Kabir replieth — These shaven-heads are the support of the drowning.
Hear, O blind misguided Loi,
Kabir hath taken the protection of these shaven-heads.
When man dies, mammon, who is described, weeps not for him.
When the husband dieth, his wife weepeth not.1
She findeth another protector ;
And when that protector also dieth,
Hell awaiteth him though he have enjoyed pleasures here.
One woman 2 alone is dear to the world ;
She is the wife of all sentient beings.
With a necklace on her neck she looketh beautiful ;
She pleaseth the world, but is hateful as poison to the holy.
Adorning herself she either sitteth like an abandoned woman,
Or the wretch wandereth about accursed of the saints.
When the saints flee from her, she pursueth them ;
But, by the favour of the guru, she feareth punishment.
She is the body and soul of the infidel ;
Her dreadful witch's eye falleth on me.
KABIR'S HYMNS 237
When the merciful holy guru met me,
I became well acquainted with her secrets.1
Saith Kabir, I have now turned her out,
And she hath attached herself to the skirt of the world.
A further description of mammon.
The guest cometh and departeth hungry
From the house which hath no wealth.
The guest loseth patience,
And the host is blamed because he hath not means to entertain him.
Hail to the woman who hath turned the heads
Of very holy men and penitents high and low !
She is a miser's daughter ;
Rejecting God's worshippers she sleepeth with everybody.
At last standing at the saints' door,
She saith, ' I have sought your protection, save me ! '
The woman is very beautiful ;
Her ornaments tinkle on her feet ;
As long as man is alive she attacheth herself to him ;
When he dieth she quickly departeth without waiting for her shoes.
The woman hath conquered the three worlds ;
She hath made the eighteen Purans and the places of pilgrimage love her ;
She hath pierced the hearts of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiv,
And infatuated great kings and sovereigns.
There are no bounds to the woman ;
She is in collusion with the five evil passions.
Where the vessels of the five evil passions burst,
Saith Kabir, I was delivered thence by the favour of the guru.
Without a guru man must fall and perish.
If the rafters be taken from a house, the roof will fall ; So without God's name how can man be saved ? 1 And was thus the better able to guard against her.
As water will not remain without a vessel, So without a religious guide man shall go to hell. Burn him who thinketh not on God, But whose mind is ever absorbed in the field of his body. As without a ploughman land cannot be tilled, As without a thread jewels cannot be strung, And as without a loop clothes cannot be fastened, So without a holy guide man shall go to hell. As a child cannot be born without a father and mother, As clothes cannot be washed without water, As one cannot ride without an equipage, As without music there cannot be dancing, So without a guru man cannot reach God's court. As the bad woman leaving her husband looketh for an other, thus eager should man be to obtain a guru. Saith Kabir, do one thing — Become holy and thou shalt not die again.
The following hymn was a reply to some one who had addressed vile abuse to Kabir and called him a pander, a dancer, a street- walker, and a thief : —
Is he a pander 1 who chasteneth his heart ?
He who chasteneth his heart shall escape from death.
The pander who thoroughly chasteneth his heart, and applieth to it the touch-stone of love,
Shall obtain complete deliverance.
Whom do you call a pander, O people ?
•In everything that is spoken discrimination should be used.
Is he a dancer who danceth with his mind,
Who is not satisfied with falsehood, who is pleased with truth,
And who beateth time with his heart in the presence of God ?
God,- whose mind is pure, preserveth such a dancer.2
KABIR'S HYMNS 239
Is he a street-walker who sweepeth the market-place,1
And lighteth up the five wicks ? 2
I accept as my guru that street-walker
Who embraceth the service of the lord of the nine con tinents.3
Is he a thief who is not envious,
Who uttereth God's name and curbeth his senses ?
Saith Kabir, blessings on my divine guru,
Who possesseth all such qualities and who is very hand some and clever.
The following is an encomium on the staff of life :—
Hail, O God, hail, O divine guru !
Hail to the corn by which the hearts of the hungry rejoice !
Hail to that saint who realizeth this !
He shall meet God.
Corn cometh from the Primal Being —
Repeat God's name with the relish of corn.
Praise His name, praise His corn ;
With water pleasant is its taste.
He who abstain eth from corn,4
Shall lose his honour in the three worlds.5
She 6 who abandoneth corn and practiseth hypocrisy,
Is neither a wife nor a widow.7
They who publicly boast that they live on milk,
Secretly eat a whole five sers of corn.
