From The Songs of Kabīr (15th century)
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
I. O servant, where dost thou seek Me? Lo! I am beside thee. I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash: Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation. If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time. Kabīr says, “O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath.”
III. O friend! hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live, understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides. If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliverance in death? It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with Him because it has passed from the body: If He is found now, He is found then, if not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death. If you have union now, you shall have it hereafter. Bathe in the truth, know the true Master, have faith in the true Name! Kabīr says: “It is the Spirit of the quest which helps; I am the slave of this Spirit of the quest.”
IV. Do not go to the garden of flowers! O Friend! go not there; in your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.
VI. The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; but my deaf ears cannot hear it. So long as man clamours for the I and the Mine, his works are as naught: when all love of the I and the Mine is dead, then the work of the Lord is done. For work has no other aim than the getting of knowledge: When that comes, then work is put away. The flower blooms for the fruit: when the fruit comes, the flower withers.
VII. When He Himself reveals Himself, God brings into manifestation that which can never be seen. As the seed is in the plant, as the shade is in the tree, as the void is in the sky, as infinite forms are in the void – so from beyond the Infinite, the Infinite comes; and from the Infinite the finite extends. The creature is in God, and God is in the creature: they are ever distinct, yet ever united. He Himself is the manifold form, the infinite space; He is the breath, the word, and the meaning. He Himself is the limit and the limitless: and beyond both the limited and the limitless is He, the Pure Being.
IX. O how may I ever express that secret word? O how can I say He is not like this, and He is like that? If I say that He is within me, the universe is ashamed: if I say that He is without me, it is falsehood. He makes the inner and the outer worlds to be indivisibly one; the conscious and the unconscious, both are His footstools. He is neither manifest nor hidden, He is neither revealed nor unrevealed: There are no words to tell that which He is.
XI. My heart must cleave to my Lover; I must withdraw my veil, and meet Him with all my body: Mine eyes must perform the ceremony of the lamps of love. Kabīr says: “Listen to me, friend: he understands who loves. If you feel not love’s longing for your Beloved One, it is vain to adorn your body, vain to put unguent on your eyelids.”
XII. Tell me, O Swan, your ancient tale. From what land do you come, O Swan? to what shore will you fly? Where would you take your rest, O Swan, and what do you seek? Even this morning, O Swan, awake, arise, follow me! There is a land where no doubt nor sorrow have rule: where the terror of Death is no more. There the woods of spring are abloom, and the fragrant scent “He is I” is borne on the wind: there the bee of the heart is deeply immersed, and desires no other joy.
XIII. O Lord Increate, who will serve Thee? Every votary offers his worship to the God of his own creation: each day he receives service – none seek Him, the Perfect: God, the Indivisible Lord.
XVII.i The devout seeker is he who mingles in his heart the double currents of love and detachment, like the mingling of the streams of Ganges and Jumna; In his heart the sacred water flows day and night; and thus the round of births and deaths is brought to an end. Behold what wonderful rest is in the Supreme Spirit! and he enjoys it, who makes himself meet for it. Held by the cords of love, the swing of the Ocean of Joy sways to and fro; and a mighty sound breaks forth in song. Only a few pure souls know of its true delight. Music is all around it, and there the heart partakes of the joy of the Infinite Sea. Kabīr says: “Dive thou into that Ocean of sweetness: thus let all errors of life and of death flee away.”
XVII.ii They have sung of Him as infinite and unattainable: but I in my meditations have seen Him without sight. That is indeed the sorrowless land, and none know the path that leads there: Only he who is on that path has surely transcended all sorrow. Wonderful is that land of rest, to which no merit can win; it is the wise who has seen it, it is the wise who has sung of it. This is the Ultimate Word: but can any express its marvellous savour? He who has savoured it once, he knows what joy it can give.
XIX. O my heart! the Supreme Spirit, the great Master, is near you: wake, oh wake! Run to the feet of your Beloved: for your Lord stands near to your head. You have slept for unnumbered ages; this morning will you not wake?
