Ravana and slew his wives and children. We know your ways well; you even killed your own maternal uncle Kamsa. Whoever plays with you meets great destruction; Tuka's Lord is Sarangadhara, the bearer of the bow.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Even with a thousand mouths, the serpent Shesha wore himself out trying to tell it all. You leapt into the Yamuna after the ball and forced the serpent Kaliya under. You drank the poisoned milk without a flicker of pity and killed even Putana, who came to you as an aunt. You sank the whole house of Ravana and slew his wives and children. We know your ways well enough: you killed even Kamsa, your own mother's brother. Whoever plays this game with you meets great destruction. Tuka's Lord is Sarangadhara, who bears the bow.
What it means
A teasing, almost alarmed recital of Krishna's destructive feats, framed as a warning to anyone who would wrestle with God. Kaliya subdued, Putana killed, Ravana's house sunk, Kamsa slain, even kin not spared: to play with this Lord is to be undone. But the destruction Tukaram means is the annihilation of the ego, the false self that cannot survive contact with God. The poem belongs with the wrestling abhangas: it sounds like a list of dangers, and it is, for the separate I. To take God on is to lose, and the losing is the liberation.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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