47. Milked milk will not reenter the udder

Verse 47

கறந்தபால் முலைப்புகா கடைந்த வெண்ணெய் மோர்புகா

உடைந்துபோன சங்கின் ஓசை உயிர்களும் உடற்புகா

விரிந்தபூ உதிர்ந்தகாயும் மீண்டுபோய் மரம்புகா

இறந்தவர் பிறப்பதில்லை இல்லை இல்லை இல்லையே

Translation:

Milked milk will not reenter the udder; churned butter will not reenter buttermilk,

The sound of the broken conch, lives will not enter the dead body,

Bloomed flower, fallen fruit, will never go back to the tree,

The dead will never be born, never, never, never at all.

Commentary:

The expression ‘those who are dead will never be born again’ seems to speak against the theory of reincarnation.  It actually refers to realized souls.  Civavākkiyar says that just like the butter churned from milk, milk that was milked, ripe fruit and flower that do not return to their previous residence, lives that are released from their bodies will never return to it.   The examples he quotes, all of them, represent a matured state that will never go back to the initial state.

Milk is collected from the udder after an effort; the butter churned out also represents collection after an effort.  A bloomed flower and a ripe fruit that fall from a tree represent a matured product that is obtained from a tree.  None of these returns to the place they came from.  Similarly, a realized soul will never have rebirth or samsara. A realized soul, a jivan mukta, is considered dead for this world but alive in another dimension, in the super conscious state. Such a soul will never return to this worldly life even while it remains physically in this world.