Satyabhama's reproach, the lover whose deeds belie his words
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
न येचि देव येतील कामलहरी रे । पडिली दुश्चिती तंव तो कवाड टिमकारी रे ॥१॥
सर गा परता कळला तुझा भाव रे । कार्या पुरतें हें दाविसी लाघव रे ।
बोलतोसी तें अवघी तुझी माव रे । जाणोनि आलासी उजडता समयो रे ॥ध्रु.॥
मीच वेडी तुजला बोल नाहीं रे । दानावेळे विटंबणा जाली काय रे ।
मागुती रुद्रासि भेटी दिली तई रे । विश्वास तो तुझ्या बोला आझुनि तरी रे ॥२॥
भ्रम होता तो अवघा कळों आला रे । मानवत होतें मी भला भला रे ।
नष्टा क्रिया नाहीं मां तुझ्या बोला रे । तुकयाबंधु स्वामी कानडया कौसाल्या रे ॥३॥
तंव तो हरि म्हणे वो निजांगने वो । लाइ नीच कां देसील डोहणे वो ।
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Satyabhama prepares everything in her chamber and waits as waves of desire rise, but the night passes and God does not come. Waves of longing rise within her. Then she hears a knock at the door. She says: go back, I have understood your ways. You show tenderness only when you need something. All your words are deception. You come now because you know the dawn is near. I am the fool for trusting you; no blame falls on you. Was I not humiliated at the time of the weighing? Then again, you went and met Shiva without a thought for me. And still I trusted your words until now. The delusion I held has now been fully revealed. I kept thinking: all is well, all is well. You are a scoundrel whose actions never match his speech. Says Tuka, my Lord, the son of Kausalya, the beloved of Kanhoba, speaks.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Satyabhama makes everything ready in her chamber and waits as waves of longing rise, but the night passes and the Lord does not come. Then she hears a knock at the door. She says: go back, I have understood your ways. You show tenderness only when you need something; all your words are deception. You come now because you know the dawn is near. I am the fool for trusting you; the blame is not yours. Was I not humiliated at the time of the weighing? Then again you went off and met Shiva without a thought for me, and still, even now, I trusted your words. The delusion I held has been fully exposed. I kept telling myself: all is well, all is well. You are a scoundrel whose deeds never match his speech. Tuka says: my Lord, the son of Kausalya, the beloved of Kanhoba, then speaks. And Hari says: my own dear one, why give me low words to drink?
What it means
Tukaram puts the complaint of a neglected lover into Satyabhama's mouth: she has waited all night, prepared everything, and the Lord arrives only at dawn, when she sees through the timing. Her charge is sharp, that his tenderness appears only when he wants something and that his deeds never match his sweet words, and she blames her own trusting heart rather than him. The poem voices the soul's familiar grievance against a God who seems to come late and to favor others, recalling old slights to feed the resentment. Yet the quarrel is the language of intimacy, not rejection, and the closing turn has Hari himself begin to answer his beloved, so the reproach opens back into the relationship it never truly left.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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