Abhanga 4242
Everything the body and senses chase in ordinary life is as unreal as a mirage, and only action truly offered to the divine becomes something real and lasting.
The verse
गंधर्वनगरीं क्षण एक राहावें । तें चि पैं करावें मुळक्षत्र ॥१॥
खपुष्पाची पूजा बांधोनि निर्गुणा । लक्ष्मीनारायणा तोषवावें ॥ध्रु.॥
वंध्यापुत्राचा लग्नाचा सोहळा । आपुलिया डोळां पाहों वेगीं ॥२॥
मृगजळा पोही घालुनि सज्ञाना । तापलिया जना निववावें ॥३॥
तुका म्हणे मिथ्या देहेंद्रियकर्म । ब्रम्हार्पण ब्रम्ह होय बापा ॥४॥
Literal translation
Gandharva-nagarī-kṣaṇa-live — foundation-mūḷa-kṣatra. Khapuṣpa-pūjā-to-nirguṇa — please-Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. Vandhyā-putra-marriage — see-with-eyes. Mrga-jala-drink-by-sajñāna — calm-tormented. Tukā: deha-indriya-karma-mithyā — brahma-arpaṇa-becomes-brahma.
What it means
THE canonical 4-verse 5-impossibility-allegories text. Live a moment in the mirage-city of celestials — make that the foundational field. Make worship with sky-flowers bound to the unqualified — please Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. Quickly see with your own eyes the marriage-celebration of the barren-woman's son. Drink mirage-water through the wise — calm the tormented people. Tukā says: the body-sense-action is unreal — only brahma-offering becomes brahma, father. The classical 4 impossibilities (gandharva-nagarī, khapuṣpa, vandhyā-putra, mrga-jala) are stock-Vedānta-images of the unreal. Tukārām marshals them in parallel-construction to argue: all deha-indriya-karma is equally-impossible/false; only brahma-arpaṇa actually becomes brahma. The closingbrahma-arpaṇa-brahma-hōyais a profound formulaic-truth: the offering-itself becomes brahman, in the act of offering-to-brahman. Pair with 2942 (true-samnyāsa = samkalpa-destruction), 2937 (deha-atīta).
For someone today
Tukaram strings together four classic images of the impossible: living even a moment in a mirage city, offering flowers that grow in the sky, watching the wedding of a child born to a woman who cannot bear children, and drinking water from a desert mirage. He uses these to say that all the ordinary business of the body and the senses, everything we chase and build in daily life, is really just as unreal and insubstantial as these impossible pictures. What actually becomes real and lasting, he says, is only the action that is offered up to the divine. The lesson is not to despair of everyday life but to hold it lightly, since anything done purely for yourself dissolves like a mirage, while anything genuinely surrendered to something greater than yourself takes on real, lasting worth.
मराठी: तुकाराम अशक्य गोष्टींची चार जुनी उदाहरणे एकत्र आणतात - गंधर्वनगरीत एक क्षणभर राहणे, आकाशात उगवणाऱ्या फुलांनी पूजा करणे, वांझ स्त्रीच्या मुलाचे लग्न पाहणे, आणि मृगजळाचे पाणी पिणे. या प्रतिमांतून ते सांगतात की देह आणि इंद्रियांचा सगळा नेहमीचा व्यवहार, आपण रोजच्या आयुष्यात जे पाठलाग करतो आणि उभे करतो, ते सगळे या अशक्य चित्रांइतकेच अवास्तव आणि पोकळ आहे. खरोखर टिकणारे आणि सत्य होणारे फक्त तेच कृत्य आहे जे देवाला अर्पण केले जाते. रोजच्या आयुष्याची निराशा करू नये, पण ते हलक्या हाताने धरावे, कारण फक्त स्वतःसाठी केलेली कोणतीही गोष्ट मृगजळासारखी विरून जाते, तर स्वतःहून मोठ्या शक्तीला खरोखर अर्पण केलेली गोष्ट खरे, टिकणारे मोल घेऊन येते हाच यातील बोध आहे.
Where this applies
- When you realize how much of your daily striving is really chasing something insubstantial
- When you feel disillusioned after finally getting something you worked hard for
- When you catch yourself building your identity entirely on things done purely for yourself
- When you want to understand why offering your work or effort to something greater feels more meaningful than doing it only for yourself