 Section 14 of the Sick Religion, Sacred Writings and Authors, Volume 6 by Max Arthur McAuliffe. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Section 14, Kabir's Hymns, Part 1. Sri Ra, without God's assistance, men are lost in worldly love. Section 1, the mother thinketh that her son is growing big, but this she thinketh not, that day by day his life is decreasing. She calleth him her own and fondeth him excessively, while the God of death looketh on and laugheth. So much hast thou, O God, eluded the world. How can it ever know thee, since mammon hath bewitched it? Sayeth Kabir, abandon the pleasure of sin, for in such companionship thou mustest surely die. O mortal, repeat the name of the Lord, put aside mention of others, so shalt thou pass over the terrible ocean of this world. If it please God, man feeleth divine love, the era of superstition departed from within him. Divine knowledge is spontaneously produced, intelligence awakened, and by the favor of the Guru the heart is touched by God's love. In such companionship there is no death, obey the Master's order, and thou shalt meet him. The following was addressed to a yogi who offered wine to Kabir. Two. Here a wonderful thing, O Pandit, I cannot now describe Maya, who hath bewitched demigods, men, celestial heralds and musicians, and girdled the three worlds. The sovereign God's lyre playeth without being struck, and he on whom he looketh with favor loveth its sound. I have made my brain a furnace, the breath of my left and right nostrils, two stills in my heart, the golden vat, into which a very pure stream hath trickled. I have distilled the sweetest essence, and what is without parallel, I have made suspension of my breath my wine cup. Say, is there any yogi in the three worlds who would be satisfied, and not long for more? Such knowledge of the Supreme Being hath manifested itself, saith Kabir, I am imbued with it. All the rest of the world is led astray in error, but my mind is intoxicated with God's illix, sir. Gauri, devotion is the water which has quenched Kabir's burning thirst for God. One, I have been on fire, and have now found the name of God as water to extinguish it. The name of God is the water which hath cooled my burning body. Men go to the forest to chase in their hearts, but without God they cannot find such water as will do so. The water of God's name hath saved his burning slave from the fire which hath consumed demigods and men. In the terrible ocean there is an opition of happiness. I continue to drink, but the water is not exhausted. Say, if Kabir worship God, God's name is the water which hath extinguished my thirst. Yet Kabir's thirst for God increases. Two, O God, thirst for the water of thy name departeth not from thee, nay for that water my ardor rageeth the more. Thou art the ocean, I am a fish therein. I dwell in the water, I perish without it. Thou art the cage, I am thy parrot. What can the cat death do to me? Thou art a tree, I am the bird thereon. Unfortunate is he who seeeth thee not. Thou art the true guru, I am thy novice. Sayeth Kabir, meet me, O God, at the last moment. A thief, when hotly pressed, sought refuge in Kabir's house. It would have been foreign to Kabir's character to review shelter to anyone who sought it. Moreover, he did not know the character of his guest, and accordingly gave him the usual permission to remain in his house. It happened that Kabir's daughter was then on a visit to him, and when he entertained the thief at the same time, the circumstance led to much unfavorable comment. Kabir addressed the following him to his detractors. Three, since I have recognized both the thief and my son-in-law as one, why are people distressed at it? If I am dishonored and have lost my honor, let no one follow in my footsteps. If I am bad, the badness is confined to myself. I have no partnership or connection with any of you. You know nothing about honor or dishonor, but you shall know when your gilding is laid bare. Save Kabir, that is honor which is acceptable to God, forsaking all else, worship only him. A satire on the ritualistic practices of the Hindus. Four, if union with God be obtained by going about naked, all the deer of the forest shall be saved. What mattereth it whether a man goeth naked or weareth a deer skin, if he recognized not God in his heart? If perfection be obtained by shaving the head, why should not sheep obtain salvation? If, O brethren, the continent man is saved, why should not a eunuch obtain the supreme reward? Save Kabir here, O my brethren, who hath obtained salvation without God's name? Five, they who bathe in the evening and in the morning are like frogs in the water. When men have no love for God's name, they shall all go to the God of death. They who love their persons and deck themselves out in various guises feel not mercy even in their dreams. Many leading religious men call them quadrupeds and say that only holy men shall obtain happiness in this ocean of trouble. Save Kabir, why perform so many ceremonies forsaking all other essences quaff the great essence of God's name? God prefers before all temples the upright, heart and pure. Six, what availeth devotion, what penance, what fasting and worship to him and whose heart there is worldly love? O man, apply thy heart to God. Thou shalt not obtain him by artifice. Put away covetousness and the example of others, lay aside lust, wrath and pride. By the religious practices of the superstitious boasting is increased. They join together and worship a stone. Save Kabir by devotion, I have obtained the Lord. By becoming simple in heart, I have met God. The name Brahman should only be applied to a holy man. Seven, while dwelling in the womb, man hath not family or caste. All men have sprung from the seed of Brahman. Say, O pundit, since when hast thou been a Brahman? Ways not thy life in calling thyself a Brahman? If thou art a Brahman born of a Brahmani mother, why hast thou not come by some of the way? How art thou a Brahman? How am I a suitor? How am I of blood and you of milk? Save Kabir, only he who meditated on God is a Brahman in my estimation. All are men condemned alike to grung. Eight, man can never sleep comfortably in spiritual ignorance. The rich and the poor both weep alike. When man's tongue no longer uttereth God's name, he shall continue to bewail birth and death. When life departed, say, whose shall be man's wealth, which appeareth like the shadow of a tree? As the life of a musical instrument is contained in itself, how can anyone know the secrets of the dead? As the swan presides over the lake, so death, death over the body, drink God's elixir, O Kabir. Without purification of the heart, pilgrimages are of no avail. Nine, the Lord of Light having created the races of men infused light into them, which sometimes produces glass ornaments and sometimes pearls. What abode is that which is called secure, where fear is dispelled and one abideth without fear? The heart is not satisfied with pilgrimages through the banks of sacred streams. Man remaineth entangled with good and bad acts. Demerits and merits are both the same. My own heart is God, the philosopher's stone, abandon the hope of obtaining merits from anyone else. O Kabir, chide not the name of him who is without qualities. Enjoy thyself and intercourse with that Lord. Kabir desires not heaven but absorption in God. Ten, the men who have no correct notion of the Supreme Being think of entering heaven by mere words. I know not where heaven is, everybody saith he longeth to go there, but there is no satisfaction in such conversation. The heart is only satisfied when pride departed. As long as man desireeth to go to heaven, so long shall he find no dwelling at God's feet. Saith Kabir, to whom shall I tell this, that heaven is in the company of the saints. The body is perishable. Eleven, man is born and groweth up, and when he hath grown up he died. We see that the world passeth away in this wise. Die as thou not of shame, talking of thy house. At the last moment nothing is thine, with great efforts the body is cherished. But after death it is burned in the fire. The limbs to which thou applyest ground, aloe, wood, sandal, and fragrant soap shall all be burned with wood. Saith Kabir, hear me, O virtuous man, while the whole world looketh on, thy body shall be consumed. Since all must die, why mourn? There is no death for the holy twelve. When another dieeth, why mournest thou? Do so if thou art to live thyself. I shall not die like the rest of the world. I have now met him who reanimated. The body is perfumed with sandal. In such pleasures primal joy is forgotten. There is one well and five water carriers. Even when the well rope is broken, the silly beings still draw water. Saith Kabir, I have gained one piece of wisdom by reflection. There is no more a well or water carriers for me. Kabir's transmigration. Thirteen, I was in immobile and mobile creatures, in worms and in moths. I passed through many births of various kinds. In this way I occupied many bodies. But when, O God, I assumed human birth, I was a yogi, a yati, a penitent, a brah, a makari, sometimes a king, an emperor, and sometimes a beggar. The apostates shall die, but the saints shall all live and drink the elixir of God with their tongues. Saith Kabir, O God, have mercy on us. We have grown weary. Make us now whole. Deadly sins veiled under allegories. Fourteen. Kabir hath beheld such wonderful things. Water churned by mistake for cream, a donkey grazing on a green crop, a hedgehog rising every morning, killeth itself laughing, and brain. A mad buffalo which could not be guided, gambling as it grazed and falling into hell. A