XX. To what shore would you cross, O my heart? there is no traveller before you, there is no road: Where is the movement, where is the rest, on that shore? There is no water; no boat, no boatman, is there; there is not so much as a rope to tow the boat, nor a man to draw it. No earth, no sky, no time, no thing, is there: no shore, no ford! There, there is neither body nor mind: and where is the place that shall still the thirst of the soul? You shall find naught in that emptiness. Be strong, and enter into your own body: for there your foothold is firm. Consider it well, O my heart! go not elsewhere, Kabīr says: “Put all imaginations away, and stand fast in that which you are.”
XXI. Lamps burn in every house, O blind one! and you cannot see them. One day your eyes shall suddenly be opened, and you shall see: and the fetters of death will fall from you. There is nothing to say or to hear, there is nothing to do: it is he who is living, yet dead, who shall never die again.
XXV. My Lord hides Himself, and my Lord wonderfully reveals Himself: my Lord has encompassed me with hardness, and my Lord has cast down my limitations. My Lord brings to me words of sorrow and words of joy, and He Himself heals their strife. I will offer my body and mind to my Lord: I will give up my life, but never can I forget my Lord!
XXXII. Dance, my heart! dance today with joy. The strains of love fill the days and the nights with music, and the world is listening to its melodies: Mad with joy, life and death dance to the rhythm of this music. The hills and the sea and the earth dance. The world of man dances in laughter and tears. Why put on the robe of the monk, and live aloof from the world in lonely pride? Behold! my heart dances in the delight of a hundred arts; and the Creator is well pleased.
XXXIX. O friend! this body is His lyre; He tightens its strings, and draws from it the melody of God. If the strings snap and the keys slacken, then to dust must this instrument of dust return: Kabīr says: “None but God can evoke its melodies.”
XL.i He is dear to me indeed who can call back the wanderer to his home. In the home is the true union, in the home is enjoyment of life: why should I forsake my home and wander in the forest? If God helps me to realize truth, verily I will find both bondage and deliverance in home.
XL.ii He is dear to me indeed who has power to dive deep into God; whose mind loses itself with ease in His contemplation. He is dear to me who knows God, and can dwell on His supreme truth in meditation; and who can play the melody of the Infinite by uniting love and renunciation in life. Kabīr says: “The home is the abiding place; in the home is reality; the home helps to attain Him Who is real. So stay where you are, and all things shall come to you in time.”
XLI. O Sadhu! the simple union is the best. Since the day when I met with my Lord, there has been no end to the sport of our love. I shut not my eyes, I close not my ears, I do not mortify my body; I see with eyes open and smile, and behold His beauty everywhere: I utter His Name, and whatever I see, it reminds me of Him; whatever I do, it becomes His worship.
XLII. There is nothing but water at the holy bathing places; and I know that they are useless, for I have bathed in them. The images are all lifeless, they cannot speak; I know, for I have cried aloud to them. The Purana and the Koran are mere words; lifting up the curtain, I have seen. Kabīr gives utterance to the words of experience; and he knows very well that all other things are untrue.
XLIII. I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty: You do not see that the Real is in your home, and you wander from forest to forest listlessly! Here is the truth! Go where you will, to Benares or Mathura; if you do not find your soul, the world is unreal to you.
XLVII. There is a strange tree, which stands without roots and bears fruits without blossoming; it has no branches and no leaves, it is lotus all over. Two birds sing there; one is the Master, and the other the disciple: the disciple chooses the manifold fruits of life and tastes them, and the Master beholds him in joy. What Kabīr says is hard to understand: “The bird is beyond seeking, yet it is most clearly visible. The Formless is in the midst of all forms. I sing the glory of forms.”
XLVIII. I have stilled my restless mind, and my heart is radiant: for in Thatness I have seen beyond That-ness. In company I have seen the Companion Himself. Living in bondage, I have set myself free: I have broken away from the clutch of all narrowness. Kabīr says: “I have attained the unattainable, and my heart is coloured with the colour of love.”
