The sweet Name, ecstasy unrestrained
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
गोविंदाचें नाम गोड घेतां वाचे । तेथें हे कइंचे वैरभाव ॥1॥
भावें नमस्कार घातले सकळीं । लोटांगणें तळीं महीवरि ॥2॥
वरि हातबाहे उभारिली देवें । कळलीया भावें सकळांच्या॥3॥
सकळ ही वरि बहुडविले स्थळा । चलावें गोपाळा ह्मणे घरा ॥4॥
राहिलीं हीं नाचों गोविंदाच्या बोलें । पडिलीया डोलें छंदें हो तीं ॥5॥
छंद तो नावरे आपणा आपला । आनंदाचा आला होता त्यांसि ॥6॥
त्यांच्या तुका ह्मणे आनंदें सकळ । ठेंगणें गोपाळ समागमें ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Govinda's Name is sweet upon the lips. Where it is spoken, how can enmity remain? All bowed in devotion, prostrating on the ground. God raised His hands and arms, seeing the true feelings of all. He sent everyone back to their own places. 'Come, cowherds, let us go home,' He said. They would not stop dancing at Govinda's words, swaying and reeling in the grip of ecstasy. That ecstasy could not be restrained. The tide of bliss had overtaken them. Says Tuka, in their joy, everything seemed small beside the company of the Cowherd-Boy.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Govinda's Name is sweet on the lips. Where it is spoken, how can enmity remain? In devotion they all bowed, prostrating flat on the ground. God raised his hands and arms, seeing the true feeling in all of them. He sent everyone back to their own places. Come, cowherds, let us go home, he said. But they would not stop dancing at Govinda's words, swaying and reeling in the grip of joy. The ecstasy could not be held back by anyone, not even by themselves. The tide of bliss had taken them over. Tuka says: in their joy, everything seemed small beside the company of the Cowherd-Boy.
What it means
Tukaram dwells on what the sweetness of the Name does to a heart. Where Govinda's Name is spoken, enmity cannot stand, so the people fall in worship before him. Even when Krishna gently tells them to go home, they cannot stop dancing, because the bliss has overflowed their own control. The closing line names the measure of that bliss: once you have tasted the company of the Cowherd-Boy, everything else in the world looks small.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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