sheep ever sucking its lamb's milk. Saith Kabir, such sport hath been shown. By repeating God's name my understanding hath become enlightened. Saith Kabir, I have obtained understanding from the Guru. Him number fifteen is in Kabir's life. The body is false. God alone is true. Sixteen. The limbs anointed with ground, aloe, wood, sandal, and fragrant soap shall be burnt with wood. What is there to be proud of in this body and in wealth? Both shall remain on earth and not go with the soul to the other world. They who sleep at night and work by day, who utter not God's name for a moment, who eat butel and stretch out their hands for more, shall at the hour of death be firmly bound as thieves. In the Guru's instruction thou joyfully sing the praises of God, and utter the name of him who filleth all creation, thou shalt be happy. He in whose heart God mercifully established his name, giveth the odor and perfume of God a place in his heart. Saith Kabir, think, O blind man, God is true. All worldly occupations are false. The blissful peace of the holy. Seventeen. Instead of death it is God who hath come for me. So hath been removed, and I have found a refuge in happiness. Mine enemies have turned into friends. The minds of the infidels have altered and become well-disposed towards me. I have now obtained all comfort, and peace have come over me since I have known God. My body suffered millions of ills. They have now been converted into permanent happiness and composure. When man knoweth himself, he shall not suffer from illness or the three fevers. My mind hath now returned to the eternal. When in life I was dead, it was then I knew God. Save Kabir, I have now entered happiness and rest. I have no fear myself, and I am inspired no fear in others. It is said that Krishan Das Baragi asked Kabir, 18. When the body died to what abode shall the pious man's soul go, Kabir, it shall unite with him who is beyond expression and indestructible. He who knoweth God understandeth this. As the dumb man when pleased with sugar must keep his pleasure to himself, such divine knowledge only got himself expounded. O man, arrest thy breath at the juncture of the nostrils. A point such a guru is shall render another unnecessary. Other such a word is shall render another unnecessary. Embrace such divine knowledge as shall render any more unnecessary. So die that thou shalt not have to die again. Arrest the Ganges and unite it with the Yamna. And think that thou art bathing without water at their confluence, be it thy duty to look on all men as equal, reflect upon the real thing. What else is there to reflect on? Water, fire, wind, earth, and the firmament. If thou abide like these thou shalt be near God. Stayeth Kabir, meditate on the stainless one, and go to that place whence there shall be no returning. How Kabir found God? Nineteen, God cannot be obtained even by offering one's weight in gold, but I have purchased him with my soul. And now that I recognize him as mine own, my mind is naturally at ease. Rama, however much he talketh, hath not found God's limit. But by my devotion God came to me as I sat at home. Stayeth Kabir, I have cast off my wavering disposition. It is only in God's service I am now a sleeping partner. The holy cannot die, for they are saved by divine knowledge. Twenty. That death which terrifies the whole world, the Guru's instruction hath set before me in a clear light. Now how shall I die, although my mind accepted death? It is they who know not God who are always dying. Everybody talketh of dying. It is they who die in divine knowledge who are immortal. Stayeth Kabir, my mind is happy, doubt is dispelled, and supreme happiness abided. Kabir's body is burning all over to meet God. It is useless to try to heal any particular part of it. Twenty one. There is no special part of my body to which I may apply healing ointment. I've examined my body, but found no such place. He who feeleth pain knoweth it. The service of God is a barbed error. I consider all women to be alike who knoweth which shall be dear to the bridegroom. Stayeth Kabir, the husband forsaking all other women shall meet her on whose forehead such lot hath been written. It was believed that widows who emulated themselves and their husbands' pires obtained salvation. Kabir traverses this belief. Twenty three. How can a woman without chastity be a sati? O pundit, see and consider this in thy heart. If a woman hath no love for her husband, how can her husband's love for her increase? As long as there is worldly love there can be no divine love. He who in his heart believeth mammon to be real shall not even in his dreams meet God. Kabir calleth her a happy wife who giveth up to God her body, soul, wealth, and household. Devotion to God is the only dispeller of the deadly sins. Twenty four. The whole world is subject to the deadly sins. The deadly sins have ruined whole families. O man, where hath thou wrecked and sunk thy boat, having broken with God thou hast joined the deadly sins in whose fire, demigods, and men burn. Water is near but obese. Why not drink it, removing its scum? By contemplation, water fit for drinking, issue with forth. That water alone is pure, sayeth Kabir. Only the holy who meditate on God are useful in the world. Twenty five. Why was not the mother of the family barren? Whose sons meditate not on divine knowledge? Why did not the wicked man who hath performed no service for God die at his birth? Many miscarriages have occurred. How is it he escaped? He liveth at his dream but like a raven in the world. Sayeth Kabir, they who are beautiful and shapely shall become hunchbacked and deformed without God's name. Kabir's devotion to the saints. Twenty six. I am ever a sacrifice to those who repeat the master's name. He is pure who singeth the praises of the pure God. He is my brother and dear to my heart. I am the dust of the lotus feet of those whose hearts are filled with God. My cast, it is true, is that of weaver. But my heart is resigned. Kabir, very tranquilly, repeateth God's praises. Kabir thus addressed the yogi who advised him to drink wine to concentrate his thoughts. Twenty seven. I collected much molasses and turned my body into far wood. Then wine trickled from the roof of the house of pleasure by means of the furnace of my heart. Describe him as intoxicated with the wine of divine love who drinketh the sweetness of God's name and meditated on divine knowledge. Since the server of the wine of divine love met me and gave it to me, my days and nights are passing away intoxicated with pleasure. I carefully applied my thoughts to the pure one and said, Kabir, I obtained him the fearless. A yogi maintained that deliverance could not be obtained without chastening the heart and that the heart could not be chastened without the practice of yoga. Kabir criticizes the statement. Twenty eight. Without devotion, the qualities of the heart cling to the heart who secures perfection by merely chastening his heart. What holy man hath succeeded in chastening his heart say who hath saved any one by merely chastening his heart. Everyone thinketh in his heart that he is going to chasten it but the heart is not chastened without devotion. Sayeth Kabir, let him who knoweth this secret worship in his heart, God, the Lord of the three worlds. The following was addressed to an atheist who maintained the theory of spontaneous creation. Twenty nine. Who was the painter who painted the stars which appear in the sky? Say, opondent, to what is the sky attached? Fortunate is the wise man who knoweth this. The sun and moon diffuse light. God hath extended himself in everything. Sayeth Kabir, he shall know this in whose heart is God and in whose mouth is God. The evil wrought by the Simriti's Thirty, oh my brethren, the Simriti is the daughter of the vets. She hath brought her chain and a rope for men and hath of herself imprisoned them in her capital. She hath flung the noose of worldly love and discharged the arrow of death. The former cannot be cut and the latter cannot be broken. The Simriti hath become a serpent, eaten the world and plundered the whole universe before my very eyes. But sayeth Kabir, I have escaped from her by uttering God's name. The following was addressed to an admirer who had offered Kabir a horse. Thirty one. Let me put a bit and bridle on my steed and abandoning all else course him in heaven. Let me make self-reflection my saddle and put my foot in the stirrup of divine love. Come my steed, let me drive thee to heaven. If thou gib I will strike thee with the whip of love. Sayeth Kabir, they are good writers who keep themselves aloof from the vets and the books of the muscle-mans. The following was written after witnessing a cremation. Thirty two. I've seen fire applied to the mouth which used to eat the five nectars. Remove, oh God, my one misery of abiding in the womb and being burned in its fire. The body is destroyed in various ways and manners. Some burn it and some bury it in the earth. Sayeth Kabir, oh God, show me thy feet afterwards. Why not send death? Kabir was engaged in his devotions when a hostile neighbor took the opportunity to set his house on fire. Kabir heard of it and returning home succeeded in extinguishing the flames. It is said that the hostile neighbor's house took fire from Kabir's and was totally consumed. The following hymn was composed on the occasion. Thirty three. God himself is the fire, himself the wind, and the master set it fire to the house. Who can save it? What if even my body burned when I'm repeating God's name? My mind was absorbed in God's name. Whose house burneth and who suffereth loss? God plays like an acrobat. Sayeth Kabir, utter