Kabir Quotes

7/30/2019 Kabir Quotes

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Some quotes of Kabr

Moko kah hhe re bande

Where will you find me, my friend?

Im always near.

Not in idols or sacred spas,

not in secret places,

Im not in temples or mosques,

not in K or Kail.

Im not in prayer or penance,

not in vows or fasts.

I dont stay in yoga, in rites,

or renunciation.

Look and youll find me as quick

as the wink of an eye.

Says Kabr: Listen, sadhu.

Im found in faith.1

Man t phl phire

O mind, you merrily strut your stuff,

But who in this world can you find to trust?

The mother says: This is my son.

The sister says: He is my hero.

The brother says: He is my rock.

The woman says: He is my man.

His mother cries for the rest of her life.

His sister cries for less than a year.His woman cries for a couple of weeks

Then goes to live with someone else.

The shroud the begged was four yards long.

The pyre was lite, just like at Holi.

The bones burned up like firewood.

The hair burned up like dried grass.

1David N. Lorenzen. Praises to a Formless God: Nirgu Texts from North India. Delhi: Sri Satguru

Publications, 1997, p. 213.

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The body that once was gold is burnt

And no one wants to come near to it now.

The women of the house begin to cry,

Wandering all over, searching in vain.

Says Kabr: Listen, brother sadhu.

Give up the hopes you hold for the world.2

Pad 119 (Kabr Granthval)

Pundit, so well-read, go ask God

who his teacher is

and who hes taught.

He alone knows what shape he has

and he keeps it to himself,

alone.

Child of a childless woman,

a fatherless son,

someone without feet who climbs trees,

A solider without weaponry,

no elephant, no horse,

charging into battle with no sword,

A sprout without a seed,

a tree without a trunk,

blossoms on a tree without a branch,

A woman without beauty,

a scent without a flower,

a tank filled to the top without water,

A temple without a god,

worship without leaves,a lazy bee that has no wings.

You have to be a hero to reach that highest state;

the rest, like insects,

burn like moths in the flame

A flame without a lamp,

a lamp without a flame,

an unsounded sound that sounds without end.

2Lorenzen, Praises to a Formless God, pp. 210211.

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Those who comprehend it,

let them comprehend.

Kabir has gone off into God.3


Go naked if you want,

Put on animal skins.

What does it matter till you see the inward Ram?

If the union yogis seek

Came form roaming about in the buff,

every deer in the forest would be saved.

If shaving your head

Spelled spiritual success,

heaven would be filled with sheep.

And brother, if holding back your seed

Earned you a place in paradise,

eunuchs would be the first to arrive.

Kabir says: Listen brother,

Without the name of Ramwho has ever won the spirits prize?4


If case was what the Creator had in mind,

why wasnt anyone born

with Sivas three-lined sign?

If youre a Brahmin,

from a Brahmin woman born,

why didnt you come out some special way?

And if youre a Muslim,

from a Muslim woman born,

why werent you circumcised inside?

3John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer. Songs of the Saints of India. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1988, p. 57.4Ibid., p. 50.

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Says Kabir: No one is lowly born.

The only lowly are those

who never talk of Ram.5

Skh 1 (Bjak)

Seekers, bhakti came from the Guru.

A woman bore two men

get this, pandits and sages.

A rock broke open, out came the Ganges

on all sides, water, water.

Two mountaints hit the water,

stream entered wave.

A fly flew up, perched in a tree,

and spoke one word.

A female fly without a male,

she swelled up without water.

One woman ate up all the men,

now I alone remain.

Kabir says, if you understand this,

youre guru, Im disciple.6

abda 10 (Bjak)

Saints, Ive seen both ways.

Hindus and Muslims dont want discipline,

they want tasty food.

The Hindu keeps the elventh-day fast

eating chestnuts and milk.

He curbs his grain but not his brainand breaks his fast with meat.

The Turk prays daily, fasts once a year,

and crows God! God! like a cock.

What heaven is reserved for people

who kill chickens in the dark?

5Hawley and Juergensmeyer, Songs of the Saints of India, p. 54.6Linda Hess. Three Kabir Collections: A Comparative Study. In: The Sants: Studies in a Devo-

tional Tradition of India. Ed. by Karine Schomer and W.H. McLeod. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987,

pp. 111142, p. 132. Also see ibid., p. 132 for a short discussion on this skh.

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For kindness and compassion

theyve cast out all desire.

One kills with a chop, one lets the blood drop,

in both houses burns the same fire.Turks and Hindus have one way,

the gurus made it clear.

Dont say Ram, dont say Khuda.

So says Kabir.7

abda 75 (Bjak)

Its a heavy confusion.

Veda, Koran, holiness, hell, woman, man,a clay pot shot with air and sperm

When the pot falls apart, what do you call it?

Numskull! Youve missed the point.

Its all one skin and bone, one piss and shit,

one blood, one meat.

From one drop, a universe.

Whos Brahmin? Whos Shudra?

Brahma rajas, Shiva tamas, Vishnu sattvaKabir says, plunge into Ram!

There: No Hindu. No Turk.8

References

Hawley, John Stratton and Mark Juergensmeyer. Songs of the Saints of India. New York:

Oxford University Press, 1988.

Hess, Linda. Three Kabir Collections: A Comparative Study. In: The Sants: Studies in

a Devotional Tradition of India. Ed. by Karine Schomer and W.H. McLeod. Delhi:

Motilal Banarsidass, 1987, pp. 111142.

Hess, Linda and Sukhdev Singh. The Bjak of Kabir. reprint 2001. Delhi: Motilal

Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, 1983.

Lorenzen, David N. Praises to a Formless God: Nirgu Texts from North India. Delhi:

Sri Satguru Publications, 1997.

7Linda Hess and Sukhdev Singh. The Bjak of Kabir. reprint 2001. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass

Publishers Private Limited, 1983, p. 46.8

Ibid., p. 67.

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