Ang-1101 — Chapter 60
God is present, right here at hand; why do you say that He is far away?
Tie up your disturbing passions, and find the Beauteous Lord. ||1||Pause||
He alone is a Qazi, who contemplates the human body,
and through the fire of the body, is illumined by God.
He does not lose his semen, even in his dreams;
for such a Qazi, there is no old age or death. ||2||
He alone is a sultan and a king, who shoots the two arrows,
gathers in his outgoing mind,
and assembles his army in the realm of the mind's sky, the Tenth Gate.
The canopy of royalty waves over such a sultan. ||3||
The Yogi cries out, "Gorakh, Gorakh".
The Hindu utters the Name of Raam.
The Muslim has only One God.
The Lord and Master of Kabeer is all-pervading. ||4||3||11||
Fifth Mehl:
Those who call a stone their god
their service is useless.
Those who fall at the feet of a stone god
- their work is wasted in vain. ||1||
My Lord and Master speaks forever.
God gives His gifts to all living beings. ||1||Pause||
The Divine Lord is within the self, but the spiritually blind one does not know this.
Deluded by doubt, he is caught in the noose.
The stone does not speak; it does not give anything to anyone.
Such religious rituals are useless; such service is fruitless. ||2||
If a corpse is anointed with sandalwood oil,
what good does it do?
If a corpse is rolled in manure,
what does it lose from this? ||3||
Says Kabeer, I proclaim this out loud
behold, and understand, you ignorant, faithless cynic.
The love of duality has ruined countless homes.
The Lord's devotees are forever in bliss. ||4||4||12||
The fish in the water is attached to Maya.
The moth fluttering around the lamp is pierced through by Maya.
The sexual desire of Maya afflicts the elephant.
The snakes and bumble bees are destroyed through Maya. ||1||
Such are the enticements of Maya, O Siblings of Destiny.
As many living beings are there are, have been deceived. ||1||Pause||
The birds and the deer are imbued with Maya.
Sugar is a deadly trap for the flies.
Horses and camels are absorbed in Maya.
The eighty-four Siddhas, the beings of miraculous spiritual powers, play in Maya. ||2||
The six celibates are slaves of Maya.
So are the nine masters of Yoga, and the sun and the moon.
The austere disciplinarians and the Rishis are asleep in Maya.
Death and the five demons are in Maya. ||3||
Dogs and jackals are imbued with Maya.
Monkeys, leopards and lions,
cats, sheep, foxes,
trees and roots are planted in Maya. ||4||
Even the gods are drenched with Maya,
as are the oceans, the sky and the earth.
Says Kabeer, whoever has a belly to fill, is under the spell of Maya.
The mortal is emancipated only when he meets the Holy Saint. ||5||5||13||
As long as he cries out, Mine! Mine!,
none of his tasks is accomplished.
When such possessiveness is erased and removed,
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Leviticus 19:18
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277
“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
Tao Te Ching 76
“A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. The soft and yielding is the disciple of life.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita 2:22
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”
The Path to Wisdom
Proverbs 4:7
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”
Dhammapada 20:282
“Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes.”
Analects 2:11
“If you study the past and use it to understand the present, you are worthy of being a teacher.”
Tao Te Ching 33
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Genesis 1:3
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”