XLIX. That which you see is not: and for that which is, you have no words. Unless you see, you believe not: what you are told you cannot accept. He who is discerning knows by the word; and the ignorant stands gaping. Some contemplate the Formless, and others meditate on form: but the wise man knows that God is beyond both. That beauty of His is not seen of the eye: that metre of His is not heard of the ear. Kabīr says: “He who has found both love and renunciation never descends to death.”
L. The flute of the Infinite is played without ceasing, and its sound is love: when love renounces all limits, it reaches truth. How widely the fragrance spreads! It has no end, nothing stands in its way. The form of this melody is bright like a million suns: incomparably sounds the vina, the vina of the notes of truth.
LI. Dear friend, I am eager to meet my Beloved! My youth has flowered, and the pain of separation from Him troubles my breast. I am wandering yet in the alleys of knowledge without purpose, but I have received His news in these alleys of knowledge. I have a letter from my Beloved: in this letter is an unutterable message, and now my fear of death is done away. Kabīr says: “O my loving friend! I have got for my gift the Deathless One.”
LIV. Have you not heard the tune which the Unstruck Music is playing? In the midst of the chamber the harp of joy is gently and sweetly played; and where is the need of going without to hear it? If you have not drunk of the nectar of that One Love, what boots it though you should purge yourself of all stains? The Qadi is searching the words of the Koran, and instructing others: but if his heart be not steeped in that love, what does it avail, though he be a teacher of men? The Yogi dyes his garments with red: but if he knows naught of that colour of love, what does it avail though his garments be tinted? Kabīr says: “Whether I be in the temple or the balcony, in the camp or in the flower garden, I tell you truly that every moment my Lord is taking His delight in me.”
LV. Subtle is the path of love! Therein there is no asking and no not-asking, there one loses one’s self at His feet, there one is immersed in the joy of the seeking: plunged in the deeps of love as the fish in the water. The lover is never slow in offering his head for his Lord’s service. Kabīr declares the secret of this love.
LVI. He is the real Sadhu, who can reveal the form of the Formless to the vision of these eyes: who teaches the simple way of attaining Him, that is other than rites or ceremonies: who does not make you close the doors, and hold the breath, and renounce the world: who makes you perceive the Supreme Spirit wherever the mind attaches itself: who teaches you to be still in the midst of all your activities. Ever immersed in bliss, having no fear in his mind, he keeps the spirit of union in the midst of all enjoyments. The infinite dwelling of the Infinite Being is everywhere: in earth, water, sky, and air: firm as the thunderbolt, the seat of the seeker is established above the void. He who is within is without: I see Him and none else.
LIX. O man, if thou dost not know thine own Lord, whereof art thou so proud? Put thy cleverness away: mere words shall never unite thee to Him. Do not deceive thyself with the witness of the Scriptures: Love is something other than this, and he who has sought it truly has found it.
LXI. When at last you are come to the ocean of happiness, do not go back thirsty. Wake, foolish man! for Death stalks you. Here is pure water before you; drink it at every breath. Kabīr says: “Listen to me, brother! The nest of fear is broken. Not for a moment have you come face to face with the world: you are weaving your bondage of falsehood, your words are full of deception: with the load of desires which you hold on your head, how can you be light?” Kabīr says: “Keep within you truth, detachment, and love.”
LXIII. Why so impatient, my heart? He who watches over birds, beasts, and insects, He who cared for you whilst you were yet in your mother’s womb, shall He not care for you now that you are come forth? Oh my heart, how could you turn from the smile of your Lord and wander so far from Him? You have left Your Beloved and are thinking of others: and this is why all your work is in vain.
LXV. It is not the austerities that mortify the flesh which are pleasing to the Lord; when you leave off your clothes and kill your senses, you do not please the Lord: the man who is kind and who practises righteousness, who remains passive amidst the affairs of the world, who considers all creatures on earth as his own self, He attains the Immortal Being, the true God is ever with him. Kabīr says: “He attains the true Name whose words are pure, and who is free from pride and conceit.”
