The cowherds' feast, communion of the devoted
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
पाहातां गोवळी । खाय त्यांची उष्टावळी ॥१॥
करिती नामाचें चिंतन । गडी कान्होबाचें ध्यान ॥ध्रु.॥
आली द्यावी डाई । धांवे वळत्या मागें गाई ॥२॥
एके ठायीं काला । तुका म्हणे भाविकाला ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Look at the cowherd boys: He eats their leftover scraps. They chant the Name and meditate upon Krishna, their companion. When the throw falls against them, He runs behind the straying cows to bring them back. Says Tuka, they sit together in one place for the sacred feast; this is the communion of the devoted.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Look at the cowherd boys: he eats their leftover scraps. They chant the Name and meditate on Krishna, their companion. When the throw falls against them, he runs behind the straying cows to bring them back. Tuka says: they sit together in one place for the sacred feast; this is the communion of the devoted.
What it means
Tukaram shows the strange order of love between Krishna and the cowherds. God himself eats their leftover scraps, while they keep him in mind by chanting the Name and dwelling on him as their playmate. When the game goes against them, he is the one who runs to fetch their straying cattle, serving those who adore him. The closing line names what the whole scene is: the kala, all of them eating together in one place, which Tukaram calls the true communion of devotees, where love overturns rank and God serves his own.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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