Mystic Verses of Kabir

Open your eyes of love, and see Him who pervades this world,

consider it well, and know that this is your own country.

When you meet the true Guru, He will awaken your heart;

He will tell you the secret of love and detachment, and then you

will know indeed that He transcends this universe.

This world is the City of Truth, its maze of paths enchants the

heart:

We can reach the goal without crossing the road, such is the

sport unending.

Where the ring of manifold joys ever dances about Him, there is

the sport of Eternal Bliss.

When we know this, then all our receiving and renouncing is

over;

Thenceforth the heat of having shall never scorch us more.

He is the Ultimate Rest unbounded:

He has spread His form of love throughout all the world.

From that Ray which is Truth, streams of new forms are

perpetually springing: and He pervades those forms.

All the gardens and groves and bowers are abounding with blossom;

and the air breaks forth into ripples of joy.

There the swan plays a wonderful game,

There the Unstruck Music eddies around the Infinite One;

There in the midst the Throne of the Unheld is shining, whereon

the great Being sits —

Millions of suns are shamed by the radiance of a single hair of

His body.

On the harp of the road what true melodies are being sounded!

and its notes pierce the heart:

There the Eternal Fountain is playing its endless life-streams of

birth and death.

They call Him Emptiness who is the Truth of truths, in Whom all

truths are stored!

There within Him creation goes forward, which is beyond all

philosophy; for philosophy cannot attain to Him:

There is an endless world, O my Brother! and there is the

Nameless Being, of whom naught can be said.

Only he knows it who has reached that region: it is other than

all that is heard and said.

No form, no body, no length, no breadth is seen there: how can I

tell you that which it is?

He comes to the Path of the Infinite on whom the grace of the

Lord descends: he is freed from births and deaths who attains

to Him.

Kabir says: “It cannot be told by the words of the mouth, it

cannot be written on paper:

It is like a dumb person who tastes a sweet thing — how shall it

be explained?” (Songs of Kabir, Rabindranath Tagore)

Go thou to the company of the good, where the Beloved One has His
dwelling place:
Take all thy thoughts and love and instruction from thence.
Let that assembly be burnt to ashes where His Name is not spoken!
Tell me, how couldst thou hold a wedding-feast, if the bridegroom
himself were not there?
Waver no more, think only of the Beloved;
Set not thy heart on the worship of other gods, there is no worth
in the worship of other masters.
Kabir deliberates and says: “Thus thou shalt never find the
Beloved! (Songs of Kabir, Rabindranath Tagore)

“He who realizes this Essence of the Word has no need to observe religious fasts, bathing in holy rivers, daily religious rituals, prayers in the morning and evening, and of going on pilgrimages. Such a realized person is indeed in direct contact with God, and has arisen above all the daily religious observances.” (Brahm Nirupan of Kabir)

Image: Based on Kabir art from, The Anurag Sagar, Sant Bani Books