Kabir

See: http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/kabir.html

What a wonderful lotus it is, that

blooms at the heart of the spinning

wheel of the universe! 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.

Kabir says: 'Dive thou into that

Ocean of sweetness: thus let all

errors of life and death flee away'.

KB1-01

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.

KB1-03

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.

Because he lives in solitude,

therefore the Yogi says that his home

is far away.

Your Lord is near:

yet you are climbing the palm tree

to seek Him.

The Brahman priest goes from house to house

and initiates people into faith:

Alas! the true fountain of life is beside you,

and you have set up a stone to worship.

Kabir says: "I may never express how sweet my Lord is.

Yoga and the telling of beads, virtue and vice -

these are naught to Him."

KB1-02

The Lord is in me, The Lord is in
   you, as life is in every seed. 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!

How blessed is Kabir, that amidst this
   great joy he sings within his own
   vessel.
It is the music of the meeting of soul
   with soul;
It is the music of the forgetting of
   sorrows;
It is the music that transcends all com-
   ing in and all going forth.
                                            KB1-04 

Kabir  ponders  and  says:      "He
    who has neither caste nor coun-
    try, who is formless and without
    quality, fills all space."

The Creator  brought into being the
    Game of Joy: and from the word
    Om the Creation sprang.

The earth is  His joy;  His joy is the
    sky;
His joy is the flashing of the sun and
    the moon;
His joy is the  beginning,  the middle
    and the end;
His joy is eyes,  darkness, and light.

Oceans and waves are His joy: His
    joy the Sarasvati, the Jumna, and
    the Ganges.

The Guru is One: and life and death,
    union and separation,  are  all His
    plays of joy!

His play the land and water, the whole
    universe.

His play the earth and sky!

In play is the Creation spread out, in
    play it  is  established.  The whole
    world,  says  Kabir,  rests  in  His
    play,  yet  still  the  Player remains
    unknown.
                                            KB1-05

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.

           KB1-06  

KB1 - Songs of Kabir

Rabindrath Tagore, trans.

Samuel Weiser

- 01 - p. 62

- 02 - p. 70

- 03 - p. 52

  - 04 -  p. 142

  - 05 -  p. 128

- 06 -  p. 106