Krishna's lila, caught by destiny's toll
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
जाला पानसरा मिठी घातली पदरा । आधीं दान माझें सारा मग चाला पंथें ॥१॥
सर जाऊं दे परता । मुळीं भेटलासी आतां । नाट लागलें संचिता । खेपा खुंटलिया ॥ध्रु.॥
आसुडी पदरा धरी आणीक दुसरा । येरी झोंबतील करा काय वेडा होसी ।
आलों गेलों बहु वेळां नेणों गोरा कीं सांवळा । सर परता गोवळा काय बोलतोसी ॥२॥
आम्ही येथें अधिकारी मागें केली तुम्ही चोरी । आतां कळलियावरी मागें केलें त्याचें ।
बोलिल्या हांसुनी आम्ही सासुरवासिनी । कां रे झोंबसी दुरूनी करी मात कांहीं ॥३॥
वांयां परनारी कैशा धरिसी पदरीं । तयां कळलिया उरी तुज मज नाहीं ।
जडला जिव्हारीं फांकों नेदी तया नारी । जेथें वर्म तें धरी जाऊं पाहे तियेचें ॥४॥
तया हाती सांपडल्या हाटीं पाटीं चुकाविल्या । कृष्णमळिणीं मिळाल्या त्याही न फिरती ।
तुका म्हणे खंती वांयां न धरावी चित्तीं । होतें तुमच्या संचितीं वोडवलें आजि ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He has become a toll-collector on my path and grabbed the hem of my garment. Pay me my dues first, then go your way. She says: let go, step back. Now that you have met me at the source, the game of fate has begun and these journeys are done. She shakes free of his hand; he seizes another's garment. The others too start grappling with his hands. We have come and gone many times; we do not even know if he is fair or dark. Step aside, cowherd boy, what are you saying? We are the rightful ones here; you stole from us before, and now that we have caught on, you must answer for what you did. They speak, laughing: we are married women living in our in-laws' homes. Why do you grab at us from afar? Say something proper. In vain you clutch the garments of other men's wives. If their husbands find out, neither you nor we will be spared. But he has pierced their hearts and will not let those women go; wherever the secret is, he holds fast. Those who fell into his hands were lost even in the marketplace. The women who mingled with dark-skinned Krishna never turned back. Says Tuka, do not grieve in vain. This was written in your own destiny, and today it has ripened.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He has become a toll-collector on my path and grabbed the hem of my garment. Pay me my dues first, then go your way. She says: let go, step back. Now that you have met me at the source, the game of fate has begun and these journeys are over. She shakes free of his hand; he seizes another's garment. The others too start grappling with his hands. We have come and gone many times; we do not even know if he is fair or dark. Step aside, cowherd boy, what are you saying? We are the rightful ones here; you stole from us before, and now that we have caught on, you must answer for it. They speak, laughing: we are married women living in our in-laws' homes. Why do you grab at us from afar? Say something proper. In vain you clutch the garments of other men's wives. If their husbands find out, neither you nor we will be spared. But he has pierced their hearts and will not let those women go; wherever the secret is, he holds fast. Those who fell into his hands were lost even in the marketplace. The women who mingled with dark Krishna never turned back. Tuka says: do not grieve in vain. This was written in your own destiny, and today it has ripened.
What it means
Tukaram tells the toll-scene at the riverbank, where Krishna blocks the gopis' path and demands his due, as an image of how God claims the soul. The women protest, scold, and laugh, pleading their respectability and the danger of scandal, but their resistance is the surface of the story. The frame it names is that once he has met them at the source, the cycle of their ordinary journeys is finished. The claim it lands comes through the gopis who could not turn back: whoever falls into his hands is pierced in the heart and lost to the old life for good. Tuka closes by pointing it at the listener's own self-examination: do not grieve at being caught, for this was written in your destiny and has now simply come ripe.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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