the clay jug

...

Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains,

and the maker of canyons and pine mountains!

All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars.

The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels.

And the music from the stirings that no one touches, and the

source of all water.

...

It you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:

Friend, listen:  the God whom I love is inside.

...

~ Kabir

hiding in this cage

hiding in this cage

of visible matter

is the invisible

lifebird

pay attention

to her

she is singing

your song

~ Kabir

english version by Rushil Rao

plung

Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.

Jump into experience while you are alive!

Think...and think... while you are alive.

What you call "salvation" belongs to the time

before death.

 

If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,

do you think

ghosts will do it after?

 

The idea that the soul will rejoin with the ecstatic

just because the body is rotten -

that is all fantasy.

If you find nothing now,

you will simply end up with an apartment in the 

City of Death

 

If you make love with the divine now, in the next

life you will have the face of satisfied desire.

 

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,

Believe in the Great Sound!

 

Kabir says this:  When the Guest is being searched for,

it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that

does all the work.

Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.

 

 

 

 

Kabir

art by Juna Biagioni

songs of Kabir

 

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.




~ Kabir

translated by Rabindranath Tagore

you are sitting in a wagon

You are sitting in a wagon being

drawn by a horse whose

reins you

hold.

There are two inside of you

who can steer.

Though most never hand the reins to Me

so they go from place to place the

best they can, though

rarely happy.

And rarely does their whole body laugh

feeling God's poke

in the

ribs.

If you feel tired, dear,

my shoulder is soft,

I'd be glad to

steer a

while.

~ Kibir

art by Van Gogh

the guest is inside

.

The Guest is inside you, and also inside me;

you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.

We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.

Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.

The blue sky opens out farther and farther,

the daily sense of failure goes away,

the damage I have done to myself fades,

a million suns come forward with light,

when I sit firmly in that world.

I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken,

inside "love" there is more joy than we know of,

rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds,

there are whole rivers of light.

The universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love.

How hard it is to feel that joy in all our four bodies!

Those who hope to be reasonable about it fail.

The arrogance of reason has separated us from that love.

With the word "reason" you already feel miles away.

How lucky Kabir is, that surrounded by all this joy

he sings inside his own little boat.

His poems amount to one soul meeting another.

These songs are about forgetting dying and loss.

They rise above both coming in and going out.

~ Kabir

version by Robert Bly

listen

listen

hiding in this cage

of visible matter

is the invisible

lifebird

pay attention

to her

she is singing

your song

~ Kabir

Sushil Rao translation

hidden inside the seed

The Guest is inside you, and also inside me;
you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.
We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.
Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.

The blue sky opens out farther and farther,
the daily sense of failure goes away,
the damage I have done to myself fades,
a million suns come forward with light,
when I sit firmly in that world.

I hear bells ringing that no-one has shaken,
inside “love” there is more joy than we know of,
rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds,
there are whole rivers of light.
The universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love.
how hard it is to feel that joy in all our four bodies!

Those who hope to be reasonable about it fail.
The arrogance of reason has separated us from that love.
With the word “reason” you already feel miles away.

How lucky Kabir is, that surrounded by all this joy
he sings inside his own little boat.
His poems amount to one soul meeting another.
These songs are about forgetting dying and loss.
They rise above both coming in and going out.

 ~ Kabir

 from Ecstatic Poems, by Kabir

far off though very near

Musk lies in the musk deer’s own nave,
But roam in the forest he does – it to seek;
Alike, God pervades heart to heart,
But men of the world this don’t conceive.

In man himself the Master dwells,
But man, deluded, knows not this,
So similar to the musk deer who
Again and again the grass sniffs.
...

God exists, profuse, in each place,
So don’t think He’s less here and more there,
Those who say He’s far – He is far,
Those who know Him near – He’s near.

I knew God to be far away,
But He is ubiquitous – here and there;
Thou didst know Him to be far off,
He’s far off though very near.

 ~ Kabir

fallen out on the road

The small ruby everyone wants has fallen out on the road.

Some say its East of us, others West of us.

Some say "among primitive earth rocks," others "in the deep waters." 

Kabir's instinct told him it was inside, and what it was worth,

And he wrapped it up carefully in his heart cloth.

