अब मैं नाच्यौ बहुत गुपाल।
काम-क्रोध कौ पहिरि चोलना, कंठ बिषय की माल॥
महामोह के नूपुर बाजत, निंदा सबद रसाल।
भ्रम-भोयौ मन भयौ पखावज, चलत असंगत चाल॥
तृष्ना नाद करति घट भीतर, नाना बिधि दै ताल।
माया कौ कटि फेंटा बाँध्यौ, लोभ-तिलक दियौ भाल॥
कोटिक कला काछि दिखराई, जल-थल सुधि नहिं काल।
सूरदास की सबै अबिद्या दूरि करौ नँदलाल॥
Ab main nachyau bahut Gupal,
kam-krodh kau pahiri cholna, kanth bishay ki mal.
Mahamoh ke nupur bajat, ninda sabad rasal,
bhram-bhoyau man bhayau pakhavaj, chalat asangat chal.
Trishna nad karati ghat bhitar, nana bidhi dai tal,
maya kau kati phenta bandhyau, lobh-tilak diyau bhal.
Kotik kala kachhi dikhrai, jal-thal sudhi nahin kal,
Surdas ki sabai abidya duri karau Nandlal.
Meaning
Gopal, I have danced enough now. I put on the costume of lust and anger and wore the garland of sense-pleasure round my neck.
The anklets of great delusion jingle, and slander is the sweet song. My mind, soaked in confusion, became the drum, keeping a crooked beat.
Craving sings inside me and claps out every kind of rhythm. I tied maya round my waist as a sash and put the tilak of greed on my forehead.
I have dressed up and shown millions of tricks, on water and on land, I cannot remember for how long. Nandlal, take away all of Surdas’s ignorance.
About this bhajan
A whole life seen as a tired dancer’s performance. Every part of the costume is a fault: anger for a coat, greed for a tilak, delusion for anklets, the mind for a drum beating out of time. Then the dancer stops and asks Nandlal to end the show. Surdas’s vinaya padas, sung before Vallabhacharya accepted him into the Pushti Marg, are full of this kind of self-reproach; tradition says the acharya then turned him towards singing the leelas of Krishna instead.
Sursagar, vinaya padas (Pratham Skandh); text as on Kavita Kosh