Adoration, the blessedness of Krishna's world
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
धन्य तें गोधन कांबळी काष्ठिका । मोहरी पांवा निका ब्रीद वांकी ॥१॥
धन्य तें गोकुळ धन्य ते गोपाळ । नर नारी सकळ धन्य जाल्या ॥ध्रु.॥
धन्य देवकी जसवंती दोहींचें । वसुदेवनंदाचें भाग्य जालें ॥२॥
धन्य त्या गोपिका सोळा सहस्र बाळा । यादवां सकळां धन्य जालें ॥३॥
धन्य म्हणे तुका जन्मा तींचि आलीं । हरिरंगीं रंगलीं सर्वभावें ॥४॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Blessed are the cattle, the blanket and the staff, the shehnai and the flute and the curved horn. Blessed is Gokul and blessed are its cowherd boys. Blessed are all the men and women there. Blessed are Devaki and Yashoda both, and blessed is the fortune of Vasudeva and Nanda. Blessed are those gopis and the sixteen thousand maidens. Blessed are all the Yadavas. Says Tuka, blessed indeed are those who were born to be drenched in the color of Hari with their whole being.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Blessed are the cattle, the blanket, the staff. Blessed are the shehnai, the flute, the curved horn. Blessed is Gokul. Blessed are its cowherd boys. All the men and women there are blessed. Blessed are Devaki and Yashoda, both of them. Blessed is the good fortune of Vasudeva and Nanda. Blessed are those gopis and the sixteen thousand maidens. Blessed are all the Yadavas. Tuka says: blessed indeed were those who were born for this, who steeped their whole being in the color of Hari.
What it means
Tukaram pours out a litany of blessing over everything that touched Krishna's life at Gokul. He begins low, with the cattle and the herdsman's plain things, the blanket and staff and flute, and rises through the village, its boys, its women, its parents, to the gopis and the whole Yadava clan. Nothing is too small to be holy once it has been near God. The last line names what makes them blessed: not their birth or rank, but that they let their whole being be dyed in the color of Hari. The blessing is the nearness, and the dye is total love.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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