Krishna, the rules of the game
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
यमुनेतटीं मांडिला खेळ । म्हणे गोपाळ गडियांसि ॥१॥
हाल महाहाल मांडा । वाउगी सांडा मोकळी ॥ध्रु.॥
नांवें ठेवूनि वांटा गडी । न वजे रडी मग कोणी ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे कान्हो तिळतांदळ्या । जिंके तो करी आपुला खेळ्या ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
On the banks of the Yamuna the game of Hal is set up. The cowherd boy says to his friends: Play the great game of Hal! Cast off all needless show. Divide into teams by name, so that afterward no one goes away crying. Says Tuka, Krishna plays the sesame-and-rice game; the one who wins makes the loser his own.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
On the bank of the Yamuna the game of Hal is set up. The cowherd boy says to his friends: play the great game of Hal; cast off all needless show. Divide into teams by name, so that afterward no one goes away crying. Tuka says: Krishna plays the sesame-and-rice game; the one who wins makes the loser his own.
What it means
By the Yamuna, Krishna sets up the game and lays down its rules to his friends: play it fully and seriously, drop all empty show, and divide fairly into named teams so no one ends up cheated and weeping. The closing image gives the game its meaning. In Krishna's version the prize is reversed: the winner does not crush the loser but takes him in as his own. As a spiritual reading, this is how God plays with souls. To be "defeated" by him, caught and overcome, is not to lose but to be claimed and made his, which is the whole point of entering the game.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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