Swept up by Krishna, enticing others in
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
बहु बरा बहु बरा । यासांगातें मळि चारा ॥१॥
म्हणोनि जीवेंसाठीं । घेतली कान्होबाची पाठी ॥ध्रु.॥
बरवा बरवा दिसे । समागम याचा निमिषें ॥२॥
पुढती पुढती तुका । सोंकला सोंकवितो लोकां ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
So good, so good He is. In His company, the pasture itself becomes a delight. That is why, with all my life, I have clung to Krishna's back. His company looks beautiful every single moment. Says Tuka, again and again, I was enticed by Him, and now I entice others.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
So good, so good he is. In his company even the dull pasture is sweet. That is why, with my whole life, I have taken hold of Krishna's back. His company looks beautiful every single moment. Tuka says: again and again, I was enticed by him, and now I entice others.
What it means
Tukaram is confessing a happy capture: Krishna's company is so good that even tending cattle in a plain field turns sweet, so he has clung to him with his whole life. Every moment beside him looks beautiful, with no fading. The final line names how this works and what it costs others nothing: having been lured in himself, he now lures others the same way. The poem treats the spread of devotion not as preaching but as enticement, one swept-up soul drawing the next into the same delight.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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