LXVI. The Yogi dyes his garments, instead of dyeing his mind in the colours of love: He sits within the temple of the Lord, leaving God to worship a stone. He pierces holes in his ears, he has a great beard and matted locks, he looks like a goat: He goes forth into the wilderness, killing all his desires, and turns himself into an eunuch: He shaves his head and dyes his garments; he reads the Gita and becomes a mighty talker. Kabīr says: “You are going to the doors of death, bound hand and foot!”
LXVII. I do not know what manner of God is mine. The Mullah cries aloud to Him: and why? Is your Lord deaf? The subtle anklets that ring on the feet of an insect when it moves are heard of Him. Tell your beads, paint your forehead with the mark of your God, and wear matted locks long and showy: but a deadly weapon is in your heart, and how shall you have God?
LXVIII. I hear the melody of His flute, and I cannot contain myself: the flower blooms, though it is not spring; and already the bee has received its invitation. The sky roars and the lightning flashes, the waves arise in my heart, the rain falls; and my heart longs for my Lord. Where the rhythm of the world rises and falls, thither my heart has reached: there the hidden banners are fluttering in the air. Kabīr says: “My heart is dying, though it lives.”
LXIX. If God be within the mosque, then to whom does this world belong? If Ram be within the image which you find upon your pilgrimage, then who is there to know what happens without? Hari is in the East: Allah is in the West. Look within your heart, for there you will find both Karim and Ram; All the men and women of the world are His living forms. Kabīr is the child of Allah and of Ram: He is my Master, He is my Pir.
LXX. He who is meek and contented, he who has an equal vision, whose mind is filled with the fullness of acceptance and of rest; He who has seen Him and touched Him, he is freed from all fear and trouble. To him the perpetual thought of God is like sandal paste smeared on the body, to him nothing else is delight: His work and his rest are filled with music: he sheds abroad the radiance of love. Kabīr says: “Touch His feet, who is one and indivisible, immutable and peaceful; who fills all vessels to the brim with joy, and whose form is love.”
LXXI. Go thou to the company of the good, where the Beloved One has His dwelling place: take all thy thoughts and love and instruction from thence. Let that assembly be burnt to ashes where His Name is not spoken! Tell me, how couldst thou hold a wedding-feast, if the bridegroom himself were not there? Waver no more, think only of the Beloved; Set not thy heart on the worship of other gods, there is no worth in the worship of other masters. Kabīr deliberates and says: “Thus thou shalt never find the Beloved!”
LXXII. The jewel is lost in the mud, and all are seeking for it; some look for it in the east, and some in the west; some in the water and some amongst stones. But the servant Kabīr has appraised it at its true value, and has wrapped it with care in the end of the mantle of his heart.
LXXIV. O my heart! you have not known all the secrets of this city of love: in ignorance you came, and in ignorance you return. O my friend, what have you done with this life? You have taken on your head the burden heavy with stones, and who is to lighten it for you? Your Friend stands on the other shore, but you never think in your mind how you may meet with Him: the boat is broken, and yet you sit ever upon the bank; and thus you are beaten to no purpose by the waves. The servant Kabīr asks you to consider; who is there that shall befriend you at the last? You are alone, you have no companion: you will suffer the consequences of your own deeds.
LXXVI.i Open your eyes of love, and see Him who pervades this world I consider it well, and know that this is your own country. When you meet the true Master, He will awaken your heart; He will tell you the secret of love and detachment, and then you will know indeed that He transcends this universe. This world is the City of Truth, its maze of paths enchants the heart: we can reach the goal without crossing the road, such is the sport unending. Where the ring of manifold joys ever dances about Him, there is the sport of Eternal Bliss. When we know this, then all our receiving and renouncing is over; thenceforth the heat of having shall never scorch us more.
