Krishna's play, the harassed errand
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मागायास गेलों सिदोरी । तुझ्या मायाघरीं गांजियेलों ॥१॥
तुजविणें ते नेदी कोणा । सांगतां खुणा जिवें गेलों ॥ध्रु.॥
वांयांविण केली येरझार । आतां पुरे घर तुझी माया ॥२॥
तुका म्हणे तूं आम्हां वेगळा । राहें गोपाळा म्हणउनी ॥३॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
I went to ask for a packed lunch at your mother's house and was harassed there. Without you, she would not give it to anyone. When I tried to explain the situation, I nearly lost my life. This back and forth was all in vain; enough of your mother's home and your Maya's ways. Says Tuka, you stay separate from us, cowherd boy, and that is that.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
I went to ask for a packed lunch at your mother's house, and I was tormented there. Without you she would not give it to anyone. When I tried to explain, I nearly lost my life. This back and forth was all for nothing. Enough now of your home and your Maya. Tuka says: you stay separate from us, cowherd boy, and that is that.
What it means
In the cowherds' aggrieved voice, Tukaram tells of being sent on an errand and meeting only obstruction, then pretends to wash his hands of the whole household. The double meaning sits in the word Maya: the mother's house that turns him away is also the world's enchantment that exhausts the seeker with fruitless coming and going. The boy threatens to break off and keep Krishna at arm's length. But the threat is theater, the lover's bluff; the very heat of the complaint betrays how bound he still is.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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