II. 33. ghar ghar dîpak barai
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. [p. 71]
Your Lord is near: yet you are climbing the palm-tree to seek Him.
The Brâhman 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.
Kabîr says: “I may never express how sweet my Lord is. Yoga and the telling of beads, virtue and vice—these are naught to Him.”
II. 38. Sâdho, so satgur mohi bhâwai
O BROTHER, my heart yearns for that true Guru, who fills the cup of true love, and drinks of it himself, and offers it then to me.
He removes the veil from the eyes, and gives the true Vision of Brahma:
He reveals the worlds in Him, and [p. 72] makes me to hear the Unstruck Music:
He shows joy and sorrow to be one:
He fills all utterance with love.
Kabîr says: “Verily he has no fear, who has such a Guru to lead him to the shelter of safety!”
II. 40. tinwir sâñjh kâ gahirâ âwai
THE shadows of evening fall thick and deep, and the darkness of love envelops the body and the mind.
Open the window to the west, and be lost in the sky of love;
Drink the sweet honey that steeps the petals of the lotus of the heart.
Receive the waves in your body: what splendour is in the region of the sea!
Hark! the sounds of conches and bells are rising. [p. 73]
Kabîr says: “O brother, behold! the Lord is in this vessel of my body.”
II. 48. jis se rahani apâr jagat men
MORE than all else do I cherish at heart that love which makes me to live a limitless life in this world.
It is like the lotus, which lives in the water and blooms in the water: yet the water cannot touch its petals, they open beyond its reach.
It is like a wife, who enters the fire at the bidding of love. She burns and lets others grieve, yet never dishonours love.
This ocean of the world is hard to cross: its waters are very deep. Kabîr says: “Listen to me, O Sadhu! few there are who have reached its end.”
[p. 74]
II. 45. Hari ne apnâ âp chipâyâ
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!
II. 75. ônkâr siwae kôî sirjai
ALL things are created by the Om;
The love-form is His body.
He is without form, without quality, without decay:
Seek thou union with Him! [p. 75]
But that formless God takes a thousand forms in the eyes of His creatures:
He is pure and indestructible,
His form is infinite and fathomless,
He dances in rapture, and waves of form arise from His dance.
The body and the mind cannot contain themselves, when they are touched by His great joy.
He is immersed in all consciousness, all joys, and all sorrows;
He has no beginning and no end;
He holds all within His bliss.
II. 81. satgur sôî dayâ kar dînhâ
IT is the mercy of my true Guru that has made me to know the unknown;
I have learned from Him how to walk without feet, to see without eyes, to hear without ears, to drink [p. 76] without mouth, to fly without wings;
I have brought my love and my meditation into the land where there is no sun and moon, nor day and night.
Without eating, I have tasted of the sweetness of nectar; and without water, I have quenched my thirst.
Where there is the response of delight, there is the fullness of joy. Before whom can that joy be uttered?
Kabîr says: “The Guru is great beyond words, and great is the good fortune of the disciple.”
II. 85. nirgun âge sargun nâcai
BEFORE the Unconditioned, the Conditioned dances: “Thou and I are one!” this trumpet proclaims. [p. 77]
The Guru comes, and bows down before the disciple:
This is the greatest of wonders.
II. 87. Kabîr kab se bhaye vairâgî
GORAKHNATH asks Kabîr:
“Tell me, O Kabîr, when did your vocation begin? Where did your love have its rise?”
Kabîr answers:
“When He whose forms are manifold had not begun His play: when there was no Guru, and no disciple: when the world was not spread out: when the Supreme One was alone—
Then I became an ascetic; then, O Gorakh, my love was drawn to Brahma.
Brahma did not hold the crown on his head; the god Vishnu was not [p. 78] anointed as king; the power of Shiva was still unborn; when I was instructed in Yoga.
I became suddenly revealed in Benares, and Râmânanda illumined me;
I brought with me the thirst for the Infinite, and I have come for the meeting with Him.
In simplicity will I unite with the Simple One; my love will surge up.
O Gorakh, march thou with His music!”
II. 95. yâ tarvar men ek pakherû
ON this tree is a bird: it dances in the joy of life.
None knows where it is: and who knows what the burden of its music may be?
Where the branches throw a deep [p. 79] shade, there does it have its nest: and it comes in the evening and flies away in the morning, and says not a word of that which it means.
None tell me of this bird that sings within me.
It is neither coloured nor colourless: it has neither form nor outline:
It sits in the shadow of love.
It dwells within the Unattainable, the Infinite, and the Eternal; and no one marks when it comes and goes.
Kabîr says: “O brother Sadhu! deep is the mystery. Let wise men seek to know where rests that bird.”