LXXVI.ii He is the Ultimate Rest unbounded: He has spread His form of love throughout all the world. From that Ray which is Truth, streams of new forms are perpetually springing: and He pervades those forms. All the gardens and groves and bowers are abounding with blossom; and the air breaks forth into ripples of joy. There the swan plays a wonderful game, there the Unstruck Music eddies around the Infinite One; there in the midst the Throne of the Unheld is shining, whereon the great Being sits – millions of suns are shamed by the radiance of a single hair of His body.
LXXVI.iii On the harp of the road what true melodies are being sounded! its notes pierce the heart: there the Eternal Fountain is playing its endless life-streams of birth and death. They call Him Emptiness who is the Truth of truths, in Whom all truths are stored! There within Him creation goes forward, which is beyond all philosophy; for philosophy cannot attain to Him: there is an endless world, O my Brother! and there is the Nameless Being, of whom naught can be said. Only he knows it who has reached that region: it is other than all that is heard and said. No form, no body, no length, no breadth is seen there: how can I tell you that which it is? He comes to the Path of the Infinite on whom the grace of the Lord descends: he is freed from births and deaths who attains to Him. Kabīr says: “It cannot be told by the words of the mouth, it cannot be written on paper: it is like a dumb person who tastes a sweet thing – how shall it be ex-plained?”
LXXVII. O my heart! let us go to that country where dwells the Beloved, the ravisher of my heart! There Love is filling her pitcher from the well, yet she has no rope wherewith to draw water; there the clouds do not cover the sky, yet the rain falls down in gentle showers: O bodiless one! do not sit on your doorstep; go forth and bathe yourself in that rain! There it is ever moonlight and never dark; and who speaks of one sun only? that land is illuminate with the rays of a million suns.
LXXVIII. Kabīr says: “O Sadhu! hear my deathless words. If you want your own good, examine and consider them well. You have estranged yourself from the Creator, of whom you have sprung: you have lost your reason, you have bought death. All doctrines and all teachings are sprung from Him, from Him they grow: know this for certain, and have no fear. Hear from me the tidings of this great truth! Whose name do you sing, and on whom do you meditate? O, come forth from this entanglement! He dwells at the heart of all things, so why take refuge in empty desolation? If you place the Master at a distance from you, then it is but the distance that you honour: If indeed the Master be far away, then who is it else that is creating this world? When you think that He is not here, then you wander further and further away, and seek Him in vain with tears. Where He is far off, there He is unattainable: where He is near, He is very bliss. Kabīr says: “Lest His servant should suffer pain He pervades him through and through.” Know yourself then, O Kabīr; for He is in you from head to foot. Sing with gladness, and keep your seat unmoved within your heart.
LXXIX. I am neither pious nor ungodly, I live neither by law nor by sense, I am neither a speaker nor hearer, I am neither a servant nor master, I am neither bond nor free, I am neither detached nor attached. I am far from none: I am near to none. I shall go neither to hell nor to heaven. I do all works; yet I am apart from all works. Few comprehend my meaning: he who can comprehend it, he sits unmoved. Kabīr seeks neither to establish nor to destroy.
LXXX. The true Name is like none other name! The distinction of the Conditioned from the Unconditioned is but a word: The Unconditioned is the seed, the Conditioned is the flower and the fruit. Knowledge is the branch, and the Name is the root. Look, and see where the root is: happiness shall be yours when you come to the root. The root will lead you to the branch, the leaf, the flower, and the fruit: It is the encounter with the Lord, it is the attainment of bliss, it is the reconciliation of the Conditioned and the Unconditioned.
LXXXIII. The harp gives forth murmurous music; and the dance goes on without hands and feet. It is played without fingers, it is heard without ears: for He is the ear, and He is the listener. The gate is locked, but within there is fragrance: and there the meeting is seen of none. The wise shall understand it.
LXXXV. My heart cries aloud for the house of my lover; the open road and the shelter of a roof are all one to her who has lost the city of her husband. My heart finds no joy in anything: my mind and my body are distraught. His palace has a million gates, but there is a vast ocean between it and me: How shall I cross it, O friend? for endless is the outstretching of the path. How wondrously this lyre is wrought! When its strings are rightly strung, it maddens the heart: but when the keys are broken and the strings are loosened, none regard it more.
