Allegory, the trickster who feigns innocence
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
डाई घालुनियां पोरें । त्यांचीं गुरें चुकवीलीं ॥१॥
खेळ खेळतां फोडिल्या डोया । आपण होय निराळा ॥ध्रु.॥
मारिती माया घेती जीव । नाहीं कीव अन्यायें ॥२॥
तुका कान्होबा मागें । तया अंगें कळों आलें ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
By cheating in the game, the boy caused others to lose track of their cattle. While playing, he cracked heads open and then stood aside as though he were innocent. The mothers punish and scold, taking the life out of the child, showing no mercy for the mischief. Says Tuka, Kanho was behind it all, and eventually it became clear from his own conduct.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By cheating in the game, the boy made the others lose track of their cattle. While they played he cracked their heads open, then stood aside as if he had done nothing. The mothers punish and scold and take the life out of the child, showing no mercy for the mischief. Tuka says: Kanho was behind it all, and in the end it showed in his own conduct.
What it means
Tukaram tells the game as a parable of how the world's confusions are arranged. A player cheats, the others lose their cattle, heads get broken, and the one who caused it slips aside wearing an innocent face while the blame and beating land on someone else. The pointed truth is in the last verse: Kanho, Krishna himself, was behind the whole thing. The Lord is the hidden author of the play, and eventually his hand becomes visible in how it all unfolds. Read inward, it asks us to suspect the seemingly innocent cause of our troubles and to recognize that the divine lila is running underneath the tangle, not chance and not only our fellow players.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
More in this theme →