I am the God of gods, Krishna declares
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुम्ही गोपी बाळा मज कैशा नेणा । इंद्र अमरराणा म्यां चि केला ॥१॥
इंद्र चंद्र सूर्य ब्रम्हा तिन्ही लोक । माझे सकळीक यम धर्म ॥ध्रु.॥
मजपासूनिया जाले जीव शिव । देवांचा ही देव मी च कृष्ण ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे त्यांसी बोले नारायण । व्यर्थ मी पाषाण जन्मा आलों ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
You gopis treat me like an ordinary child, as though you do not know me. I am the one who made Indra the king of the gods. Indra, the moon, the sun, Brahma, all three worlds, Yama and Dharma: they are all mine. From me have arisen all souls and Shiva himself; I, Krishna, am the God of gods. Says Tuka, thus spoke Narayana to them, and I, a mere stone, was born in vain.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
You gopis treat me like an ordinary child, as if you do not know me. I am the one who made Indra king of the gods. Indra, the moon, the sun, Brahma, all three worlds, Yama and Dharma: all of them are mine. From me arose every soul, and Shiva himself. I, Krishna, am the God of gods. Tuka says: thus Narayana spoke to them; and I, a mere stone, was born in vain.
What it means
Krishna drops the disguise for a moment and tells the gopis plainly who the child in front of them is: the maker of Indra, the source of sun and moon and Brahma, of every soul and even Shiva, the God of all gods. Tukaram lets the full claim stand at its sharpest, no softening. Then he turns it on himself with the closing line, calling himself a mere stone born in vain. The contrast is the point: set beside the one who is the source of everything, the poet measures his own dull unresponsiveness and grieves it. The verse uses Krishna's self-declaration to expose how little the speaker has woken to it.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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