2go BHAGATS OF THE GRANTH SAHIB
He who is separated from God shall not live, or if he do, he shall become insane.1
Kabir, the philosopher's stone and sandal have one good property in common ;
By the touch of the former iron becometh the best metal ; 2 by the touch of the latter inodorous wood is perfumed.
LXXVIII
Kabir, Death's club is bad ; it cannot be endured : I have met a holy man 3 and he hath attached me to his skirt.
Kabir, the physician, saith, ' I am the only good physician ; all medicines are in my power ' :
This thing life is God's property, He taketh it when He pleaseth.
Kabir, take and beat thy drum for ten days ; 4 This world is like the meeting on a river-boat of persons who shall never meet again.5
Kabir, were I to make the seven oceans my ink, the trees of the forest my pens,
And the earth my paper, I should not succeed in writing God's praises.
Kabir, what harm can my weaver caste do me since God dwelleth in my heart ?
God hath embraced Kabir, and released him from all his entanglements.
The world 's a city full of straying streets,
And death the market-place where each one meets.
KABIR'S SLOKS 291
LXXXIII
Kabir, there are few willing to burn their own houses,1
Destroy their five children,2 and concentrate their love on God.
Kabir, there are few who will set fire to their own bodies ; 3
Fools understand not though Kabir continueth to shout to them.
Kabir, the sati mounted on the pyre crieth out ' Hear my friends on this cremation-ground ;
As people have all departed, so do we at last.'
Kabir, the mind is a bird which flieth and flieth in every direction ;
Man is rewarded according to the company he keepeth.
LXXXVII
Kabir, the position thou wast seeking thou hast found ;
Thou hast changed into God whom thou thoughtest was different.
LXXXVIII
Kabir, I am dying of evil company like the plantain near the wild caper ;
The latter waveth and the former is pierced by its thorns, so avoid the apostate.
Kabir, men4 affect to travel with the burden of other men's sins on their heads ;
Why fear they not the burden of their own, since the road in front of them is difficult to travel ?
U 2
Kabir, a standing forest tree1 which is burning calleth out — ' May I not fall into the power of the smith 2 who would burn me again in his forged
One day Kabir was sitting on the bank of the Ganges. He saw a hunter who had shot a deer. The deer had two young ones in her womb. Both these died. The buck then came, and was also shot by the hunter. The latter went to pick up the animal and was mortally bitten by a snake. The hunter's wife then came and died through grief, or because the snake bit her too. Thus died four males and two females.
Kabir, on the death of one two died ; on the death of two, four ;
On the death of four, six? died — four males and two females.4
Kabir hath seen and searched the world, but found no abiding place anywhere :
Why doth he, who hath not thought of God's name, lose himself in other speculations ?
Kabir, associate with the saint ; he will save thee at last ;
Associate not with the infidel ; his company will be thy ruin.
Kabir, knowing that God is everywhere diffused in the world,5 I have remembered Him in this life ;
KABIR'S SLOKS 293
They who have thought not of God's name, have been born in vain.
Kabir, hope in God ; all other hope is hopeless :
They who are bereft of God's name shall admit its power when they fall into hell.
Kabir hath made many disciples and followers, but hath not made God his friend :
He set out to meet God, but his heart failed him half way.
Kabir, what shall poor man do if God assist him not ?
Whatever branch I put my foot on bendeth beneath me.
Kabir, sand shall fall into the mouths of those who practise not what they preach to others ;
They watch others' property, while their own fields are being eaten up.
Kabir, associate with holy men even though thou eat only barley bran :
What will be, will be ; associate not with the apostate even though he give thee better fare.
Kabir, by association with the saints the love of God doubleth day by day :
The infidel is like a black blanket ; he becometh not white by washing.
Kabir, thou hast not shaved thy heart ; why shave thy hair?
Man's sins are the work of his heart ; shaving the head is out of place.
Kabir, forsake not God ; if thy body and wealth must go, let them go.
They whose hearts are devoted to God's lotus feet, shall be absorbed in His name.
cm
Kabir, the strings of the instrument we play upon are all broken ; 1
What can the poor instrument do when the player 2 hath departed ?
Kabir, shave the mother of that guru from whom doubt departeth not ;
He is drowned himself in the four Veds and he drowneth his disciples therein.
Kabir, man concealeth all the sins he committeth ; But at last they are all disclosed when Dharmraj maketh his inquiry.
Kabir, ceasing to remember God thou hast reared a numerous family :
Thou continuest to practise thine avocations though thy brethren and relations are no more.3
CVI I
Kabir, the woman who ceasing to remember God goes to a wake at night4 to practise witchcraft,
Shall be born again as a serpent, and eat her own off spring.5
KABIR'S SLOKS 295
Kabir, the woman who ceasing to remember God fasteth in honour of Hoi,1
Shall be born again as a donkey and carry a weight of four mans.2
Kabir, very great skill is required to utter God's name in the heart ;
If the acrobat who performeth on the high pole fall, he cannot survive.3
Kabir, blest is his mouth who uttereth God's name ; His whole village shall be blest, to say nothing of the poor creature himself.