~ Kabir

from More Than True - The Wisdom of Fairy Tales by Robert Bly

 

 

where?

Where are you searching for me, friend?

Look! Here am I right within you.

Not in temple, nor in mosque,

Not in Kaaba, nor Kailas,

But here right within you am I. 

~ Kabir

the unknown flute

I know the sound of the ecstatic flute,

but I don't know whose flute it is.

A lamp burns and has neither wick nor oil.

A lily pad blossoms and is not attached to the bottom! 

When one flower opens, ordinarily dozens open.

The moon bird's head is filled with nothing but thoughts of the moon,

and when the next rain will come is all that the rain bird thinks of.

How is it we spend our entire life loving? 

~ Kabir 

the "I" creature and the moon

There’s a moon in my body, but I can't see it!

A moon and a sun.

A drum never touched by hands, beating, and I can’t hear it! 

As long as a human being worries about when he will die,

and what he has that is his, all of his works are zero.

When affection for the I-creature and what it owns is dead,

then the work of the Teacher is over.

The purpose of labor is to learn;

when you know it, the labor is over.

The apple blossom exists to create fruit; when that

comes, the petal falls.

The musk is inside the deer, but the deer does not

look for it: it wanders around looking for grass.

~ Kabir

arrogance of reason

The guest is inside you, and also inside me;

you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.

We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.

Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.

The blue sky opens out farther and farther,

the daily sense of failure goes away,

the damage I have done to myself fades,

a million suns come forward with light,

when I sit firmly in that world.

I hear bells ringing that no one has shaken,

inside "love" there is more joy than we know of,

rain pours down, although the sky is clear of clouds,

there are whole rivers of light.

The universe is shot through in all parts by a single sort of love.

How hard it is to feel that joy in all our four bodies!

Those who hope to be reasonable about it fail.

The arrogance of reason has separated us from that love.

With the word "reason" you already feel miles away.

 

~ Kabir

from The Kabir book: Forty-four of the ecstatic poems of Kabir

affection for the I-creature

There's a moon in my body, but I can't see it! 

A moon and a sun. 

A drum never touched by hands, beating, 

and I can't hear it.

As long as a human being worries about when he will die, 

and what he has that is his, 

all of his works are zero. 

When affection for the I-creature and what it owns is dead, 

then the work of the Teacher is over. 

The purpose of labor is to learn; 

when you know it, the labor is over. 

The apple blossom exists to create fruit; 

when that comes, the petal falls. 

The musk is inside the deer, 

but the deer does not look for it: 

It wanders around looking for grass. 

~ Kabir

photo by kathleen connally

knowing nothing

.

Knowing nothing shuts the iron gates;

the new love opens them.

The sound of the gates opening wakes the beautiful woman asleep.

Kabir says:   Fantastic!  Don't let a chance like this go by!

~ Kabir

version by Robert Bly

stand firm

.

I said to the wanting-creature inside me:

What is this river you want to cross?

There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.

Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or nesting?

.

There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.

There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.

There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!

.

And there is no body, and no mind!

Do you believe there is some place that will make the

soul less thirsty?

In that great absence you will find nothing.

.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;

there you have a solid place for your feet.

Think about it carefully!

Don't go off somewhere else!

.

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of

imaginary things,

and stand firm in that which you are. 

.

~ Kabir

thanks to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights

.

deep inside the flower

.

I know of a place not ruled by flatness 

Or constant risings depressions, 

 those alive are not afraid to die. 

There wild flowers come up through the leafy floor, 

 the fragrance of "I am he" floats on the wind. 

...There the love bee stays deep inside the flower 

and cares for no other thing.

~ Kabir

Are you looking for me?

.

.

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat. 

My shoulder is against yours.

.

You will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms, 

nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:

.

not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding

around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables.

.

When you really look for me, you will see me.

instantly -- you will find me in the tiniest house of time.

.

Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?

.

He is the breath inside the breath.

.

~ Kabir

.

"There is nothing of value in here."

.

I was

looking for that shop

where the shopkeeper would say,

"There is nothing of value in here."

I found it and did

not leave.

The richness of not wanting

wrote these

poems.

.

~ Kibir

.