શ્યામ રંગ સમીપે ન જાવું

Dayaram's garbi is built on a comic devotional contradiction. The speaker announces a vow: શ્યામ રંગ સમીપે ન જાવું -- I will not go near the color of Shyam. But the vow immediately becomes impossible because the world is full of Shyam's color: musk, kohl, the koel's dark song, the crow's omen, blue garments, black bodice, Yamuna water, emerald, cloud, jamun fruit.

This is not rejection; it is obsession wearing the mask of caution. The speaker pretends that every dark thing may contain deceit -- સર્વમાં કપટ હશે આવું ? -- but the real danger is love. The more she lists what she will avoid, the more completely Krishna's presence spreads through ordinary things. The color becomes a theology of attention.

The last couplet turns the joke inward. Dayaram signs the poem with 'દયા'ના પ્રીતમ, and the speaker admits that the vow was only made by the mouth; the mind says it cannot keep it for even a blink. That is the emotional genius of Dayaram's garbi tradition: surrender arrives through teasing, protest, and failed self-control.