Krishna's lila, devotion outweighs all
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कोणे लागला गे सदैवेचे हातीं । आजि शून्य शेजे नाहीं दिसे पती वो ॥१॥
बोले दूतिकेशीं राधा हें वचन । मशीं लाघव दाखवी नारायण ।
म्हणे कोमळ परी बहु गे निर्गुण । याशीं न बोलें कळला मज पूर्ण वो ॥ध्रु.॥
धाडिलें गरुडा आणिलें हनुमंता । तैं पाचारिलें होउनि ये वो सीता ।
लाजिनली रूप न ये पालटितां । जाला भीमकी आपण राम सीता वो ॥२॥
सत्यभामा दान करी नारदासी । तैं कळला वो मज हृषीकेशी ।
तुळे घालितां न ये कनक वो रासी । सम तुके एक पान तुळसी वो ॥३॥
मज भुली पडली कैशापरी । आम्हां भोगूनि म्हणे मी ब्रम्हचारी ।
दिली वाट यमुने मायें खरी । तुम्हां आम्हां न कळे अद्यापवरी वो ॥४॥
जाणे जीवींचें सकळ नारायण । असे व्यापूनि तो न दिसे लपून ।
राधा संबोखिली प्रीती आलिंगून । तुका म्हणे येथें भाव चि कारण वो ॥५॥
मिळोनि गौळणी देती यशोदे गार्हागणीं । दहिं दुध तुप लोणीं शिंकां नुरे कांहीं ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Whose fortunate hand has claimed him? Today the bed is empty; my husband is nowhere to be seen. Radha speaks to her confidante: Narayana is playing his tricks on me. He appears gentle, but he is truly beyond all attributes. I have known him fully, and I will not speak to him again. He sent for Garuda and summoned Hanuman. He called for Sita, and she came. But his form would not change, so he could not disguise his waywardness. He became Bheemaki's husband, and he was Rama to Sita. When Satyabhama donated him to Narada, that is when I truly understood Hrishikesha. When she placed him on the scales, mountains of gold could not match him; a single tulsi leaf tipped the balance. How was I so deceived? He enjoys us and then calls himself a celibate. He parted the Yamuna's waters for the sage's wives, and to this day we cannot fathom it. Says Tuka, Narayana knows the heart of every being. He pervades everything yet remains hidden. He consoled Radha with a loving embrace, for devotion alone is the cause of everything.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Whose lucky hand has claimed him? Today the bed is empty; my husband is nowhere. Radha speaks to her friend: Narayana is playing his tricks on me. He seems gentle, but he is truly beyond all qualities. I have known him fully, and I will not speak to him again. He sent for Garuda and summoned Hanuman. He called for Sita, and she came. But his form would not change; he could not hide his ways. He became the husband of Bheemaki, and he was Rama to Sita. When Satyabhama gave him away to Narada, that is when I truly knew Hrishikesha. When she set him on the scales, mountains of gold could not match him; a single tulsi leaf tipped the balance. How was I so deceived? He enjoys us, then calls himself a celibate. He parted the Yamuna's waters for the sages' wives, and to this day we cannot fathom it. Tuka says: Narayana knows the heart of every being. He fills everything yet stays hidden. He consoled Radha with a loving embrace, for devotion alone is the cause of all.
What it means
Tukaram lets Radha's playful complaint carry a teaching about who Krishna really is. She protests his tricks and his many faces, recalling how he answers every form of love, how he is Rama to Sita and husband to Rukmini, how no shape can disguise his true nature. The poem turns on the famous weighing: when Satyabhama tried to balance him with heaps of gold, only a single tulsi leaf offered in devotion could outweigh him. That image names the stakes. God cannot be bought or measured by wealth, only matched by love freely given. The claim it lands is in the close: Narayana knows every heart and pervades all things while staying hidden, and his loving embrace of Radha shows that devotion, and nothing else, is the cause of his coming.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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