Without corn no one is happy ;
Abandon corn and you shall not meet God.
Saith Kabir, such is what I think ;
Blessings on that corn by which man loveth his God !
The following was addressed to a Jogi who en deavoured to induce Kabir to drink wine.
RAMKALI
Make thy body the vat, the guru's instruction thy molasses;
Cut up avarice, lust, wrath, pride, and envy as thy kikar bark ; thus mix thy yeast.
Is there any saint, in whose heart composure and happi ness dwell, to whom I may offer my devotion and penance as commission for procuring me such wine ?
I will give my soul and body for one drop of the wine which that vat produceth.
I have made the fourteen worlds my furnace, and heated it with the fire of divine knowledge ; 1
I have sealed the still with the gentle sound of God's name, and plastered it with what yieldeth mental happiness.
Pilgrimage, fasting, daily religious ceremonies, purifica tions, and austerities at eclipses of the sun and moon I would pledge for that wine.
Make meditation thy cup, God's ambrosial name the pure juice, and drink that elixir ;
From such a still a very pure trickling stream ever issueth, and the soul is delighted therewith.
Saith Kabir, all other wines are insipid ; this is the true elixir.
On the same subject.
Make divine knowledge thy molasses, meditation thy bassia flowers, and the fear of God in thy heart thy furnace :
The drinker who is absorbed in God by means of the breath of the sukhmana imbibeth such wine.
When that wine ascendeth to the brain man relisheth no other ; 2 there is then light in the three worlds.
KABIR'S HYMNS 241
Joining God and the soul I have prepared a furnace and drunk the excellent elixir ;
I have burnt lust and wrath as firewood, and escaped from worldliness.
The light of divine knowledge appeared to me when I met my true guru and obtained understanding.
The slave Kabir is intoxicated with that wine, and will never abstain therefrom.1
Kabir was likened to a Kotwal for his severity to the wicked, and to a dog for his barking. He accepted both imputations.
I honour the saints and I punish the wicked ; this is my court-house.2
I shampoo Thy feet, 0 God, day and night ; I turn my hair into a chauri and wave it over Thee.
I am the dog at Thy court ;
I bark in front of it 3 putting forward my snout.
In a former birth I was Thy servant ; that position I cannot now resign.
The gentle order of Thy court was branded on my fore head.4
They who bear such brand fight bravely in battle ; they who bear it not flee away.
He who is holy knoweth how to serve God, and God putteth him into His treasury.5
In the house of the body is the chamber of the heart, which becometh the most precious chamber of all when filled with meditation on God.
The guru hath granted God's name, the Real Thing, to Kabir, saying, ' Take it and guard it ' ;
Kabir hath offered it to the world, but only he who was so destined receiveth it —
SIKH. VI R
Abiding is the married state of her who hath found the immortal elixir.
The Brahman trusts not to God but to the Veds and the Gayatri, and hence he shall be lost.
Why shouldst thou, O Brahman, forget Him from whose mouth the Veds and the Gayatri issued ?
Why shouldst not thou, O Pandit, utter the name of God, whose feet every one toucheth ?
0 my Brahman, why not repeat God's name ?
If thou utter not His name, O Pandit, thou shalt be cast into hell.
p, Thou callest thyself exalted, yet thou eatest in the houses of the low, and fillest thy belly by the exaction of alms.1
On the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the half month thou devisest tales and beggest, but even with a lamp in thy hand thou shalt fall into the pit.
Thou art a Brahman, I am a weaver of Banaras ; how can I be a match for thee ?
By repeating the name of God I have been saved, while thou, O Pandit, shalt be lost by trusting to the Veds.
A mystic hymn in which God is represented under the allegory of a tree.
There is one tree ; 2 it hath endless branches and shoots ; its blossoms 3 and leaves 4 are filled with nectar.5
This world is a garden 6 of ambrosia ; God who is perfect hath created it.
The few holy men in whose hearts the light of God shineth,
Know the story of my beloved sovereign God.
