Kabir - Four Poems
1. Poem
O Brother! when I was forgetful, my true Guru showed me the Way.
Then I left off all rites and ceremonies, I bathed no more in the holy water:
Then I learned that it was alone I who was mad, and the whole world beside me was sane; and I had disturbed these wise people.
From that time forth I knew no more how to roll in the dust in obeisance:
I do not ring the temple bell:
I do not set the idol on its throne:
I do not worship the image with flowers.
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 Immortal Being, the true God is ever with him.
Kabir says: “He attains the true Name who’s words are pure, and who is free from pride and conceit.”
2. Poem
O Man, if thou dost not know thine own Lord, whereof art thou so proud?
Put the 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.
3. Poem
Between the poles of the conscious and the unconscious, there has the mind made a swing:
Thereon hang all beings and all worlds, and that swing never ceases its sway.
Millions of beings are there: the sun and the moon in there courses are there:
Millions of ages pass, and the swing goes on.
All swing! the sky and the earth and the air and the water; and the Lord Himself taking form:
And the sight of this has made Kabir a servant.
4. Poem
Your Lord is within you,
Like fragrance in the flowers.
Why, like a musk deer
Are you searching for musk
in the grass
again and again?
Kabir was born in 1440, according to himself "at once the child of Allah and Ram". From "Poems of Kabir" translated by Rabindranath Tagore.
Kabir was a well-known Nada Yogi, and he is included in the article on Nada Yoga.
One poem is marked by an anchor, the other comes later in the article, please find it yourself, after clicking on the link.