two letters. As sure as I have a master, he will save me. Kabir thinks he has not performed sufficient worship. Thirty four. I've not applied my mind to the signs of union with God or contemplation of him. Without hate of the world I shall not escape from mammon. How shall I live if I have not God's name as my support? Sayeth Kabir, I have searched in heaven and have seen none equal to God. The following was written on seeing ravens sitting on a skull and feeding on its contents. Thirty five. Ravens were cleaning their beaks on the skull, on which a turban had been once very daintily bound. Why be proud of this body and of wealth? Why dost thou not hold fast God's name? Sayeth Kabir, here, O my man, this shall be thy condition at last. Kabir discourses on the soul. Garry ash tapati. Thirty six. Man prayeth for temporal happiness, but sorrow cometh to meet him. It pleases me not to pray for such happiness as shall bring sorrow. Man still intent on sin hopeeth for happiness. How shall he find his dwelling in the supreme God? The happiness which even sheave and Brahma would dread, I suppose, to be real. Even the four sons of Brahma, the Muni, Narad and Shesnag never found their minds stable in their bodies until they had given up hopes of such happiness. O my brethren, let any one inquire into the condition of the soul when it escapeeth from the body, and where shall it be? By the favor of the Guru, Yadav and Namdev discovered that by love and devotion to God, the soul shall not suffer transmigration. He whose doubts are dispelled knoweth the truth. The soul hath no shape or outline. By God's order it was created, and by understanding God's order it shall be absorbed in him. If anyone understand the secret of the soul, it shall only obtain divine happiness when absorbed in God. But one soul which occupied all bodies could be a worship of that soul. God's name is the Tree of Life, thirty-seven of those who watched day and night to utter the one name, how many have become perfect by the love they bore to God. Sids and their disciples and all the Munis have grown weary in their efforts without God's name. The one name life, the Tree of Life, saveeth mankind. They who are regenerated by God shall never alter. I have recognized God's name. The worship of the one God inculcated, Gauri and Sauroth, thirty-eight, O shameless men, art thou not ashamed? Why dost thou forsake God and go to someone else? It becomeeth not him whose God is the most high to go to a strange temple. That Lord pervaded all space is ever-present and never-distant. Say, O man, what is there not in his palace to speak? Lakshmi, taketh refuge. Everyone speaketh of him. He is omnipotent, our own Lord and our benefactor. Save, Kabir, that man is perfect in the world in whose heart no other than God abideth. They who are absorbed in God feel not joy or sorrow for relations. Thirty-nine, who hath a son, who hath a father, who died, who inflicteth pain? God is the illusionist, who hath eluded the world. If separated from God, how shall I survive my mother? Who hath a husband, who hath a wife? Reflect on this truth in thy heart. Save, Kabir, I have become reconciled with the illusionist. The illusion vanished when I recognized him. Kabir's satisfaction on feeling that he had obtained salvation. Forty. The sovereign God hath now become my helper. Having cut away birth and death, I have obtained the supreme state. God hath united me with the guilt of the saints and freed me from the five deadly sins. The ambrosial name I repeat with my tongue. God hath made me his unbought slave. The true guru did me a favor by rescuing me from the ocean of the world. I have begun to love God's lotus feet. And God ever and ever dwelleth in my heart. The sparks of the fire of worldly love have become extinguished and my mind hath obtained resignation by the support of the name. In the sea and land, the Lord God is fully contained. Wherever I look, there is the searcher of hearts. It is he himself who implanted his service in my heart. God has obtained my brethren according to primal destiny. The man to whom he showeth favor succeeded in his affairs. Kabir's Lord is the cherisher of the poor. The following was a remonstrance to a brahmin who had found impurity and cast defilement in almost everything. Forty one. There is impurity in water. There is impurity in land. There is impurity in whatever is born. There is impurity in birth and again in death. God's subjects are ruined by this impurity. O Pandit, tell me who is pure. Explain to me such knowledge as thou hast on the subject, my friend. There is impurity in the eyes. There is impurity in the tongue. There is impurity in the ears. Standing or sitting, there is impurity. Impurity entereth the kitchen. Everyone knoweth how to be caught in impurity, but few how to escape from it. Sayeth Kabir, no impurity attaches to those who meditated on God in their hearts. God is greater than any creature and is saint than any place of pilgrimage. Forty two. Decide one controversy, O Ramanand. If thou desire any service from thy slave, is this soul or he to whom it is attached the greater? Is God or he who knoweth God the greater? Is Brahma or he who created him the greater? Are the vets or their source whence they came the greater? Is the pilgrimage or God saint the greater? Sayeth Kabir, I've been unhappy on this subject. The effects of the influx of divine knowledge, Kabir likens his mind to a hut. Forty three. Low. My brethren, a storm of divine knowledge hath come. The screens of doubt have all been blown away, and even the ropes of mammon hath not been left. The true props of indecision hath been thrown down, and the beam of worldly love hath been broken. The fat truth of avarice hath fallen to the ground, and the vessel of evil inclinations hath burst. Sayeth Kabir, thy slave, O Lord, hath become saturated by the rain which fell after the storm, and when next he saw the sun appear, his mind was illumined. The following was addressed to O Raman. Kabir did not desire his followers to associate with infidels. Forty four. What shall one say to such people as neither hear God's praises nor sing his attributes, but who knock down the heavens by their boasting? They whom God hath excluded from his service should always be feared. They who give not a handful of water to the thirsty slander him who brought down the Ganges. Sitting or standing crooked are their ways. They have ruined themselves and ruined others. They know nothing save evil converse. They obey not even Brahma's bidding. They have gone astray themselves and are leading others astray. They set fire to their houses and sleep in them. They laugh at others, though they have only one eye themselves. Kabir is ashamed on beholding them. A lecture against the shrods and idolatry of the Hindus. Forty five. Nobody obeyeth his parents when alive, yet he giveth them feasts when dead. Say, how shall the poor parents obtain what the ravens and the dogs have eaten? Let someone explain to me what kushal means. The world died of talking of kushal. However, shall kushal be obtained? Men make goddesses and gods of clay and offer them living sacrifices. As your lifeless gods, so you are deceased, who ask not for what they want themselves. You kill living things and you worship lifeless things. At the last moment, great shall be your suffering. You know not the worth of God's name and you shall be drowned in the sea of terror. You waver and know not the supreme God, wherefore you worship gods and goddesses. Sayeth Kabir, you have not thought of the unknowable and have become entangled in the deadly sins. The holy obtain their great reward. Forty six. If while living thou be dead, while dead return to life by means of divine knowledge and thus become absorbed in God. Thou shalt not again fall into the terrible ocean of the world. My God, such milk should be churned. Keep thy mind steadfast under the Guru's instruction. In this way shalt thou quoth nectar. The Guru's arrow hath pierced this at a man-time age and that in the light of God's word, the doubt which I felt through the power of ignorance, whether this world was a snake or a rope, is at an end. I have a permanent abode in God's house. The Guru, without putting an arrow on his bow, hath pierced this world, my brethren, in all directions the kite fluttereth in the wind, but its string is fixed in the love of God. My perturbed mind is absorbed in God. Duality and evil inclinations depart. Sayeth Kabir, I have seen the fearless one by fixing my attention on his name. Rather than practice yoga, search for God through the Guru. Forty-seven, when I turn my thoughts towards God, I restrain my mind and my senses, and my attention became lovingly fixed on him. O by Rahgi, search for him who neither cometh nor goeth, who neither dyeth nor is born. My soul, turning away from sin, is absorbed in the universal soul. By favor of the Guru, I shall obtain a different understanding, otherwise I should become estranged from God. What was near hath become distant. What was distant hath become near for him who accepteth God as he is. As Shabbat made from sugar, only he who drinketh it knoweth its flavor. O thou devoid of qualities, is there any discriminating person to whom I may speak of thee. Sayeth Kabir, only he who applied the spiritual fuse seeeth the blast. Heaven described by negatives forty-eight, there with God is no rainy season, no ocean, no sunshine, no shade, there is no creation and no destruction, no life, no death, nor are sorrow and joy felt, nor is there either a retirement or contemplation. A description of celestial rest would be impossible and peculiar to itself. There