Abhanga 4502
Krishna became every stolen calf and cowherd himself so nothing would be lost, showing that holding a sense of separateness from God, not any single act, is the real sin to fear.
The verse
जयेवेळीं चोरूनियां नेलीं वत्सें । तयालागीं तैसें होणें लागे ॥१॥
लागे दोहीं ठायी करावें पाळण । जगाचा जीवन मायबाप ॥२॥
[...]
लाघव कळलें ब्रम्हयासी याचें । परब्रम्ह साचें अवतरलें ॥८॥
[...]
भक्तिकाजें देवें केला अवतार । पृथ्वीचा भार फेडावया ॥११॥
[...]
दुजा भाव तुका म्हणे जया चित्ती । रवरव भोगिती कुंभपाक ॥२४॥
Literal translation
A long 24-verse Bhāgavata-Brahmā-līlā: Brahmā-stole-the-calves-and-cowherds; Krṣṇa-himself-became-them-all to-maintain-both-places; cows-yielded-amupa-kṣīra; Brahmā-realized-parabrahma-actually-incarnated; began-praising-Ananta; bhakti-was-the-avatāra-purpose; gopas-all-became-Krṣṇa-maya; Brahmā-bowed-to-go-dhanas (cows); the-Lord-is-everything-here, the-one-who-seeks-a-second-is-a-mūrkha; dvaita-bhāva → raurava-kumbha-pāka.
What it means
A canonical extended-narrative of the Bhāgavata-Brahmā-līlā episode. The Lord-becoming-all-the-stolen-cowherds-and-calves proves bhakti-non-dualism. The closing warning: the-one-with-dvaita-bhāva goes-to-raurava-and-kumbha-pāka.
For someone today
This is the story of Brahma stealing away Krishna's cowherd friends and their calves to test him, and Krishna quietly becoming every single one of those calves and children himself so that no mother anywhere would feel loss or notice anything missing. When Brahma finally saw what had happened, he understood that the child before him was not merely a boy but the ultimate reality itself, and he praised him, seeing that Krishna's whole purpose was to protect the world and ease its burden. Tukaram closes with a hard warning: whoever keeps a sense of separateness from God in their heart suffers for it, because that inner division, not any single wrongdoing, is the real sin to fear.
मराठी: ही कथा आहे ब्रह्मदेवाने कृष्णाच्या गोपाळांना व वासरांना लपवून त्याची परीक्षा घेतल्याची, आणि कृष्णाने स्वतःच त्या प्रत्येक वासरात व मुलात रूपांतरित होऊन कोणत्याही आईला काही कमी वाटू न देण्याची. जेव्हा ब्रह्मदेवाला हे उलगडले, तेव्हा त्याला समजले की समोरचा मुलगा केवळ बालक नसून प्रत्यक्ष परब्रह्मच आहे, आणि त्याने कृष्णाची स्तुती केली, कारण त्याचा हेतू जगाचे रक्षण करणे व त्याचा भार हलका करणे हाच होता. तुकाराम शेवटी कडक इशारा देतात: जो मनात देवापासून वेगळेपणाचा भाव बाळगतो, तो दुःख भोगतो, कारण तेच अंतरीचे द्वैत खरे पाप आहे, कुठलेही एक कृत्य नव्हे.
Where this applies
- When you feel God or goodness is distant from your ordinary daily life
- When you worry that something precious might be taken from you and never restored
- When you catch yourself treating the divine as separate from the people and world around you
- When you need reassurance that a higher care is quietly holding everything together