Devotion, the child who will not come home
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
क्याला मज आयो वारितेसी घरा । खेळतों सोकरा नंदाचा मी ॥१॥
बहु दिसीं जाली यासीं मज भेटी । आतां वाटे तुटी न परावी ॥ध्रु.॥
कोवळें बोलतो मना आवरतें । डोळियाचें पातें ढापवेना ॥२॥
आजि सकळांसी आलें चोलुनियां । कां गो पाठी वांयां पुलविली ॥३॥
तुमचें तें काय खोळंबलें काज । बल्या कां गो मज कोंडा घरीं ॥४॥
तुकयाचा धनी गोकुळनायक । सरा कांहीं एक बोलतों मी ॥५॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
O mother, why do you call me back home? I am playing with the darling son of Nanda. After so many days I have met him again, and I cannot bear to part from him now. His tender words steal my heart; my eyelids will not close. Today everyone has come out to join the play; why then do you pull me back in vain? What task of yours am I delaying? Why, mother, do you lock me inside? Says Tuka, the Lord of Gokula is my master, and whatever I say, I say for him.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Mother, why do you call me back home? I am playing with the darling son of Nanda. After many days I have met him again. Now I cannot bear to part from him. His tender words steal my heart; my eyelids will not close. Today everyone has come out to join the play. Why do you pull me back for nothing? What work of yours am I holding up? Why, mother, do you lock me inside the house? Tuka says: the Lord of Gokula is my master, and whatever I say, I say for him.
What it means
A child resists the mother who keeps calling it home, because it has found Krishna again and will not leave the play. Tukaram uses this small domestic tug to picture the soul absorbed in God against the world that keeps tugging it back to ordinary duty. The mother stands for everything that wants to pull the devotee indoors, away from the open field of play with the Lord. The child's complaint is plain and firm: nothing it does is wasted, since all of it is for the Lord of Gokula. To be locked away from him feels like the only real loss.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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