nothing is weighed in the balance and nothing is exhausted, there is nothing light, nothing heavy, there are no nether or upper regions, neither night nor day, there is no water, wind or fire, the true Guru is there contained, inaccessible and inapprehensible, he dwelleth uninterruptedly in everything. He is found by the favor of the Guru. Sayeth Kabir, I am a sacrifice to my Guru. May I remain attached to his society. Human life under the allegory of an ox and his burden, forty-nine with merits and demerits an ox is purchased, life appears as the capital. In this way a herd is purchased, covetousness, which will if man's heart is as a sack on the ox's back. So potent a master is my God who made the whole world dealers. Lust and wrath are both tax-gatherers, the whims of the mind are highway robbers, the herd which spring from the five elements pay the tax and are saved. Sayeth Kabir here, O saints, this is now the state of things. One ox have grown weary of traveling the steep road and dropping his sack, proceedeth the journey. The world under the allegory of a well human life under that well rope, fifty. A woman hath four days in her father's house she must then go to her father-in-law's the blind, the stupid and the silly know not this, the bride with her sarhi rounder is ready to go. The guests arrive, her husband hath come to take her home. Who is that we see letting down the rope into the well, when the rope breaketh by the weight of the water pot the water drawer departed. If the Lord be compassionate and show mercy woman shall settle her affairs. She is known as a happy wife who pondered on the guru's instructions all men bound by their axe transmigrate, attentively consider this. Why blame woman? What can the poor creature do? Without hope she departed, she hath not the firmness of faith in her heart cling to the feet of God and flee to his asylum, O Kabir. It is the truly pious and not pious are Hindu sectaries who shall be saved. Fifty-one. The yogi says that yog and nothing else is good and sweet. They who shave their bodies and the ekk shabdis say that they alone have obtained perfection. Without God there art lost in error, O blind one, they to whom I go to release myself are themselves bound by many toils. You call yourselves pundits virtuous, brave, generous and assert that you alone are great. It is only pride of yours is forgotten that you shall be absorbed in him from whom you sprang. Only he understandeth whom thou, O God, causes to understand how can men obtain permanence without understanding when the true guru is found, darkness is dispelled in this way the gem is obtained. Lay aside the sins of thy left hand and thy right, take firm hold of God's feet. Say, O Kabir, if a dumb man eat molasses, what can he say if questioned? The following was composed by Kabir on the death of a yogi. Fifty-two, where there was something, there is nothing. Thy body of five elements is no more. What have they let eat now, the suspension of thy breath and the left and right nostrils, and their junction? The string is broken, thy brain destroyed. Wither hath thy speech gone. I feel this anxiety night and day who will explain and ease my mind. Thy body is no longer in the world. Thy creative mind is no more. The inner, dwelleth ever separate from the world. Say, who else hath this power? If I try to join the elements of the body, I cannot join them. If I try to separate them, they will not be separated until they perish. Who hath a master? Who hath a servant? Who waited on anyone else? Say, if Kabir, my attention is directed to that place where God dwelleth night and day, his secret he himself fully knoweth, he is ever imperishable. As to become a yogi, the following was his reply. 53. Meditation and remembrance of God are my two earrings, independence of the world, my patched coat, dwelling in a silent cave, my devotional posture, the abandonment of worldly desires, my sect. My king, I am a yogi, without temple love, I repine, not at death and separation, in the regions of the universe I find my horn, the whole world which I hold as ashes, as my wallet. Written of the three qualities and released from the world are my contemplative attitude. I have made my heart and breath the two gourds of my lyre and unbroken attention on God its frame. The strings are strong and break not. The lyre plays spontaneously on hearing it, the perfect art in rapture, and I no longer feel the swaying of worldly love. Say, if Kabir, the soul which hath this way, shall not be born again. The body under the allegory of a full piece of cloth fifty-four reason went to the soul to order a body to be woven. Let a full piece of nine yards, ten yards and twenty-one yards be woven that there be sixty threads, nine joinings, and seventy-two cross threads added. The weaver then cometh, leaving his last abode is not the body measured by yards weighed by weight and starched by two-and-a-half sears of flour. If the body obtained not starched quickly, it will quarrel and destroy its abode. O man, how many days are there for thee to sit idly, when shall thou who art adverse to the Lord again have the present opportunity. The vessels and the wedded bobbins shall fall to pieces, and the weaver depart in anger, thread cometh not out of an empty bobbin, and the cloth will not remain wound around the beam. O wretched man, writing the world but renounce, display Kabir, giveeth thee this advice. The light of God has an affinity for the light of man. Fifty-five can one light, which is absorbed in another, be separated from it, may that man burst and die in whose heart the name of God springeth not up. Dark and beautiful God, my soul, is attached to thee when a holy man is found, supernatural perfection is obtained. This is both union with God and worldly enjoyment. When, too, the guru and the disciple meet by means of God's name, the disciple's business is accomplished. People think this is a song, it is a meditation on God, like the instruction given to men at Benares, when they are on the point of death, he who attentively heareth or singeth God's name, sayeth Kabir, shall certainly obtain the supreme state at last. Salvation can only be obtained by true devotion. Fifty-six, however great man's exertions without God's name he shall be drowned in the terrible ocean and not cross-oven. Thou hast practised thy religious duties in great austerities, yet pride consumeth thy soul, by hast thou forgotten the Lord who is the giver of life and food. Human birth is a priceless diamond or ruby, thou hast lost it for a coward. Not having thought of God in thy heart, thou sufferest from the thirst of covetousness and the hunger of error, the intoxication of pride deceiveth those who keep not the word of the guru in their hearts. Simple are they who art led away by pleasure, who are tempted by central delights and who enjoy the savor of wine. They who, by destiny, keep the company of the saints, float over it like iron attached to timber. Through error I have wandered among human and lower births. I am now weary and overspent with travail. Sayeth Kabir, I am meeting the guru, I have felt great joy, and my love and devotion have saved me. End of section 14 part 1. Section 15 of the Sikh religion, sacred writings and authors. Volume 6 by Max Arthur McAuliffe. This Libravax recording is in the public domain. Section 15 Kabir's hymns Part 2 The Deceits of the World 57. Like the semblance of a female elephant, O foolish man, the Lord of the world, made this play. The elephant, impelled by the speets of love, is captured. O foolish man, and his head hath to endure the goad. Flee from evil passions attached thyself to God. Heed this advice, O foolish man. Why dost thou not, O foolish man, fearlessly worship God, and take possession of his ship? The monkey stretcheth out his hand, O foolish man, and takeeth a handful of corn. He is anxious to escape, O foolish man, but he shall be made to dance at the door of every house. As the parrot is caught by a trap, O foolish man, so is man by worldly occupations. As the fleeting die of the safflower, O foolish man, so hath this world been shown. There are many places for ablutions, and many gods to worship. Save, Kabir, thou shalt not be saved by means of these, O foolish man, thou shalt be saved by the worship of God. A Roger offered Temple wealth to Kabir. The following was his reply. 58. Lay up for yourselves the wealth of God's name, which fire will not burn, which hot winds will not dry up, and which thieves will not approach, that wealth shall never depart. My wealth is God, the supporter of the earth, he is the real wealth. The pleasure obtained from the service of God is not to be found in regal state. Sheave and the four sons of Brahma in their search for this wealth abandoned the world. He in whose heart is God, and on whose tongue is God, falleth not into death's noose. The Guru's private wealth of divine knowledge and devotion is like water to the thirsty, like a prop to the fickle mind, the minds of those whom he bestoweth that conceive good resolutions, and their doubts entanglements and fears depart. Sayeth Kabir, O you who are intoxicated with wealth, reflect in your hearts and understand this. In your mansions are hundreds of thousands and millions of horses and elephants. In mine is the one God. The love of worldly things leads men to damnation. 