Krishna's hidden maya, drawn inward to the One
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कळों नेदी माया त्याचें त्यास ठाउकें । खेळतोंसें दावी लक्षलक्षापें मुकें ॥१॥
अखंडित चटे त्यांनीं लावियेला कान्हा । आवडे तया त्या वाहाती संकल्प मना ।
अवघियांचा जाणें जाला मेळासा हरी । मिळोनियां जावें तेथें तया भीतरी ।
कळों नेदी घरिच्या करी गोवूनी चोरी । हातोहातीं नेती परपरत्या दुरी ॥२॥
आनंदें निर्भर आपणाशीं आपण । क्रीडतील बाळा त्यजिलें पारिखें जन ।
एकाएकीं तेथें नाहीं दुसरें भिन्न । तुका म्हणे एका नारायणा वांचून ॥३॥
खेळतां मुरारी जाय सरोवरा तिरीं । तंव नग्न चि या नारी तेथें देखियेल्या ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
His maya does not let itself be known; only he knows his own secret. He pretends to play, yet silently strips away a hundred thousand attachments. Those children have fixed their hearts upon Krishna; whatever they desire, their minds carry toward him. Hari has become the gathering place of all. Go together to meet him there, within. He performs his mischief within the house so no one notices. Hand to hand they lead one another further and further away. Filled with bliss, they play among themselves, having abandoned all other people. There is no second, no other, in that place. Says Tuka, there is nothing besides Narayana alone.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
His maya will not let itself be known; only he knows his own secret. He seems to play, yet silently he strips away a hundred thousand attachments. Without a break he has fixed those children's hearts on Kanha; whatever they long for, their minds carry to him. Hari has become the gathering place of all. Go together to meet him there, within. He works his theft inside the house, so no one notices. Hand to hand they lead one another further and further away. Full of bliss, they play among themselves, having left all other people behind. There is no second, nothing other, in that place. Tuka says: there is nothing besides Narayana alone.
What it means
Here the playful stealing of Krishna's childhood is read straight through as the work of his maya, which hides its own method even as it acts. While he seems only to be playing, he is quietly removing attachments by the hundred thousand and gathering every heart into himself. Tukaram points the listener to where this meeting happens, within, and frames the gopis being drawn away from the world as souls led step by step out of their old attachments. The poem ends on the non-dual claim it has been moving toward: in that inward place there is no second thing, nothing besides Narayana alone, which is the whole point the play was disguising.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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