Wonder, Brahman as the begging child
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गौळणी बांधिती धारणासि गळा । खेळे त्या गोपाळांमाजी ब्रम्ह ॥१॥
धांवोनियां मागे यशोदे भोजन । हिंडे रानोरान गाईपाठीं ॥ध्रु.॥
तुका म्हणे सर्व कळा ज्याचे अंगीं । भोळेपणालागीं भीक मागे ॥२॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
The milkmaids tie a rope around his neck to restrain him, yet it is Brahman itself that plays among the cowherd boys. He runs after Yashoda begging for food and wanders from forest to forest following the cows. Says Tuka, he who holds all powers within him begs like a simple innocent, drawn by the force of devotion.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The milkmaids tie a rope around his neck to hold him still. Yet it is Brahman itself that plays there among the cowherd boys. He runs after Yashoda begging for food. He wanders from forest to forest behind the cows. Tuka says: he who holds every power within him begs like a simple, innocent child, drawn on by devotion.
What it means
Tukaram sets the smallness of the scene against the vastness of who is in it. A few milkmaids tie a rope on a little boy's neck, and Tukaram says plainly that the one they bind is Brahman, the absolute. He runs begging for food, he trails the cows through the forests, doing everything a small herd-boy does. The point is the willing reversal: the one who contains all powers makes himself this helpless and this hungry. He does it for love, letting devotion pull the infinite down into a child's body.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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