Ang 335

GAUREE: Let contemplation and intuitive meditation be your two ear-rings, and true wisdom your patched overcoat. In the cave of silence, dwell in your Yogic posture; let the subjugation of desire be your spiritual path. ||1|| O my King, I am a Yogi, a hermit, a renunciate. I do not die or suffer pain or separation. ||1|| Pause|| The solar systems and galaxies are my horn; the whole world is the bag to carry my ashes. Eliminating the three qualities and finding release from this world is my deep meditation. ||2|| My mind and breath are the two gourds of my fiddle, and the Lord of all the ages is its frame. The string has become steady, and it does not break; this guitar vibrates with the unstruck melody. ||3|| Hearing it, the mind is enraptured and becomes perfect; it does not waver, and it is not affected by Maya. Says Kabeer, the bairaagee, the renunciate, who has played such a game, is not reincarnated again into the world of form and substance. ||4||2||53||

GAUREE: Nine yards, ten yards, and twenty-one yards — weave these into the full piece of cloth; take the sixty threads and add nine joints to the seventy-two on the loom. ||1|| Life weaves itself into its patterns. Leaving her home, the soul goes to the world of the weaver. ||1|| Pause|| This cloth cannot be measured in yards or weighed with weights; its food is two and a half measures. If it does not obtain food right away, it quarrels with the master of the house. ||2|| How many days will you sit here, in opposition to your Lord and Master? When will this opportunity come again? Leaving his pots and pans, and the bobbins wet with his tears, the weaver soul departs in jealous anger. ||3|| The wind-pipe is empty now; the thread of the breath does not come out any longer. The thread is tangled; it has run out. So renounce the world of form and substance while you remain here, O poor soul; says Kabeer: you must understand this! ||4||3||54||

GAUREE: When one light merges into another, what becomes of it then? That person, within whose heart the Lord’s Name does not well up — may that person burst and die! ||1|| O my dark and beautiful Lord, my mind is attached to You. ||1|| Pause|| Meeting with the Holy, the perfection of the Siddhas is obtained. What good is Yoga or indulgence in pleasures? When the two meet together, the business is conducted, and the link with the Lord’s Name is established. ||2|| People believe that this is just a song, but it is a meditation on God. It is like the instructions given to the dying man at Benares. ||3|| Whoever sings or listens to the Lord’s Name with conscious awareness — says Kabeer, without a doubt, in the end, he obtains the highest status. ||4||1||4||55||

GAUREE: Those who try to do things by their own efforts are drowned in the terrifying world-ocean; they cannot cross over. Those who practice religious rituals and strict self-discipline — their egotistical pride shall consume their minds. ||1|| Your Lord and Master has given you the breath of life and food to sustain you; Oh, why have you forgotten Him? Human birth is a priceless jewel, which has been squandered in exchange for a worthless shell. ||1|| Pause|| The thirst of desire and the hunger of doubt afflict you; you do not contemplate the Lord in your heart. Intoxicated with pride, you cheat yourself; you have not enshrined the Word of the Guru’s Shabad within your mind. ||2|| Those who are deluded by sensual pleasures, who are tempted by sexual delights and enjoy wine are corrupt. But those who, through destiny and good karma, join the Society of the Saints, float over the ocean, like iron attached to wood. ||3|| I have wandered in doubt and confusion, through birth and reincarnation; now, I am so tired. I am suffering in pain and wasting away. Says Kabeer, meeting with the Guru, I have obtained supreme joy; my love and devotion have saved me. ||4||1||5||56||

GAUREE: Like the straw figure of a female elephant, fashioned to trap the bull elephant, O crazy mind, the Lord of the Universe has staged the drama of this world. Attracted by the lure of sexual desire, the elephant is captured, O crazy mind, and now the halter is placed around its neck. ||1|| So escape from corruption and immerse yourself in the Lord; take this advice, O crazy mind. You have not meditated fearlessly on the Lord, O crazy mind; you have not embarked upon the Lord’s Boat. ||1|| Pause|| The monkey stretches out its hand, O crazy mind, and takes a handful of corn; now unable to escape, O crazy mind, it is made to dance door to door. ||2|| Like the parrot caught in the trap, O crazy mind, you trapped by the affairs of Maya. Like the weak dye of the safflower, O crazy mind, so is the expanse of this world of form and substance. ||3|| There are so many holy shrines in which to bathe, O crazy mind, and so many gods to worship. Says Kabeer, you shall not be saved like this, O crazy mind; only by serving the Lord will you find release. ||4||1||6||57||