Abhanga 4301
Some things are simply impossible no matter the effort, and Tukaram warns that the false and perishable cannot be turned into the real and eternal by labor alone.
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
Tukaram lists things that are simply impossible no matter how hard you try: you cannot make a bow out of a broken pestle, you cannot squeeze juice from a stone, a barren woman's breast has no milk to give, and sand cannot be cooked soft in a pot. The whole earth cannot ripen on mirage-water, and a mountain cannot force its way up to meet the sky. In the same way, something that is false and perishable does not become the real, eternal truth just because you labor at it. The lesson is to see clearly what is actually possible and stop pouring effort into what was never going to work.
मराठी: तुकाराम महाराज अशा गोष्टी सांगतात ज्या कितीही प्रयत्न केला तरी होऊच शकत नाहीत, तुटलेल्या मुसळाचे धनुष्य बनत नाही, दगड पिळून रस निघत नाही, वांझ स्त्रीच्या स्तनात दूध नसते आणि वाळू शिजवून मऊ होत नाही. मृगजळाच्या पाण्यावर संपूर्ण पृथ्वी पिकत नाही, आणि डोंगर जबरदस्तीने आकाशाला भिडत नाही. त्याचप्रमाणे जे मुळातच खोटे आणि नाशवंत आहे, ते नुसत्या मेहनतीने खरे आणि शाश्वत ब्रह्म बनत नाही. यातून शिकवण अशी की जे प्रत्यक्षात शक्य आहे तेच स्पष्टपणे ओळखावे आणि जे कधीच घडणार नाही त्यासाठी उगाच कष्ट करत बसू नये.
Where this applies
- Tukārām's 5-impossibility-list — naśvar-brahma-can't-become-brahma canonical