The Name, God comes running
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वळी गाई धांवे घरा । आमच्या करी येरझारा ॥१॥
नांव घेतां तो जवळी । बहु भला कान्हो बळी ॥ध्रु.॥
नेदी पडों उणें पुरें । म्हणे अवघें चि बरें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे चित्ता । वाटे न व्हावा परता ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He rounds up the cows and runs home, going back and forth for our sake. The moment you speak His name, He is right beside you. How truly good and strong is our Krishna. He never lets anything fall short or go to excess; He says, everything is just fine. Says Tuka, the chitta feels one thing alone: may He never turn away.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He rounds up the cows and runs home, going back and forth for our sake. The moment you say His name, He is right beside you. How good and strong is our Krishna. He lets nothing fall short and nothing run to excess; He says, everything is just right. Tuka says: the heart wants one thing only. May He never turn away.
What it means
The claim that carries this abhanga is in the second line: speak the Name and He is already there. Tukaram makes God's care ordinary and tireless, a cowherd going back and forth, never letting things tip into too little or too much, always saying it is well. Against that steady tending, the devotee asks for only one thing, the same thing a child fears most: that the beloved might one day turn away. The prayer is not for gifts but for the presence itself never to be withdrawn.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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