Seeing God in all, the cowherds' merit
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
कुंभपाक लागे तयासि भोगणें । अवघा चि नेणे देव ऐसा ॥1॥
देव ऐसा ठावा नाहीं जया जना । तयासि यातना यमकरी ॥2॥
कळला हा देव तया साच खरा । गाई वत्सें घरा धाडी ब्रह्मा ॥3॥
ब्रह्मादिकां ऐसा देव अगोचर । कैसा त्याचा पार जाणवेल ॥4॥
जाणवेल देव गौिळयांच्या भावें । तुका ह्मणे सेवे संचित हें ॥5॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
One who does not see everything as God must suffer the torments of the lowest hells. He to whom God is not known is punished by Yama's tortures. When Brahma recognized God for certain, he sent the cows and calves back home. If God is beyond even Brahma's comprehension, how can His extent be known by anyone? Says Tuka, God is known through the devotion of the cowherds. Their accumulated merit made it possible.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
The one who does not see everything as God must boil in the lowest hells. The one to whom God is unknown is tortured by Yama. Brahma knew this God for what he truly is, and sent the cows and calves back home. If God is hidden even from Brahma, how can anyone measure him? God is known through the cowherds' love. Tuka says: such devotion is their stored-up merit.
What it means
Tukaram sets the seeing of God in everything against the failure to see it, and names what hangs on each. The one who cannot see God in all suffers Yama and the cycle of birth; the one who can is free. He recalls that even Brahma, who once tried to test the boy by stealing the calves, finally recognized him and gave them back, which shows that God lies beyond the reach of the learned. The plain cowherds reach him instead through love, and Tukaram calls that love their accumulated merit. The point is that devotion, not intellect, is what opens the eyes to God present everywhere.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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