Ang 1372

Kabeer, you have not contemplated the Lord, and now old age has overtaken you. Now that the door of your mansion is on fire, what can you take out? ||132|| Kabeer, the Creator does whatever He pleases. There is none other than Him; He alone is the Creator of all. ||133|| Kabeer, the fruit trees are bearing fruit, and the mangoes are becoming ripe. They will reach the owner, only if the crows do not eat them first. ||134|| Kabeer, some buy idols and worship them; in their stubborn-mindedness, they make pilgrimages to sacred shrines. They look at one another, and wear religious robes, but they are deluded and lost. ||135|| Kabeer, someone sets up a stone idol and all the world worships it as the Lord. Those who hold to this belief will be drowned in the river of darkness. ||136|| Kabeer, the paper is the prison, and the ink of rituals are the bars on the windows. The stone idols have drowned the world, and the Pandits, the religious scholars, have plundered it on the way. ||137|| Kabeer, that which you have to do tomorrow — do it today instead; and that which you have to do now — do it immediately! Later on, you will not be able to do anything, when death hangs over your head. ||138|| Kabeer, I have seen a person, who is as shiny as washed wax. He seems very clever and very virtuous, but in reality, he is without understanding, and corrupt. ||139|| Kabeer, the Messenger of Death shall not compromise my understanding. I have meditated on the Lord, the Cherisher, who created this Messenger of Death. ||140|| Kabeer, the Lord is like musk; all His slaves are like bumble bees. The more Kabeer worships Him, the more the Lord abides within his mind. ||141|| Kabeer, the mortal has fallen into the grip of family life, and the Lord has been set aside. The messengers of the Righteous Judge of Dharma descend upon the mortal, in the midst of all his pomp and ceremony. ||142|| Kabeer, even a pig is better than the faithless cynic; at least the pig keeps the village clean. When the wretched, faithless cynic dies, no one even mentions his name. ||143|| Kabeer, the mortal gathers wealth, shell by shell, accumulating thousands and millions. But when the time of his departure comes, he takes nothing at all with him. He is even stripped of his loin-cloth. ||144|| Kabeer, what good is it to become a devotee of Vishnu, and wear four malas? On the outside, he may look like pure gold, but on the inside, he is stuffed with dust. ||145|| Kabeer, let yourself be a pebble on the path; abandon your egotistical pride. Such a humble slave shall meet the Lord God. ||146||

Kabeer, what good would it be, to be a pebble? It would only hurt the traveller on the path. Your slave, O Lord, is like the dust of the earth. ||147|| Kabeer, what then, if one could become dust? It is blown up by the wind, and sticks to the body. The humble servant of the Lord should be like water, which cleans everything. ||148|| Kabeer, what then, if one could become water? It becomes cold, then hot. The humble servant of the Lord should be just like the Lord. ||149|| The banners wave above the lofty mansions, filled with gold and beautiful women. But better than these is dry bread, if one sings the Glorious Praises of the Lord in the Society of the Saints. ||150|| Kabeer, the wilderness is better than a city, if the Lord’s devotees live there. Without my Beloved Lord, it is like the City of Death for me. ||151|| Kabeer, between the Ganges and Jamunaa Rivers, on the shore of Celestial Silence, there, Kabeer has made his home. The silent sages and the humble servants of the Lord search for the way to get there. ||152|| Kabeer, if the mortal continues to love the Lord in the end, as he pledged in the beginning, no poor diamond, not even millions of jewels, can equal him. ||153|| Kabeer, I saw a strange and wonderful thing. A jewel was being sold in a store. Because there was no buyer, it was going in exchange for a shell. ||154|| Kabeer, where there is spiritual wisdom, there is righteousness and Dharma. Where there is falsehood, there is sin. Where there is greed, there is death. Where there is forgiveness, there is God Himself. ||155|| Kabeer, what good is it to give up Maya, if the mortal does not give up his pride? Even the silent sages and seers are destroyed by pride; pride eats up everything. ||156|| Kabeer, the True Guru has met me; He aimed the Arrow of the Shabad at me. As soon as it struck me, I fell to the ground with a hole in my heart. ||157|| Kabeer, what can the True Guru do, when His Sikhs are at fault? The blind do not take in any of His Teachings; it is as useless as blowing into bamboo. ||158|| Kabeer, the wife of the king has all sorts of horses, elephants and carriages. But she is not equal to the water-carrier of the Lord’s humble servant. ||159|| Kabeer, why do you slander the wife of the king? Why do you honor the slave of the Lord? Because one combs her hair for corruption, while the other remembers the Name of the Lord. ||160|| Kabeer, with the Support of the Lord’s Pillar, I have become steady and stable. The True Guru has given me courage. Kabeer, I have purchased the diamond, on the banks of the Mansarovar Lake. ||161||