Krishna in Mathura, the past forgotten in his face
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
वास नारायणें केला मथुरेसि । वधूनि दुष्टांसि तये ठायीं ॥1॥
ठायीं पितियाचे मानी उग्रसेना । प्रतिपाळ जनांसहित लोकां ॥2॥
लोकां दुःख नाहीं मागील आठव । देखियेला देव दृष्टी त्यांणीं ॥3॥
देखोनियां देवा विसरलीं कंसा । ठावा नाहीं ऐसा होता येथें ॥4॥
ध्यान गोविंदाचें लागलें या लोकां । निर्भर हे तुका ह्मणे चित्तीं ॥7॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Narayana settled in Mathura, having destroyed the wicked of that place. He honored Ugrasena as a father and cared for the people and their welfare. The people felt no sorrow, no memory of the past. They had seen God with their own eyes. Seeing God, they forgot Kamsa entirely. It was as if he had never existed. Says Tuka, the meditation on Govinda captivated these people. They were at perfect peace within.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Narayana made his home in Mathura, after he had killed the wicked of that place. There he honored Ugrasena as a father. He cared for the people and all the folk. The people had no sorrow, no memory of what was past. They had seen God with their own eyes. Having seen God, they forgot Kamsa. It was as if he had never been here at all. The meditation on Govinda took hold of these people. Tuka says: they were full and at peace within.
What it means
Tukaram describes Mathura after Krishna settles there: he honors the freed Ugrasena like a father and looks after the whole city. The change in the people is the heart of it. Once they have seen God directly, their old grief and even the memory of the tyrant Kamsa simply drop away, as if the years of fear never happened. The verse names what does this: their minds become fixed on Govinda, and that meditation leaves them full and at peace. Seeing God, Tukaram suggests, does not argue the past away; it makes the past lose its grip.
Krishna Leela
Poems celebrating Krishna's birth, childhood, and divine play.
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