Ang-801 — Chapter 71
Even then, his hardened mind was not satisfied.
Says Kabeer, such is my Lord and Master.
The soul of His humble servant dwells in the fourth state. ||4||1||4||
Gond:
It is not human, and it is not a god.
It is not called celibate, or a worshipper of Shiva.
It is not a Yogi, and it is not a hermit.
It is not a mother, or anyone's son. ||1||
Then what is it, which dwells in this temple of the body?
No one can find its limits. ||1||Pause||
It is not a house-holder, and it is not a renouncer of the world.
It is not a king, and it is not a beggar.
It has no body, no drop of blood.
It is not a Brahmin, and it is not a Kh'shaatriya. ||2||
It is not called a man of austere self-discipline, or a Shaykh.
It does not live, and it is not seen to die.
If someone cries over its death,
that person loses his honor. ||3||
By Guru's Grace, I have found the Path.
Birth and death have both been erased.
Says Kabeer, this is formed of the same essence as the Lord.
It is like the ink on the paper which cannot be erased. ||4||2||5||
Gond:
The threads are broken, and the starch has run out.
Bare reeds glisten at the front door.
The poor brushes are scattered in pieces.
Death has entered this shaven head. ||1||
This shaven-headed mendicant has wasted all his wealth.
All this coming and going has irritated him. ||1||Pause||
He has given up all talk of his weaving equipment.
His mind is attuned to the Lord's Name.
His daughters and sons have nothing to eat,
while the shaven-headed mendicants night and day eat their fill. ||2||
One or two are in the house, and one or two more are on the way.
We sleep on the floor, while they sleep in the beds.
They rub their bare heads, and carry prayer-books in their waist-bands.
We get dry grains, while they get loaves of bread. ||3||
He will become one of these shaven-headed mendicants.
They are the support of the drowning.
Listen, O blind and unguided Loi:
Kabeer has taken shelter with these shaven-headed mendicants. ||4||3||6||
Gond:
When her husband dies, the woman does not cry.
Someone else becomes her protector.
When this protector dies,
he falls into the world of hell hereafter, for the sexual pleasures he enjoyed in this world. ||1||
The world loves only the one bride, Maya.
She is the wife of all beings and creatures. ||1||Pause||
With her necklace around her neck, this bride looks beautiful.
She is poison to the Saint, but the world is delighted with her.
Adorning herself, she sits like a prostitute.
Cursed by the Saints, she wanders around like a wretch. ||2||
She runs around, chasing after the Saints.
She is afraid of being beaten by those blessed with the Guru's Grace.
She is the body, the breath of life, of the faithless cynics.
She appears to me like a blood-thirsty witch. ||3||
I know her secrets well
in His Mercy, the Divine Guru met me.
Says Kabeer, now I have thrown her out.
She clings to the skirt of the world. ||4||4||7||
✦ 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.”
Divine Compassion & Mercy
Quran 1:1
“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.”
Psalm 23:1
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
Luke 6:36
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Snp 1.8
“As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with regard to all beings.”
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.”
Humility & Surrender
Bhagavad Gita 18:66
“Abandon all varieties of dharma and simply surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.”
Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Tao Te Ching 22
“If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.”
Quran 2:45
“Seek help through patience and prayer. It is indeed exacting, but not for those who are humble.”
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.”