Krishna's play, refusing high company
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
अधिकाचा मज कांटाळा । तुम्हां गोपाळां संगति ॥१॥
काय नाहीं तुम्हापाशीं । सकळांविशीं संपन्न ॥ध्रु.॥
उद्योगाचा नेघें भार । लागल्या सार पुरतें ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे अधीर जिणें । नारायणें न करावें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I have grown weary of those with high status; I prefer the company of you cowherd boys. What do you lack? You are rich in everything. I do not wish to carry the burden of worldly enterprise; what comes along is enough. Says Tuka, one should not let life become restless. Narayana himself does not wish it so.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I am tired of those of high rank; I would rather keep the company of you cowherd boys. What do you lack? You are rich in everything. I will not carry the burden of worldly striving; whatever comes along is enough. Tuka says: one should not make life restless. Narayana himself does not want it so.
What it means
This is a quiet choice between two kinds of company. The speaker is weary of the great and the high-placed and prefers the plain cowherd boys, who he insists lack nothing and are rich in all that matters. He refuses to shoulder the load of ambition and worldly enterprise, content with whatever comes unsought. Tukaram closes by naming the principle: a grasping, restless life is wrong, and God himself does not wish his own to live that way. Sufficiency and lowly company are held up as the truer wealth.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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