What cannot be forced, no effort makes Brahman
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
मुसळाचें धनु नव्हे हो सर्वथा । पाषाण पििळतां रस कैंचा ॥1॥
वांझे बाळा जैसें दुध नाहीं स्तनीं । गारा त्या अधणीं न सिजती ॥ध्रु.॥
नवखंड पृथ्वी पिके मृगजळें । डोंगर भेटे बळें असमानासी ॥2॥
नैश्वर ब्रह्म तेव्हां होय ब्रह्म । तुका ह्मणे श्रम करुनी काय ॥3॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
A pestle can never become a bow. You cannot extract juice by crushing a stone. A barren woman has no milk in her breasts; pebbles will not soften in boiling water. The whole earth will not be irrigated by a mirage, nor will a mountain meet the sky by force. When the perishable body becomes Brahman, then it truly becomes Brahman. Says Tuka, until then, what is the use of laboring?.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
A pestle can never be a bow. You cannot squeeze juice out of a stone. A barren woman has no milk in her breast. Pebbles will not soften, however long you boil them. The mirage will not water the nine lands of the earth, and no force makes a mountain touch the sky. Only when the perishable becomes Brahman is it truly Brahman. Tuka says: until then, what is all this labor worth?
What it means
Tukaram lines up impossible things to expose effort that cannot reach its goal. A pestle will not become a bow, a stone yields no juice, a mirage waters nothing: each is a thing trying to be what it is not. He turns this on spiritual striving itself. The perishable self becomes Brahman only when it actually becomes Brahman, by grace and realization, not by piling up technique. Mere labor without that inner change is as futile as boiling pebbles soft, and he asks the reader to see this clearly rather than trust effort alone.
Worldly Metaphors
Poems using images from games, occupations, and daily life as spiritual teaching.
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