LXXXVI. Serve your God, who has come into this temple of life! Do not act the part of a madman, for the night is thickening fast. He has awaited me for countless ages, for love of me He has lost His heart: yet I did not know the bliss that was so near to me, for my love was not yet awake. But now, my Lover has made known to me the meaning of the note that struck my ear: now, my good fortune is come. Kabīr says: “Behold! how great is my good fortune! I have received the unending caress of my Beloved!”
LXXXVIII. This day is dear to me above all other days, for today the Beloved Lord is a guest in my house; my chamber and my courtyard are beautiful with His presence. My longings sing His Name, and they are become lost in His great beauty: I wash His feet, and I look upon His Face; and I lay before Him as an offering my body, my mind, and all that I have. What a day of gladness is that day in which my Beloved, who is my treasure, comes to my house! All evils fly from my heart when I see my Lord. “My love has touched Him; my heart is longing for the Name which is Truth.” Thus sings Kabīr, the servant of all servants.
LXXXIX. Is there any wise man who will listen to that solemn music which arises in the sky? For He, the Source of all music, makes all vessels full fraught, and rests in fullness Himself. He who is in the body is ever athirst, for he pursues that which is in part: but ever there wells forth deeper and deeper the sound “He is this – this is He”; fusing love and renunciation into one. Kabīr says: “O brother! that is the Primal Word.”
XC. To whom shall I go to learn about my Beloved? Kabīr says: “As you never may find the forest if you ignore the tree, so He may never be found in abstractions.”
XCI. I have learned the Sanskrit language, so let all men call me wise: but where is the use of this, when I am floating adrift, and parched with thirst, and burning with the heat of desire? To no purpose do you bear on your head this load of pride and vanity. Kabīr says: “Lay it down in the dust, and go forth to meet the Beloved. Address Him as your Lord.”
XCII. The woman who is parted from her lover spins at the spinning wheel. The city of the body arises in its beauty; and within it the palace of the mind has been built. The wheel of love revolves in the sky, and the seat is made of the jewels of knowledge: what subtle threads the woman weaves, and makes them fine with love and reverence! Kabīr says: “I am weaving the garland of day and night. When my Lover comes and touches me with His feet, I shall offer Him my tears.”
XCIII. Beneath the great umbrella of my King millions of suns and moons and stars are shining! He is the Mind within my mind: He is the Eye within mine eye. Ah, could my mind and eyes be one! Could my love but reach to my Lover! Could but the fiery heat of my heart be cooled! Kabīr says: “When you unite love with the Lover, then you have love’s perfection.”
XCIV. O Sadhu! my land is a sorrowless land. I cry aloud to all, to the king and the beggar, the emperor and the fakir – Whosoever seeks for shelter in the Highest, let all come and settle in my land! Let the weary come and lay his burdens here! So live here, my brother, that you may cross with ease to that other shore. It is a land without earth or sky, without moon or stars; for only the radiance of Truth shines in my Lord’s Durbar. Kabīr says: “O beloved brother! naught is essential save Truth.”
XCVII. O servant! put false pride away, and seek for Him within you. A million suns are ablaze with light, the sea of blue spreads in the sky, the fever of life is stilled, and all stains are washed away; when I sit in the midst of that world. Hark to the unstruck bells and drums! Take your delight in love! Rains pour down without water, and the rivers are streams of light. One Love it is that pervades the whole world, few there are who know it fully: they are blind who hope to see it by the light of reason, that reason which is the cause of separation – the House of Reason is very far away!
XCIX. Where they sing His praise, there I live; when He moves, I walk before Him: my heart yearns for my Beloved. The infinite pilgrimage lies at His feet, a million devotees are seated there. Kabīr says: “The Lover Himself reveals the glory of true love.”
First published in 1915