One bumble-bee 7 intoxicated with the juice of the flowers
KABIR'S HYMNS 243
hath fixed his mind within the twelve petals of the lotus of the heart ;
He then raising his breath to the lotus of sixteen petals in his brain gaineth the ecstatic fruit thereof.1
Another tree 2 was produced in the silent vacuum ; it dried up the waters of the earth ; 3
Saith Kabir, I am a servant of those who have seen that tree.4
The following was addressed to a Jogi :-
Make silence thine earrings, mercy thy wallet, and medi tation thy cup ;
Stitch thy body for thy patched coat, and make the Name thy support.
That thou mayest while enjoying the world perform thy devotion, penance, and austerities under the guru's instruc tion.
Make the knowledge of God the ashes thou smearest on thy body,5 and meditation thy horn ;
Abandoning the world, roam in the city of the body, and play thy heart as a kinguri ;
Plant the five virtues in thy heart so that thy contem plation may be undisturbed by the world.
Saith Kabir, hear, O saints, make honesty and mercy your garden.
Others suppose that the numbers twelve and sixteen in the above lines mean the repetition of Oam similar numbers of times.
R 2
Kabir in a fit of introspection and self-abasement addressed himself.
For what object wast thou born in the world, and what advantage hast thou gained from thy human birth ?
Thou hast not applied thy mind even for a moment to God, the Fulfiller of desires,, the Vessel to take thee across the terrible ocean.
That we have never performed service for that Lord who gave us our souls and bodies.
The passion to possess others' wealth, children, and wives, and to slander and calumniate others hath not forsaken us.
We suffer transmigration again and again ; this law is not broken.
1 have not wandered even for a moment to where the conversation of the saints of God is held.
Libertines, thieves, panders, and drunkards — with them have I ever consorted.
My possessions are lust, wrath, covetousness, pride, and envy.
Mercy, honesty, and service to the guru have not come to me even in my dreams.
Prayeth Kabir, preserve Thine afflicted slave, O God, and I will perform Thy service.
Remember God and do Him homage.
Remember in thy heart the Being,
By whose remembrance thou shalt obtain the gate of deliverance,
Go to heaven, and return not to this world.
Play the trumpets in the house of the Fearless One,
And the unbeaten strain shall ever fully resound for thee.
Without remembering Him deliverance can never be obtained.
KABIR'S HYMNS 245
Heartily bow before the Being,
By remembering whom none may refuse thee ;
Who conferreth salvation by which great loads of sin drop off,
And thy transmigration is at an end.
Remember Him through whom thou enjoyest thyself,
And an everburning1 lamp shall be placed within thee—
The lamp z which rendereth the world immortal,
And expelleth the poison of lust and wrath.
Twine and wear on thy neck the rosary
Of Him by remembering whom Thy salvation shall be obtained.
Wear that rosary, doff it not,
And by the favour of the guru thou shalt be saved.
Remember the Beloved day and night,
And thou shalt have no regard for men ;
Thou shalt sleep at home in silken bed-clothes,
And thy heart shall be gladdened by a pleasant couch -
Ever remember God in thy heart and sing His praises.
By remembering Him thy troubles shall depart,
And Maya affect thee not.
From the true guru learn how to remember God ;
Remember Him ever day and night.
Standing or sitting, at every expiration and inspiration,
Waking or sleeping, enjoy the sweets of remembering Him ;
By remembering God thou shalt be united with Him.3
Make the remembrance of God's name thy support ;
By remembering Him no weight of sin shall oppress thee.
Neither wrought nor spoken incantations can prevail with Him,4
Saith Kabir, who hath no limit.
The condition of him who has put his passions under subjection.
He who hath captivated the captivators,1
Shall obtain deliverance, and the guru shall put out the fire of his passions.2
When I had thoroughly examined my heart,
I made my ablutions within it.
To dwell in God, the Lord of life, is the best thing ;
There is then no death, or birth, or decay.
Turning away from mammon I restrained my mind,
And I entered the region of God.3
I have pierced the serpent's way,4
And assuredly met God.
Worldly love and mammon no more affect me ;
The sun hath restrained the moon.5
When I completely stopped my breath,
The lute played spontaneously.
The preacher hath communicated this instruction ;
The hearer hath heard and treasured it in his heart.
He who acteth according to it shall be saved,
Saith Kabir verily.
God is a luminous diamond whose light fills crea tion.
The moon and sun are both forms -of light , God the unequalled pervadeth their light.
0 wise man, meditate on God
In whose light creation is contained. Beholding God, the Diamond, I prostrate myself before Him. Saith Kabir, He is bright and yet invisible.
