Wrestling, the death of I and you
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मशीं पोरा घे रे बार । तुझें बुजीन खालील द्वार ॥१॥
पोरा हमामा रे हमामा रे ॥ध्रु.॥
मशीं हमामा तूं घालीं । पोरा वरी सांभाळीं खालीं ॥२॥
तरी च मशीं बोल । पोरा जिव्हाळ्याची ओल ॥३॥
मशीं घेतां भास । जीवा मीतूंपणा नास ॥४॥
मज सवें खरा । पण जाऊं नेदी घरा ॥५॥
आमुचिये रंगीं । दुजें तगेना ये संगीं ॥६॥
तुक्यासवें भास । हरी जीवा करी नास ॥७॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Take a turn with me, boy. I will seize your lower gate. Boy, let us wrestle, let us wrestle! Take the match with me, boy; guard yourself above and below. Only then may you challenge me, boy, if there is true warmth of kinship between us. When we wrestle together, the sense of "I" and "you" is destroyed. He who plays with me truly can never go home again, for in my company, nothing else can survive. Those who keep company with Tuka, Hari enters their life and annihilates the separateness in their soul.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Take a turn with me, boy; I will seize your lower gate. Boy, let us wrestle, let us wrestle. Take the match with me, and guard yourself above and below. Only then may you challenge me, boy, if there is real warmth of kinship between us. When we wrestle together, the sense of I and you is destroyed. Whoever truly plays with me can never go home again, for in my company nothing else can survive. Tuka says: those who keep company with Tuka, Hari moves into their life and annihilates the separateness in their soul.
What it means
The wrestling match as union with God, and the destruction it requires. To grapple with God is to put your whole self in his grip, above and below, and the only ones who dare are those bound to him by real kinship-love. The outcome is stated plainly: in the wrestling, the sense of I and you is destroyed, and whoever truly engages can never go back to his old separate life, because nothing of the separate self survives the contact. Tukaram extends the promise to his own company: keep company with him, and Hari enters and annihilates the last separateness in the soul. Love is not safe; it is a grip that ends the self.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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