59. A monkey through greed will not let go the pulse in his hand. He is responsible for acts down through greed, without devotion to God human life passeth in vain, without association with the saints and worship of God, truth nowhere abideth. As the flowers of the desert bloom and know when enjoyeth their odor, so men wander idly in many births, and death destroyeth them again and again. God hath given wealth, youth, sons, and women fair to view by these man prompted by the senses becomeeth arrested and entangled. The body is a house of grass, life's end the fire which assaileth it on every side. Sayeth Kabir, to cross over the terrible ocean, I have taken the shelter of the true guru. A brief account of the process of procreation. 60. There is dirty water and white earth. From this earth the puppet is made. I am nothing and I have nothing. My body, my wealth, all that is dear to me is thine, O God. This earth breath is infused and forcibly setteth the false contrivance in motion. Such and such a person may have accumulated five locks of treasure, but at last his picture bursteth. Sayeth Kabir, the soul foundation thou hast laid shall be destroyed in a moment, O thou proud one. My devotion to God through the guru Kabir has obtained salvation. 61. O my soul repeat God's name, as did I through and for a lot of old, O thou compassionate to the poor, my reliance is on thee. I have therefore embarked all my family on the guru's raft. If it please God, he will have his order obeyed and cause his raft to float over. By the favor of the guru such knowledge hath filled me that all my transmigration is at an end. Sayeth Kabir, worship God in this world and next everywhere it is he alone who know it. My claim to human body has obtained its last chance of salvation. 62. When man leaveeth the womb and cometh into the world, as soon as the air toucheth him, he forgeteth his master O my soul, seeing God's praises. When thou didst penance, reversed in the womb, thou didst escape its fire. Having wandered through the 84 locks of existences, if thou stumble now, thou shalt find nor house nor home. Sayeth God who is not seen coming or going and who knoweth all things. Think not of heaven or hell of prosperity or adversity, leave everything to God. 63. Long not for a dwelling in heaven and feared not to dwell in hell, what will be will be, O my soul, hope not at all. Seeing the praises of God from whom the supreme reward is obtained, what is devotion, what penance and austerities, what fasting and prostrations, unless thou know the way to love and serve God. Be not glad at the sight of prosperity and grieve not at the sight of adversity, as is prosperity, so is adversity. What God proposes of shall be accomplished. Sayeth Kabir, through the saints I now know in my heart that the worshipper in whose heart God dwelleth, performeth the best worship. Commit not sin for the sake of thy relations or others, and more not for them. 64. O my soul thou hast no helper. Drag not the weight of others sins behind thee. As a bird percheth on a tree such as the world, I have drunk the elixir of God by which other elixirs are forgotten. Since we are not permanent ourselves, why should we mourn the death of others? Whatever is born perisheth, why should we be sorry and weep for that? When man becomeeth attached to holy men, he drinketh and voteeth to him from whom he hath sprung. Sayeth Kabir, I have thought of God in my heart resigning the world, remember him. Kabir longs for God as a loving wife for her absent spouse. 65. Woman with her eyes filled with tears and heaving sighs awaiteth her Lord. Her heart is not happy, she retraces it, not her steps in the hope of seeing him. Why flyest thou not away, O God? I may quickly meet my beloved. Sayeth Kabir, perform God's service to obtain the dignity of eternal life. The name of God is the one support. Repeat it with thy tongue. There are many excellences in the body. God resides within it and Kabir is delighted to behold him. 66. There are many shrubs of sweet basil, near and within them is the village of Barsana. The milkmaid Radha on seeing this beauty became enamored. Leave me not go, not hither and thither. My heart is attached to thy feet. O holder of the bow, very fortunate is she who meeteth thee. Enchanting is Bendraban, where the fascinating Christiane grazed his kind. Since thou art my Lord, O holder of the bow Kabir, great is my name. Bane is the devotion of anchorettes and idolaters. 67. How many wear the bark of trees as clothes? But what abaleth it to dwell in the forest? What abaleth it to man to offer incense to idols? What to drenches body with ablutions? O my soul I know that thou shalt depart O silly one think of thy fall, wheresoever I look I see none but those who are entangled in worldly love. Men of divine knowledge and meditation, great preachers are engrossed in this world's affairs. Sayeth Kabir, without the name of the one God this world is blinded by Mammon. Fearlessly worship God. 68. O man, victim of Mammon, abandon doubt, come forth and dance. Doth a hero dread the conflict of the battlefield? Doth a sati collect utensils when she is about to die? Seize to waver O foolish man, now that thou hast taken the red lead in thy turn and die and obtain perfection. The world is ruined by being absorbed in lust, wrath, and Mammon. Sayeth Kabir, forsaken out the sovereign God, who is the highest of all the high? Kabir places himself altogether in God's power. 69. Thy commands are acceptable to men. I consider not their propriety. There art the river, there art the palette, from thee is salvation. O man, embrace God, whether he be angry with thee or lovely. Thy name, O God, is my support as a woman rejoiceth on beholding her son. Sayeth Kabir, I am the slave of thy house, preserve me, or destroy me. Ahamly against the worship of Krishan. 70. Nand became very weary, wandering through the wombs of the 84 locks of existences. Through his devotion, Krishan became incarnate. Great was the poor man's son, who said that God was the son of Nand, whose son was Nand. When the earth and the firmament and the ten quarters of the world were not, then where was this Nand? He whose name is the bright one, fall of Nand into trouble and undergo with Nand-birth. Kabir's master is such a lord as hath neither father nor mother. Kabir hails Slander to preserve his humility and lead him to God. 71. Slander, slander meet ye people who are pleasing to God's servant. Slander is my father. Slander my mother. If I'm slandered and store in my heart the wealth of God's name, I shall go to heaven. If I'm slandered, my heart become pure. The slanderer washeth my clothes for me. He who slandereth me is my friend. My heart goes out to the slanderer. He is the slanderer who prevented my being slandered. The slanderer desireth long life for me. I bear love and affection to him and slander with me. Slander effective my salvation. Do God's servant Kabir? Slander is the best thing. The slanderer is lost, I am saved. Kabir feels that he is parted with egoism and become absorbed in God. 72. O sovereign God, thou art very fearless, thou art a raft to save the world, O God, when I was proud, thou art not in me. Now that thou art in me, I am not proud. Thou and I have become one, both one. My mind is satisfied. When there is worldly wisdom, how can there be spiritual strength? Now I have spiritual wisdom, but no bodily strength. Save Kabir, God hath taken away my worldly wisdom, and instead of it I have obtained perfection. 73. The human body under the allegory of a house, 73. The creator made the six mystical chambers into a house, and in it he put a peerless thing. 72. Now my brother, let thy mind remain awake through carelessness, thou hast lost thy human life, thy house is being robbed by thieves, thy five senses stand as sentinels at the gate, but they cannot be trusted. Carefully think of God, and thou shalt obtain the light of divine knowledge. 73. If women go astray through only heating the body of nine apertures, she shall not obtain the peerless thing. 74. Save Kabir, thieves may plunder the body of nine apertures, God's spirit dwelleth in the tent. Kabir obtained perfection and complete faith on meeting the guru. 74. O mother, I know none beside God, my soul dwelleth in that God whose praise is sheave and the sons of Brahma sing. On meeting the guru, enlightenment and divine knowledge entered my heart the disease of the deadly sins, fear and worldly entanglements led away in my soul new happiness in itself. Embued with devotion, I know and obey the one God, and think of none beside having abandoned the pride of my heart my soul is perfumed with the perfume of sandal. God dwelleth in him who has sung and meditated on his praises. Very fortunate are they in whose heart he dwelleth and distinguished is the destiny recorded on their foreheads. I have destroyed my divine knowledge as kindled in my heart and I have become absorbed in the one God. Sayeth Kabir, on meeting the guru I have felt great comfort, my mind hath ceased to wander and is happy. Kabir is acrostic. 1. Everything connected with the three worlds is contained in the 52 letters. These letters shall perish, but he who is beyond letters is not in them. 2. Where there is speech, there letters are where there is no speech, there no mind abided. God is contained both where there is speech and where there is not, nobody appears like unto him. 3. If I obtain God, what shall I say? And if I say anything, what kindness do I show God? Who is diffused through the three worlds as well as in the tiny seed of the banyan tree? 4. For him who hath obtained God a secret, the difference between God and himself hath disappeared. God's secret penetrated my heart when it turned away from the world and I have obtained him who is indestructible and impenetrable. 5. The muscle-mans accept the terracotta, the hindus, the vades, and parans, but for me the books of both religions are useless. A man ought to study divine knowledge to some extent to instruct his heart. 