They who are attached to worldly things fall into the net of Death, While they whose avarice the guru extinguisheth are delivered.
* A supposed passage for air through the spinal marrow to the brain. 5 The brain retains the breath, and a state of exaltation supervenes.
KABIR'S HYMNS 247
Some Hindus asked Kabir to give them instruc tion, upon which he composed the following : —
O world, be alert and wakeful ; even while awake you are being robbed, my brethren.
Even while the Veds, who are alert sentinels, look on, Death will take you away.
The fool, the blockhead, and the pagan think that the nim is a mango, and the mango a nim;1
That a ripe plantain-tree2 is but a prickly bush, and that the fruit of the coco-nut 3 is like the ripe fruit of the simmal.
God is the sugar which hath been spilled in the dust ; it cannot be picked up by the elephant.
Saith Kabir, renounce family, caste, and lineage, become an ant, and thou canst pick up and eat the sugar.
A remonstrance to a Brahman for offering animal sacrifice to an idol.
MARU
Thou shalt be ruined with all thy family for not having repeated God's name, O luckless man.
What availeth thee to read the Veds and the Purans ? It is like loading a donkey with sandal whose perfume he valueth not.
Thou knowest not how to repeat God's name ; how shalt thou be saved ?
Thou takest life and deemest it religious ; tell me, my brother, what thou callest irreligious.
Thou makest thyself out an excellent muni ; whom callest thou a butcher ?
Mentally blind thou knowest not thyself ; 4
What shall thou cause others to know ?
Thou sellest knowledge for money, thy life passeth in vain.
Narad and Vyas declare — and thou mayest go and ask Shukdev also—
Saith Kabir, too, by uttering the name of God ye shall be delivered ; otherwise ye shall perish, my brethren.
It is the condition of the heart, not man's garb or place of residence, which produces happiness.
Unless you remove evil from your hearts, how shall you find God by dwelling in the forest ?
They who deem their own homes equal to the forest are perfect among men.
You shall obtain true happiness,
If you lovingly repeat the name of the Life of the world.
What avail wearing matted hair, smearing yourselves with ashes, and dwelling in caves ?
He who hath conquered his own heart hath conquered the world, because he is free from the deadly sins.
All people use eye-wash, but there is a difference in their blandishments.
The eyes to which the surma of divine knowledge is applied, are acceptable to God.
Saith Kabir, I now know God ; the guru hath explained divine knowledge to me ;
I have met God who dwelleth in the heart ; my mind shall now no more wander.
The following was addressed to a Jogi whom Kabir found begging and boasting that he had obtained all spiritual wealth and perfection : —
What hath he who hath obtained spiritual wealth and supernatural power to do with any one ?
What shall I say regarding thy language ? I am much ashamed to speak to thee.
He who hath obtained God,
KABIR'S HYMNS 249
Wandereth not from door to door.
This false world greatly burneth for wealth in the hope of using it for a few days.
Whosoever drinketh God's water shall not be thirsty again ;
He who knoweth God by the favour of the guru abandoneth all worldly desires.
When the heart is withdrawn from the world, the True One appeareth everywhere.
The name of God saveth him who hath tasted its savour.
Saith Kabir, I have become gold, my doubts have fled, and I have crossed the ocean.
It was made a reproach to Kabir that he being a weaver dared preach to men of high caste. Upon this he preached equality of all men.
As the bubbles of the river are accounted water and blend with the water of the ocean,
So the man who looketh on all with an equal eye, shall become pure and blend with the Infinite.
Why should I return to this world ?
Transmigration taketh place by God's order ; he who obeyeth it shall blend with Him.
When this fabric of five elements perisheth, my wandering shall be at an end.
Forswearing sects, I look on all as equal and meditate on the one Name.
I devote myself to and perform the duties which God assigned me.
If God bestow mercy on me, I shall be absorbed in Him under the instruction of my guru.
He who in life is in death, and who from death x returneth to life shall not be born again.
Saith Kabir, he who is permeated with the Name fixeth his love on God.
Kabir in a vision beheld God and rushed to em brace Him, but was repulsed. The following was composed on the occasion : —
If Thou repulse me, then show me the way of deliverance ; One God in many forms, Thou art contained in every thing ; why dost Thou now illude me ?
1 ask Thee where Thou wilt give me salvation and of what degree,1 seeing that by Thy favour I have already obtained it ?