Wonder, the infinite as a child
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अनंत ब्रम्हांडे उदरीं । हरि हा बाळक नंदा घरीं ॥१॥
नवल केव्हडें केव्हडें । न कळे कान्होबाचें कोडें ॥ध्रु.॥
पृथ्वी जेणें तृप्त केली । त्यासि यशोदा भोजन घाली ॥२॥
विश्वव्यापक कमळापती । त्यासि गौळणी कडिये घेती ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे नटधारी । भोग भोगून ब्रम्हचारी ॥४॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Infinite universes dwell within His belly, yet Hari lives as a small child in Nanda's house. How great is this wonder, how vast! The mystery of Krishna cannot be fathomed. He who nourished the whole earth, Yashoda now serves Him a meal. The all-pervading Lord of Lakshmi is carried on the hips of the milkmaids. Says Tuka, He is the great actor in disguise; He moves in Brahman yet plays as if He has never tasted the world.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Endless universes lie in his belly, and yet Hari is a small child in Nanda's house. How great this wonder is, how great. No one can fathom Krishna's riddle. He fed the whole earth; now Yashoda sets a meal before him. He fills all the worlds, he is the lord of Lakshmi; and the milkmaids carry him on their hips. Tuka says: he is the actor in disguise. He tastes every pleasure and stays untouched, a chaste one through it all.
What it means
Tukaram is holding two facts together that should not fit: the formless Brahman, who contains and sustains everything, has become a little boy in a cowherd's house. The wonder he keeps naming is exactly this scandal of scale, the infinite eating from Yashoda's hand, the all-pervading one carried on a hip. He calls Krishna an actor in disguise to say the smallness is real play, not a loss of greatness. The closing claim is the sharpest: the Lord enjoys the whole world yet remains untouched by it, present in it without being caught by it. The poem points the listener toward that same freedom inside engagement.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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