Kabir, the family is fortunate in which a slave of God is born ;
The family in which a slave of God is not born shall be fruitless as the dhak-tree.
Kabir hath seen hundreds of thousands of horses, elephants, and carriages, and banners wave as thick as clouds —
Begging, when the days pass in remembering God, is better than all this state.
Kabir, I have traversed the whole world with my drum on my shoulder ;
I have seen and carefully examined 4 everything, and / find no one hath a friend.
Kabir, pearls were scattered on the road ; a blind man came that way and saw them not ;
Without the light of the Lord of the world everybody like the blind man passeth the pearls by.
It is said that Kamal, Kabir' s son, met a rich leper who was going in despair to drown himself in the Ganges. Kamal begged him to desist and promised to cure him. Kamal took up some Ganges water in the palm of his hand, breathed on it, repeated the name of God, and then threw the water on the leper. The latter was instantaneously cured. He rewarded Kamal with a large gift of money. In the following couplet Kabir censures his son for having accepted it : —
Kabir's family was ruined when his son Kamal was born ; Ceasing to remember God he brought home wealth.
Kabir, go to meet a holy man but take no one with thee ; x Do not go back ; go on, come what may.
Bind not thyself, O Kabir, with the rope 2 by which the world is bound ;
As salt is lost in flour, so shall this gold-like body dis appear.
Kabir, the soul shall fly away and the body be buried ; man knoweth not when his time shall come ; 3
Yet even now he will not let covetousness escape from his eyes.
KABIR'S SLOKS 297
Kabir, may I behold Thee, 0 God, with mine eyes, hear Thy name with mine ears,
Utter Thy name with my tongue, and put Thy lotus feet within my heart !
Kabir hath escaped from heaven and hell by the favour of the true guru ;
I bask for ever and ever l in the joy of God's lotus feet.
Kabir, say how can I guess the joy of God's lotus feet ;
Their beauty cannot be described ; it can only be realized when seen.
Kabir, even if I see them, to whom shall I describe them ? no one would be satisfied with my words ;
God is His own parallel ; I dwell in the delight of singing His praises.
Kabir, the kulang pecketh its food and at the same time remembereth its young ; it pecketh, and pecketh, and pecketh and remembereth its young ;
As its young are dear to the kulang, so is worldly love to the mind.
Kabir, the sky is overcast with clouds ; lakes and tanks are filled with rain-water ;
Yet what shall be the condition of those who choose to remain thirsty as the chatrik ? 2
Kabir, the sheldrake which at night is separated from her mate, meeteth him in the morning ;
But the man who is separated from God meeteth Him again neither in the morning nor in the evening.
Kabir, O shell, remain in the ocean ; if thou leave it, Thou shalt have to scream at sunrise at every temple.1
Kabir, what dost thou, O man, by sleeping ? arise and weep through fear of hell and its torments :
How can he whose dwelling is in the grave sleep in peace ? 2
CXXVIII
Kabir, what dost thou by sleeping ? why not arise and repeat God's name ?
One day thou shalt sleep stretched out at full length in the grave.
Kabir, what dost thou by sleeping ? awake, arise ; Attach thyself to Him from whom thou art separated.
Kabir, leave not the way of holy men, walk on their road ;
Purify thyself by the sight of them, and repeat God's name on meeting them.
Kabir, associate not with the infidel ; flee far away from him ;
If thou touch a black pot, some filth shall attach to thee.
Kabir, thou hast not thought of God, and old age hath come upon thee ;
When the door of thy house is on fire, what can be taken out and saved ?
KABIR'S SLOKS 299
CXXXIII
Kabir, the work which the Creator did was accomplished once for all.
There is no God but Him, the one Creator.
Kabir, when the fruit trees begin to bear fruit, and the mango beginneth to ripen,
The fruit reacheth its owner if meantime the crows * have not eaten it.
Kabir, men purchase and worship an idol, and obstinately go on pilgrimages ;
Like actors they imitate one another, but they only err and lose their way.
Kabir, men have turned a stone into God ; everybody worshippeth it ;
They who abide in this belief are drowned in the sable stream.
CXXXVI1
Kabir, books 2 form a prison, the doors of which are the writing thereon :
Stones 3 have drowned the world ; pandits have pillaged the road.
CXXXVIII
Kabir, do now the work of to-morrow ; and if thou do it now, do it at once ;
Nothing can be done hereafter when Death standeth over thy head.
Kabir, I have seen such and such a person polished like wax ; l
He appeareth quick and very virtuous, but he is without understanding and unholy.
Kabir, Death will not disgrace mine understanding 2
Since I have repeated the name of the Cherisher who created him.
Kabir, God is as musk ; all His saints are as the bumble bees around it :
The more Kabir's service, the more God dwelleth in his heart.
Kabir, man falleth into the clutches of family ; God is left in the background :
Dharmraj's myrmidons fall on man in the midst of his pomp.
