God's sport, the secret none can grasp
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
तुज करितां होती ऐसे । मूढ चतुर पंडित पिसे॥1॥
परि वर्म नेणे तें कोणी । पीडाखाणी भोगितील ॥ध्रु.॥
उलंघितें पांगुळ गिरी । मुकें करी अनुवाद ॥2॥
पापी होय पुण्यवंत । न करी घात दुर्जन ॥3॥
अवघें हेळामात्रें हरि । मुक्त करी ब्रह्मांड॥4॥
तुका ह्मणे खेळे लीळा । पाहे वेगळा व्यापूनि ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
By Your doing, the foolish become wise, the learned go mad. Yet none knows the secret; all must endure their share of suffering. At Your will the lame scale mountains, the mute become eloquent. The wrongdoer becomes virtuous, the wicked ceases to harm. In a single effortless gesture, Hari can liberate the entire universe. Says Tuka, He plays His divine sport, pervading everything yet watching from beyond.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
By your doing it happens: the fool turns clever, the learned man goes mad. Yet no one knows the secret of it. They go on suffering, mine after mine of pain. At your will the lame man crosses mountains. The mute man holds forth in speech. The sinner becomes full of merit. The wicked one stops doing harm. With a single careless touch, Hari can free the whole universe. Tuka says: he plays his sport. He pervades it all, yet watches apart.
What it means
Tukaram is marveling that every reversal in the world traces back to one hand. By God's doing the dull turn wise and the clever lose their minds, and yet the secret of why stays hidden, so people keep digging their own mines of suffering. He piles up the impossibilities God grants at will: the lame crossing mountains, the mute speaking, the sinner made virtuous, the cruel laying down their cruelty. For Hari to liberate the entire cosmos costs no more than an offhand gesture. The poem ends in awe at a Lord who is both inside everything, pervading it as its play, and standing apart from it as the one who watches.
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