Abhanga 4301
The verse
मुसळाचें धनु नव्हे हो सर्वथा । पाषाण पिळितां रस कैंचा ॥१॥
वांझे बाळा जैसें दुध नाहीं स्तनीं । गारा त्या अधणीं न सिजती ॥ध्रु.॥
नवखंड पृथ्वी पिके मृगजळें । डोंगर भेटे बळें असमानासी ॥२॥
नैश्वर ब्रम्ह तेव्हां होय ब्रम्ह । तुका म्हणे श्रम करुनी काय ॥३॥
Literal translation
Musaḷa-bow-cannot-be — stone-yields-no-juice. Barren-woman-no-milk — sand-doesn't-cook. 9-khaṇḍa-prthvī-by-mirage-ripens — mountain-meets-sky-by-force. Naśvar-brahma-becomes-brahma — Tukā: what-good-effort.
What it means
★ A 4-verse 5-impossibility text. A bow made of a broken pestle — that cannot be at all; squeezing a stone — what juice? For a barren-woman's baby, no milk is in her breast; sand-pebbles don't get cooked in a boiling-pot. The 9-divisioned earth ripens by mirage-water; the mountain meets the sky by force. The perishing brahma — when does it become (the real) brahma? Tukā says: what good is doing the labor (for such impossibilities)? 5 impossibility-images — companion to 4260 (5-impossibility-list with diamond-crocodile etc.). The closing naśvar-brahma-becomes-brahma-impossible is doctrinal: the false-brahma cannot become the real brahma — discrimination must be made from the start. Pair with 4260, 4242 (5-impossibility-allegories).
For someone today
Tukārām: one-can't-make-a-bow-from-a-pestle-or-cook-sand-or-get-milk-from-a-barren-woman — likewise, the-false-cannot-become-the-real-by-effort.
Where this applies
- ★ Tukārām's 5-impossibility-list — naśvar-brahma-can't-become-brahma canonical