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,
Kabîr says: "Put all imaginations away, and stand fast in that
which you are."
XXI
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.
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."
XXII
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 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!"
XXIII
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.
Kabîr says: "O brother, behold! the Lord is in this vessel of my
body."
XXIV
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."
XXV
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!
XXVI
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!
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.
XXVII
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 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.