6. The one God who was in the beginning I do not believe in what can be written and erased, whoever beholdeth the one God become a fast God and shall not pass away. 7. K, when the rays of divine knowledge fall on the lotus of the heart, it closeeth not even at the rising of the moon, and if man obtained the sweetness of that flower, he would grow mute in describing it, yea, to whom could he explain it. 8. My mind hath entered God's cave. It leaveeth it not to wander in every direction. He who knowing the master, practiceeth resignation shall become imperishable and obtain the imperishable dignity. 9. They who understand the Guru's instruction lend their ears to nothing else. He who graspeth the ungraspable and having grasped him keepeth him in his brain shall abide wealthless and wander nowhere. 10. God's dwelling is in every heart even though the heartbreak God is never thereby diminished when man findeth a way to God in his heart why should he leave that way and follow a difficult one. 11. Grasp the love of God, dismiss doubts even though thou see no way to God flee not away, this is the highest cleverness. 12. Dispainted the great picture of the world dismiss that picture and think of the painter this painted picture is an abode of strife dismiss the picture and keep thy mind on the painter. 13. God the Lord of the umbrella is near why dost thou not abandon desires and be happy oh man admonish thee every moment why dost thou leave God and entangle thyself with the world. 14. Jay if a man burn his body alive and to face his youth he shall find thee may man burneth the wealth of this and the next world he shall then proceed and obtain God's bright light. 15. Jay H thou art entangled with the world and thou is not how to disentangle thyself thou shrinkest back and art not accepted of God why talk nonsense trying to convince others since thou stirraced up controversy controversy thou shalt have. 16. In why since God dwelleth near thee and go far to find him him for whom thou searchest the world thou shalt find near thee. 17. The difficult way to God is in man's heart why open not the doors of thy understanding and repair to his court there shalt thou behold the immovable one and thou shalt not move elsewhere thou shalt remain attached to God and thy heart shalt be glad. 18. Keep the world which is at the seatful mirage at a distance where the difficulty rendered my mind patient the cheat which cheated and devoured the whole world I have myself cheated and my mind is now at ease. 19. When the fear of God is produced all other fears depart all other fears are absorbed in that fear if man reject the fear of God then he hath fear of man when he no longer feareth man the fears of his heart flee away. 20. 20. Life departed. When I ascended the mountain to search for him and returned home disappointed I found him in the fortress which he himself had made. 21. In the life of him is accounted happy who though surrounded in the battlefield standeth fast like a man who doth not quail or retreat but killeth the opposing chief upon which his army fleeeth away. 22. My soul is absorbed in that Lord of the three worlds if the Lord of the three worlds enter into my heart my soul shall blend with him and I shall find the true one. 23. The unfathomable cannot be fathomed God is unfathomable this body shall not abide forever though man's span of life be brief he begineth to build many a mansion but can mansions be supported without pillars 24. Everything we see is perishable meditate on him who is unseen when thou applies the key of divine knowledge to the tenth gate thou shalt then behold the merciful one. 25. D.H. everything is settled when the soul blendeth with God who dwelleth in earth and heaven when the soul leaving earth goeth to heaven the soul and God shall meet and happiness be obtained. 26. Man's nights and days pass away waiting for God his eyes grow bloodshot by such waiting when man findeth God after long waiting with him who is waited for. 27. The boundless one hath no bounds I am gladdened with the supreme light I have controlled the five senses and relinquished all idea of demerits and merits. 28. Ph. Fruit is produced without the blossom if anyone looked at a section of that fruit and reflected on it he would not contract duality that section of fruit shall destroy all bodies. 29. The boundless one hath no bounds I am gladdened with drop both cannot be separated that man becoming God's servant embraces service then he becoming a friend will take care of his servant. 30. D.H. remove the difference between thyself and God and thou shalt be united with him then shall thy fear be shattered and thou shalt gain confidence him whom I thought without me I now find within me when I found this secret I recognized the Lord of the world. 31. The first principle shall be happy at heart he who is in this secret knoweth his own mind let know one delay to attach his heart to God he who obtaineth the true one shall be immersed in delight. 32. Man's business is with his heart he who chaseneth it obtaineth perfection Kabir communeth with his heart I have found nothing like thee o my heart. 33. This heart is power this mind is God this heart is the life of the five elements of the body if man restrain his heart and remain in a state of exaltation he can tell the secrets of the three worlds. 34. Why if thou know anything destroy thine evil propensities and conquer the citadel of the body thou who art surrounded by foes and battle and flee us not away shall be called a hero. 35. Are he knoweth the real pleasure who spurneth the pleasures of this world having spurned the pleasures of the world he recognizes the real pleasure when he abandoneth the former he obtaineth the latter and when he quaffeth the latter the former please him not. 36. O man so reply thy heart to God that thou mayest not go elsewhere but obtain the primal true one if thou heartily love him thou shalt obtain him and obtaining him become absorbed in his feet. 37. W every moment remember God remember God and defeat shall not come to thee. I am a sacrifice to those who sing the praises of the sons of God he who meeteth God shall obtain all truth. 38. W know God by knowing him thou shalt become as he when the soul and God are blended no one can distinguish them. 39. S carefully strive to know him restrain every thought that there is mental happiness and the Lord of the three worlds will fill thy heart. 40. K H he who searcheth he who searcheth for God shall not return he who searcheth and knoweth God by meditation shall cross over the terrible ocean without delay. 41. S H she who dispeleth all doubts of her spouse's affection for her shall adorn his bed she resigneth the little comfort and obtaineth the highest gratification thusly styled a wife and he a husband. 42. H God existeth but the spiritually ignorant know not of his existence from the moment man knoweth that God existeth his heart is satisfied God certainly doth exist if anyone could see him but in that case God alone would exist and man exist not at all. 43. Everybody goeth about saying I will take this and I will take that and I will take that. 45. God shall obtain all happiness and his sorrows shall depart. 44. K S H how many have pined away and perished but despite such destruction man will not even now think of God if anyone even now know that the world is fleeting and restrain his heart he shall obtain an abiding place with him from whom he is separated. 45. The pondits have in another way letters but they cannot recognize one letter. Kabir uttered the word of the true one. He is a pundit who abideth without fear. To join letters is the business of the pundits. To meditate on God is the business of the holy man. Sayeth Kabir, man will understand which to do according to his intelligence. Kabir's calendar is arranged according to lunar days. The lunar month has 30 days. 15 of them are called Shudi, the light half, and the other 15 Wadi, the dark half of the month. In this composition, however, 16 days are counted. Kabir's lunar days. One, there are 15 lunar days and seven weekdays. Sayeth Kabir, they have no limits. The strivers and sids who know their secrets are creators and gods themselves. Two, on the day when there is no moon, remove worldly desires. Remember God, the searcher of hearts. So shall thou even in life obtain the gate of salvation and the real word of the fearless one, which is the essence of everything. He who loveth God's lotus feet and his night and day watchful in his praises become a pure in heart by the favor of the saints. One, on the first day of the moon meditate on the beloved. He who cannot be lessened and who hath no equal sporteth in the heart. He who is absorbed in the primal God shall never suffer the pain of death. Two, on the second day know that there are two parts of the body, Maya and God, who are contained in everything. God does not increase or diminish. He is unknowable, spotless, and changeless. Three, on the third day let man apply his mind to God in the three states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping. Thus shall he obtain the root of joy and the supreme delight. In the company of the saints arise it, the faith in man that God's light is ever within and without him. Four, on the fourth day restrain thy fickle mind, never associate with lust and anger. God is all in all, in sea and land. He repeated his own praises. Five, on the fifth date know that the world was extended from the five elements and that the pursuit of gold and women form its occupation. Whoever quaffeth the nectar of God's love shall not again feel the pains of old age and