Kabir, better than an infidel is a pig 3 which keepeth the village clean ;
When the poor infidel dieth, nobody will mention him.
Kabir, men have amassed hundreds of thousands and millions, kauri by kauri ;
But when departing they get nothing ; even their waist- cloths are taken from them.
Kabir, were one to be a follower of Vishnu and wear a beautiful 4 necklace, what would it avail him ?
KABIR'S SLOKS 301
He may be externally gold twelve times purified, but within he is only stuffed with wax.
Kabir, become the broken stones of the road ; lay aside thine intellectual pride ;
If such a servant there be, he shall meet God.
Kabir, but what would it avail to be the broken stones ? they would hurt the traveller's feet ;
CXLVIII
Kabir, but what would it avail to be dust which flieth and falleth on men's bodies ?
The servant of God ought to be like water which cleanseth all the limbs.2
Kabir, but what would it avail to be water ? it becometh cold or hot according to the season ;
Every servant of God ought to be perfect like God Himself.
Flags wave on the tops of lofty mansions full of gold and of vvomen —
Better than all are the bread of alms 3 and singing God's praises in the company of His saints.
Kabir, the wilderness where God is worshipped is better than a city ;
The place without the beloved God is in my opinion as the city of Death.
At the ferry of Sahajsun where the Ganges and the Jamna meet,1
Kabir hath built a hut where saints and men of God seek the way.
Kabir, were man to continue to the end loving God 2 as he was born,
Millions of precious stones, to say nothing of one poor diamond, would not be equal to him.
Kabir, I have seen a strange thing — a diamond was sold in a shop ;
In the absence of a purchaser who knew its worth, it went for a kauri.3
Kabir, where there is divine knowledge there is virtue ; where there is falsehood there is sin ;
Where there is covetousness there is death ; where there is forgiveness there is God Himself.
Kabir, what availeth it to abandon worldly love if pride be not also abandoned ?
Munis and their spiritual superiors perished by pride ; their pride ate them all up.
Kabir, a true guru met me and shot one word at me ; When it struck me I fell to the earth ; there was a hole made in my heart.
KABIR'S SLOKS 303
Kabir, what can the true guru do if his disciples be at fault ?
Not one word of his impresseth the spiritually blind : it is like blowing into a bamboo.
Kabir, the lady of a monarch who possesseth horses, elephants, and carriages in abundance,
Is not equal to the female water-carrier of a saint of God.
Q. O Kabir, why revilest thou the king's lady ? Why honourest thou God's handmaiden ?
A . The former parteth her hair with evil intentions ; the latter remembereth God's name.
Kabir, I propped myself up with God's name, and steadied myself ; the true guru gave me courage :
I purchased large diamonds on the bank of lake Man- sarowar.
Kabir, God is the diamond, God's servant the jeweller who hath taken the gem and set up a shop for it ;
As soon as an assayer is found, the price of the diamond shall be ascertained.
Kabir, as thou rememberest God when occasion requireth, so remember Him always ;
Make thine abode in the immortal city ; God will restore the wealth thou hast lost.
Kabir, for worship two beings are necessary, one the
saint, and the other God- God who bestoweth salvation, and the saint who causeth
us to repeat His name.
Kabir, crowds followed the pandits by the way they went ; The one road to God by which Kabir hath been ascending is difficult.
Kabir, man acteth out of regard for his family and thus dieth from worldly troubles ;
Who hath family pride when he is placed on the cremation- ground ?
Kabir, O wretched people, ye shall be ruined through your great regard for the opinion of others ;
Know that the fate of your neighbours shall also be yours.
CLXVIII
Kabir, good is the meal of alms made of different kinds l of corn ;
I have no claim on any one for it ; great is the country and great its government.2
Kabir, heart-burning ariseth from claims ; he who hath no claim is without anxiety ;
He who hath no claim deemeth Indar poor in comparison with himself.
Kabir, the lake is filled to the brim, yet few can drink the water ; 3
With great good fortune hast thou found it ; drink it in handfuls, Kabir.
KABIR'S SLOKS 305
Kabir, as the stars pass away in the morning, so doth this body pass away ;
But the two letters of God's name pass not away ; Kabir holdeth them fast.
Kabir, the house of wood is on fire on all sides ; l
The pandits perish in the fire while the illiterate escape.
CLXXIII
Kabir, dispel doubts, leave the books of the pandits ; Having searched the Sanskrit books fix thy thoughts on God's feet.
Kabir, saints abandon not their saintship, even though they meet millions who are not saints :
Even though sandal be entwined with serpents, it loseth not its coolness.2
Kabir, the mind becometh cool when it hath obtained the knowledge of God :
The fire which burneth the world is as water to God's servant.3
This world is the Creator's play ; hardly any one under- standeth this ;
The Master Himself or the slave at His court 4 under- standeth it.
CLXXVII
Kabir, it is well for me that I felt the fear of God and forgot all else :