Divine madness, keep your distance
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जैशा तुह्मी दुरी आहां । तैशा राहा अंतरें ॥1॥
नका येऊं देऊं आळ । अंगीं गोपाळ जडलासे ॥ध्रु.॥
अवघा हा चि राखा काळ । विक्राळ चि भोंवता ॥2॥
तुका ह्मणे मज ऐशा । होतां पिशा जगनिंद्य ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Stay as far away as you are. Keep your distance. Do not come and bring blame upon me. Gopala is fastened to my being. Guard yourselves against this Time; the fearsome one prowls all around. Says Tuka, seeing me in this state of divine madness, the world condemns me.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Stay as far off as you already are; keep your distance. Do not come and lay blame on me: Gopala is fastened to my body. Guard yourselves against this Time; the terrible one prowls all around. Tuka says: seeing me in this state, a madman, the world condemns me.
What it means
Tukaram waves off the people who crowd in to judge him. He tells them to keep the distance they already keep, because God, Gopala, is fastened to his very body, and their blame cannot reach what God has claimed. He turns their warning back on them: it is they who should be on guard, for fearsome Time prowls around everyone. He knows the world calls him mad and condemns him for it, and he accepts the name; the madness is simply that God has taken him over, and that is not something the onlookers' opinion can touch.
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