death. Six, on the sixth day the mind and the senses run in six directions. The mind will not be restrained without the love of God. He face duality and hold fast endurance, endure not the torture of absurd religious ceremonies. Seven, on the seventh day know that the word is true and the supreme spirit will hold thee accepted. So shall thy doubts and troubles be effaced and thou shalt obtain happiness in the celestial sea. Eight, on the eighth day know that the body is made of eight ingredients. In it is the unknowable, the king of great treasures, the guru who is versed in divine knowledge discloses the secret how man may turn away from the world and remain absorbed in the infrangible and the indivisible. Nine, on the ninth day keep watch over the nine gates and restrain thy flowing desires, forget all covetousness and worldly love and thou shalt eat the immortal fruit and live through all ages. Ten, on the tenth day, joy prevaileth in the ten directions. Doubts are dispelled and God is found. God is light, the essence of all things, incomparable, pure without a stain, where he dwelleth is neither shade nor sunshine. Eleven, on the eleventh day, if man run in one direction, he shall not again suffer the pain of birth. His heart shall become cool and pure, and God whom men say is distant, he shall find near. Twelve, on the twelfth day, let twelve sons arise for thee, and day and night trumpets shall play spontaneous music. Thou shalt behold the father of the three worlds. A miracle shall be wrought for thee, and from man thou shalt become God. Thirteen, on the thirteenth day, they who repeat the name of the inaccessible, escape transmigration. Know that God is equally diffused below and above. God is neither low nor high. In him is neither honor nor dishonor. He is equally contained in all things. Fourteen, on the fourteenth day, remember that God filleth the fourteen worlds, and that he dwelleth in every hair of man's body, meditate on truth and patience, and recite the legend of divine knowledge. Fifteen, on the day of the full moon, the moon is full in the heavens, and there is gentle light diffused from its beams. God is firmly fixed in the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. Kabir is absorbed in the ocean of happiness. Kabir's weekdays, seeing God's praises all the days of the week on meeting the guru, thou shalt obtain God's secret. One, on Sunday begin God's service, restrain the desires in the temple of thy body, that man day and night keep his attention on the infrangible one, and the loot shall tranquilly play spontaneous music. Two, on Monday nectar tricklet from the moon, when tasted it is a speedy antidote to all poison. He who drinketh it shall become intoxicated, let that mouth remain closed to idle converse. Three, on Tuesday learn what thou really art. Know how to guard against thine evil passions. Leave not the God who is in thine own home to wander abroad, if thou do he will be exceeding wrath. Four, on Wednesday let man enlighten his understanding, so that God's dwelling may be in the lotus of his heart. Let him on meeting his guru consider both his soul and God is the same, and set erect the inverted lotus of his heart. Five, on Thursday let him throw his evil passions into the river, and consider the three gods of the hinders the same. Why doth he not day and night wash away his sins at the junction where the three rivers meet? Six, on Friday by the practice of endurance man shall attain his object. By struggling with himself daily and carefully restraining all his five senses he shall never fall into duality. Seven, on Saturday if man keeps strong within him, the wake of God's light which shineth in his heart he shall be illumined without him within, and all his sin shall be erased. Eight, know that as long as man hath duality in his heart he shall not attain God's court. Let him love the omnipresent God, and then save Kabir his heart shall be pure. Asa, the first three lines of the following, were addressed by Kabir to his guru Ramanand. The remainder of the hymn contains Ramanand's replies and instruction. One, touching my guru's feet, I bow and ask him why the soul was made, why man was born, and why he shall perish, tell and explain to me. O divine one, show mercy to me, and put me in the way of escaping from worldly entanglements and the fear of transmigration. The pain of transmigration resulted from deeds done and happiness cometh when the soul is released from it. Man bursteth not the entanglements of worldly love, and therefore is not absorbed in God. He knoweth nothing of the rank of nirvan, and so his fears are not dispelled. The soul is not born, though men think it is, it is free from birth and death, when the idea of birth and death departed from man's mind, he shall forever be absorbed in God. As the reflection of an object in a vessel of water blended with the object when the vessel is broken, so saith Kabir through virtue doubts flee away, and the soul is absorbed in God. The following is a satire on the brahmanas of Banaras. Two, they wear loincloths, three and a half yards long, and sacrificial threads of three strands. They carry rosaries on their necks and glittering brass utensils in their hands. They should not be called saints of God but cheats of Banaras. Such saints are not pleasing to me. They gulp down trees with their branches. They scrub their vessels and put them on fires whose wood hath been washed. They dig up the earth, make two fireplaces, and eat up men whole. Those sinners ever wander in evil deeds, yet they call themselves appowers. Ever and ever they wander about in their pride and ruin all their families. Man is attached to what God hath attached him, and his acts correspond. Sath Kabir, he who meeteth the true Guru shall not be born again. Thanksgiving to God the Father. Three, the Father gave me this consolation. He made me a comfortable bed and put ambrosia into my mouth. Why should I forget that Father? When I go to the next world I shall not lose my game. My mother is dead and I am quite happy. I do not put on a beggar's coat. I feel not the frost. I am a sacrifice to that Father who begot me, who put an end to my companionship with the five deadly sins, who enabled me to subdue and trample on them. When I remember God my soul and body are happy. My Father is the great Lord of the earth. To that Father, how shall I go? When I met the true Guru, he showed me the way. The Father of the world then became dear to my mind. I am thy Son. Thou art my Father. We both live in the same place. Sath Kabir, God's slave. Knoweth the one God. By the Guru's favor, I know everything. The central idea of the following is the worship of Maya. She is represented in the hideous and repulsive guise, her nose having been cut off for her infidelity. The first two lines of the hymn describe tantric ceremonies. Four. Into one vessel they put a slaughtered cock, and another they fill with liquor. Five yogis sit round and the nozzeless queen in the midst. The bell of the nozzeless one resounded in both worlds. But some discriminating person, cut off thy nose, O Maya. The nozzeless one hath hurt dwelling everywhere. She killeth everyone, and looketh out for more. I am, say she, the sister and niece of all. I am the handmaiden of him, who wedeth me. My husband is very wise, and calleth himself a saint. He standeth continually over me. No one else cometh near me. It was I, Sath Kabir, who cut off her nose and her ears, and assaulted and expelled her. Because, though, dear to the three worlds, she was an enemy of the saints. Almost outlast, God's name is their only salvation. Five. Yogis, celibates, penitents, anchorates. They who wander on many pilgrimages. They who pluck out and shave their hair. They who practice silence. And they who wear matted locks. Must all die at last. Wherefore, worship God. What can the John not do for those whose tongues love God's name? They who know the shastars, the vez astrology, and various languages, who know written and spoken incantations, and all medical science, must die at last. They who enjoy empires, umbrellas, thrones, many beautiful women. Betel, camphor, and highly fragrant sandal must die at last. The veds, perons, and some reed trees. I have all searched, but there is no salvation anywhere in them. Sath Kabir, so repeat God's name, that transmigration may be at an end. Kabir was asked whether the world is real or unreal. The following hymn was his reply. His meaning is that the world is unreal, like the impossibilities mentioned. 