Nature of God, the lover who waits
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
दिनाचा कृपाळु दुष्टजना काळ । एकला सकळ व्यापक हा ॥1॥
हांसे बोले तैसा नव्हे हा अनंत । नये पराकृत ह्मणों यासि ॥2॥
यासि कळावया एक भक्तिभाव । दुजा नाहीं ठाव धांडोिळतां ॥3॥
धांडोिळतां श्रुति राहिल्या नििश्चत । तो करी संकेत गोपींसवें ॥4॥
गोपिकांची वाट पाहे द्रुमातळीं । मागुता न्याहाळी न देखतां ॥5॥
न देखतां त्यांसि उठे बैसे पाहे । वेडावला राहे वेळोवेळां ॥6॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
He is gracious to the humble and Death to the wicked. He alone pervades everything. He smiles and speaks, yet He is not what He appears. He should not be called ordinary. To know Him, devotion is the only way. There is no other place to search. Even the Vedas, having searched, rested in silence. Yet He keeps His tryst with the gopis. He waits for them beneath the trees. When they do not come, He looks about restlessly. Not seeing them, He rises, sits, and gazes again and again, distracted at every moment.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
He is kind to the lowly and death to the wicked. He alone fills everything. He laughs and talks, but the Infinite is not what he seems. Do not call him an ordinary thing. To know him there is one way: love, the heart turned toward him. Search and you will find no other place. The Vedas searched and fell silent. Yet he keeps his meeting with the gopis. He waits for them under the tree. When they do not come, he looks around for them again. Not seeing them, he gets up, sits down, looks again. Again and again he stands there, out of his senses.
What it means
Tukaram joins two things that seem opposite: God is the all-pervading Infinite whom even the Vedas cannot reach, and God is the lover waiting under a tree, restless when the gopis are late. The point is that this vast One cannot be grasped by learning or by treating him as an ordinary object; the single road to him is bhava, the loving heart. Where the scriptures search and go quiet, love keeps its appointment. The image of Krishna rising, sitting, and looking again and again, lost in longing, says that the Infinite makes himself small and helpless for the sake of those who love him.
The Nature of God
Explorations of God's character, power, grace, and relationship to the world.
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