6. Can an elephant be a reback player? Or an ox, a drummer? Can a raven play the cymbals? Can an ass put on a dancer's skirt and dance? Can a buffalo perform worship? Can Roger Rom cook cakes of ice? Can any man in his senses eat them? Can a lion seated in his den prepare Betel? Can a mammoth rat serve it when made up? Can a mouse sing a song of rejoicing from house to house? Can a tortoise blow a shell? Can a barren woman's son go to bed and build a mansion in the Scott? Can he marry a fair and beautiful virgin? Can the hare and the lion sing their eulogies? Sath Kabir here, O Saints, hath an ant eaten a mountain? Can the tortoise say, I want fire? Can the gnat proclaim God's word? The following was addressed to a yogi who maintained the superiority of his sect and the advantages of its external accessories. Seven. I have one wallet, which contains seventy-two chambers and one door. In the whole world, he alone is a yogi, who graved for God in the earth, containing nine regions, that yogi shall obtain the nine treasures. Who lifted his soul from below to heaven? Who makeeth divine knowledge his patched coat? Meditation his needle? Who twisted the thread of the word and put it therein? Who makeeth the five elements his deerskin jacket and walketh in the way of his guru? Who makeeth mercy his fire shovel, his body his firewood and my pliers? Do it the light of knowledge? Who leveth God within his heart and ever sitteth in the attitude of contemplation? All the yogi's craft consisted in the name of God, to whom belong the body and soul. Sath Kabir, if God be merciful, he will give man a true mark. Trust to God alone and not to thy relations. Nine. As long as the oil and the wick are in the lamp, everything is visible. When the oil is spent and the wick goeth out, the chamber is dark. O madman, when thy lamp is out, no one will keep thee even for a gary. Therefore it will be the name of God. Who hath a mother? Who hath a father? What man hath a wife? When the vessel bursteth, no one asketh about thee. It is all. Take him out, take him out. Thy mother, sitteth and weepeth, on the threshold, thy brother taketh away thy beer, thy wife openeth the plots of her hair and weepeth, the soul departeth alone. Sath Kabir, hear ye saints regarding this terrible ocean. The slave men suffereth torture, and the Lord of death retires not from him, O God. The body under the allegory of a churn from which salvation is obtained through the word. Ten. Sannak and Sannan, sons of Brahma, never found God's limits, nor did Brahma himself though he spent his life reading the vets. Churn God's churn, my brethren. Gently churn it, that the butter may not be lost. Make thy body the churn, thy heart the churning staff. Into the churn put the word instead of milk. Make hearty meditation on God thy churning. Pour the goo his favour into it as thy cold water. Sath Kabir, he on whom the king looketh with favour, and who clingeth to his name shall gain the shore. When the deadly sins are subdued, man arrives at a knowledge of the one God and obtains salvation. 11. When the wick of pride is dry, and the oil of worldly love is spent, when the drum of boasting is not heard, and the mind is fast asleep, and the fire of avarice is out, and the smoke of desires no longer issue with, then shall man know that one God is everywhere contained, and that there is no second. When the strings are broken, the rebeck no longer playeth. Man hath ruined his affairs by error, when man obtaineth understanding he shall forget, preaching, ranting, arguing, and intoning. Sath Kabir, the highest dignity shall not be far from those who crush their deadly sins. If Kabir commits sin he hopes that God will pardon him as a mother pardons her child, when he prays for forgiveness. 12. A mother beareth not in mind all the faults for his son committed, O God, I am thy child. Why destroyest thou not my demerits, if a son in great anger rusheth at his mother, even then she beareth it not in mind? Since I have fallen into the prison of anxiety, how shall I be saved without God's name? O God, ever cleanse my mind and body, and Kabir will tranquilly sing thy praises. 13. My pilgrimages to the bank of the Gomtee where dwelleth the yellow rogue priest. Bravo, bravo, how sweetly he singeth God's name, the light of my soul. Narad and Saraswati wait on him, and near him sits Lady Lakshmi as his handmaiden, with my rosary on my neck, and God on my tongue I repeat his thousand names and salute him. Sath Kabir, I sing God's praises and instruct both Hindus and muscle-mans. Kabir deprecated the destruction of life in any form for idol worship. 14. Thou cuttest leaves, O flower girl, in every leaf there is light. The stone for which thou gatherest, the leaves is lifeless. Thou art an error, O flower girl, in this the true Guru is a living God. Rama is in the leaves, Vishnu in the branches, and sheave in the flowers. Thou destroys three gods in our presence, whom dost thou worship? The sculptor carving the stone turned it into an idol, and in doing so put his foot upon its breast. If it were a real god, it would have destroyed him. Men cook rice, dal, lapasi, pancakes, kasar. The ramen feast is feast on these things, and put ashes into the idol's mouth. The flower girl is in error, and leadeth the world astray, but I go not astray. Sath Kabir, God hath mercifully preserved me from error. The stages of man, 15. 12 years pass away in childhood. Man performeth no penance even to the age of 20. Until 30 he worshipeth not God, he repented when old age cometh upon him. His life hath passed in talking about his property. His arms, strong as the sea, hath dried up. He with his own hands constructed the fence for a tank that hath dried up, and a hedge for a reaped field. When the thief cometh, he quickly taketh what the fool hath preserved as his own. When the feet head in hands begin to totter, and water floweth copiously from the eyes, when words come indistinctly from the tongue, dost thou then, sir, hope to perform religious works? If God be merciful, and thou love him, thou shalt obtain his name as thy prophet. By the favor of the Guru, thou shalt obtain the wealth of God, which shall go with thee as thou departest. Sath Kabir here, O ye good people, ye shall not take other wealth with you. When the supreme God summons cometh, ye shall depart, leaving your wealth and homes. The inequality of life, due to man's own acts, and not to God's caprice, sixteen. To one man God hath given silks and satins, and noir bed, others hath not even a ragged coat or straw in their houses to lie on. Indulge not in envy and bickering, O my soul, do good deeds and gain their reward. Out of the same earth, the potter moldeth vessels, but painted different designs on them. Into one vessel hath put strings of pearls, and into another filth. God gave the miser wealth to keep, but the block hath calleth it his own. When death's maize touches his head, it shall be decided in a moment whose wealth it is. God's slave is the highest saint. He obeyeth God's order and of plainth happiness. He accepteth us through what pleases of God, and God's will be treasured in his heart. Sath Kabir here, O good people, to call things one's own is untrue. Death breaking the cage, taketh away the bird, its wires and strings are then relaxed. The following is a remonstrance to Okaazi. He desired that Kabir should perform the usual Mohammedan fasts and ceremonies. Seventeen, I am God's poor slave. Royal state is pleasing to thee. The supreme God, the Lord of religions, never ordained tyranny. Okaazi, nothing is done by mere talk. It is not by fasting and repeating prayers in the creed that one goeth to heaven. The intervail of the temple of Maka is in man's heart. If the truth be known, just decisions should be thy prayers. Knowledge of God, the inscrutable one, thy creed, the subjugation of thy evil passions, the spreading of the prayer carpet, then sheds thou know what religion is. Recognize thy master and fear him in thy heart, despise and destroy thy mental pride, as thou deemest thyself so deem others, then shalt thou become a partner in heaven. Matter is one, but hath assumed livers' shapes in the midst of all. Recognize God, save Kabir thou hast abandoned heaven and detached thyself to hell. The following was composed on the occasion of Kabir's visit to the house of a yogi friend whom he found dead. Eighteen, not a drop, now trickled from the citadel of thy brain. Where is the music that told it? The great saint hath departed with the name of the supreme brahm, the supreme God. O Father, with hath departed the soul which dwelt with thy body, which reveled in divine knowledge expounded and preached, with hath the player gone who played the drum of thy body, thy tales, thy words, thy divine instruction are no longer heard, all thy vital energy hath been drawn away, thine ears have become deaf, the vigor of thine organs have declined, thy feet have failed, thy hands are relaxed, no word issued from thy lips. The five enemies, robbers all, which wander according to their own will, hath grown weary, the elephant thy mind hath grown weary, the heart which beat by the force of thy soul, the wire puller hath grown weary, thou art dead, and ten breaths which kept thee together hath escaped, thou hast left thy friends and relations, save Kabir, he who meditated, on God bursteth his bonds even while alive. Maman, under the guise of a serpent, nineteen, nothing is potent against the serpent, wish to see Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the serpent having completely subdued the world, hath entered pure water. By the guru's favor I have seen her coming, who hath stung the three worlds and guarded myself against her. O my brethren, why call out, serpent, serpent, he who knoweth the true one hath destroyed the serpent, no one else is free from her attack. When the serpent is vanquished, what can death do to man? The serpent is God's creature, she is weak, what can she do? As long, however, as she abideth with man, his soul shall abide in bodies. By the favor of the guru, Kabir, hath easily escaped from her. Throw not pearls before a swine, twenty, what availeth it to read the simritis to a dog? What do you sing God's praises to an infidel? Continue to repeat God's name, speak not to the infidel, even by mistake, what availeth it to give a raven-valuable camphor, to eat, what to give milk to a viper? Discrimination and understanding are obtained in the company of the saints. By the touch of the philosopher's stone, iron becomeeth gold, the dog of an infidel acteth in everything as he is caused to act. His acts are in accordance with his original destiny. Worth thou to take nectar and water, the nem-tree with it, save Kabir, its natural bitter qualities, when not depart. End of Kabir's Hymns, Part Two