The Light of the Sun
THE light of the sun, the moon,
and the stars shines bright:
The melody of love swells forth,
and the rhythm of love's detachment beats the time.
Day and night, the chorus of music fills the heavens;
and Kabîr says 'My Beloved One gleams like the lightning flash in the sky.'
Do you know how the moments perform their adoration?
Waving its row of lamps,
the universe sings in worship day and night,
There are the hidden banner and the secret canopy:
There the sound of the unseen bells is heard.
Kabîr says: 'There adoration never ceases;
there the Lord of the Universe sitteth on His throne.'
The whole world does its works and commits its errors:
but few are the lovers who know the Beloved.
The devout seeker is he who mingles in his heart
the double currents of love and detachment,
like the mingling of the streams of Ganges and Jumna;
In his heart the sacred water flows day and night;
and thus the round of births and deaths is brought to an end.
Behold what wonderful rest is in the Supreme Spirit!
and he enjoys it, who makes himself meet for it.
Held by the cords of love,
the swing of the Ocean of Joy sways to and fro;
and a mighty sound breaks forth in song.
See what a lotus blooms there without water!
and Kabîr says 'My heart's bee drinks its nectar.'
What a wonderful lotus it is,
that blooms at the heart of the spinning wheel of the universe!
Only a few pure souls know of its true delight.
Music is all around it,
and there the heart partakes of the joy of the Infinite Sea.
Kabîr says: 'Dive thou into that Ocean of sweetness:
thus let all errors of life and of death flee away.'
Behold how the thirst of the five senses is quenched there!
and the three forms of misery are no more!
Kabîr says: 'It is the sport of the Unattainable One:
look within, and behold how the moon-beams
of that Hidden One shine in you.'
There falls the rhythmic beat of life and death:
Rapture wells forth, and all space is radiant with light.
There the Unstruck Music is sounded;
it is the music of the love of the three worlds.
There millions of lamps of sun and of moon are burning;
There the drum beats, and the lover swings in play.
There love-songs resound, and light rains in showers;
and the worshipper is entranced in the taste of the heavenly nectar.
Look upon life and death; there is no separation between them,
The right hand and the left hand are one and the same.
Kabîr says: 'There the wise man is speechless;
for this truth may never be found in Vadas or in books.'
I have had my Seat on the Self-poised One,
I have drunk of the Cup of the Ineffable,
I have found the Key of the Mystery,
I have reached the Root of Union.
Travelling by no track,
I have come to the Sorrowless Land:
very easily has the mercy of the great Lord come upon me.
They have sung of Him as infinite and unattainable:
but I in my meditations have seen Him without sight.
That is indeed the sorrowless land,
and none know the path that leads there:
Only he who is on that path has surely transcended all sorrow.
Wonderful is that land of rest,
to which no merit can win;
It is the wise who has seen it,
it is the wise who has sung of it.
This is the Ultimate Word:
but can any express its marvellous savour?
He who has savoured it once,
he knows what joy it can give.
Kabîr says: 'Knowing it,
the ignorant man becomes wise,
and the wise man becomes speechless and silent,
The worshipper is utterly inebriated,
His wisdom and his detachment are made perfect;
He drinks from the cup of the inbreathings and the outbreathings of love.'
There the whole sky is filled with sound,
and there that music is made without fingers and without strings;
There the game of pleasure and pain does not cease.
Kabîr says: 'If you merge your life in the Ocean of Life,
you will find your life in the Supreme Land of Bliss.'
What a frenzy of ecstasy there is in every hour!
and the worshipper is pressing out and drinking the essence of the hours:
he lives in the life of Brahma.
I speak truth, for I have accepted truth in life;
I am now attached to truth,
I have swept all tinsel away.
Kabîr says: 'Thus is the worshipper set free from fear;
thus have all errors of life and of death left him.'
There the sky is filled with music:
There it rains nectar:
There the harp-strings jingle,
and there the drums beat.
What a secret splendour is there,
in the mansion of the sky!
There no mention is made of the rising and the setting of the sun;
In the ocean of manifestation,
which is the light of love,
day and night are felt to be one.
Joy for ever, no sorrow,-no struggle!
There have I seen joy filled to the brim, perfection of joy;
No place for error is there.
Kabîr says: 'There have I witnessed the sport of One Bliss! '
I have known in my body the sport of the universe:
I have escaped from the error of this world..
The inward and the outward are become as one sky,
the Infinite and the finite are united:
I am drunken with the sight of this All!
This Light of Thine fulfils the universe:
the lamp of love that burns on the salver of knowledge.
Kabîr says: 'There error cannot enter,
and the conflict of life and death is felt no more.'
Related quotes
When you were born in this world - Dohas II
When you were born in this world
Everyone laughed while you cried
Conduct NOT yourself in manner such
That they laugh when you are gone
Kabir's mind got cleansed like the holy Ganges water
Now everyone follows, saying Kabir Kabir
Guru the washer man, disciple is the cloth
The name of God liken to the soap
Wash the mind on foundation firm
To realize the glow of Truth
Alive one sees, alive one knows
Thus crave for salvation when full of life
Alive you did not cut the noose of binding actions
Hoping liberation with death!
Inexpressible is the story of Love
It cannot be revealed by words
Like the dumb eating sweet-meat
Only smiles, the sweetness he cannot tell
Worry is the bandit that eats into one's heart
What the doctor can do, what remedy to impart?
Says Kabir
Don't be so proud and vain
Looking at your high mansion
Death makes one lie on bare land
And grass will grow thereon
Says Kabir
Don't be so proud and vain
The clutches of Time are dark
Who knows where shall it kill
Whether at home or abroad
Says Kabir
By my doing nothing happens
What I don't does come to pass
If anything happens as if my doing
Then truly it is done by someone else
Like the pupil in the eyes
The Lord resides inside
Ignorant do not know this fact
They search Him outside
First the pangs of separation
Next grows the thirst for Love
Says Kabir then only hope
The union to materialize
The middle region of the sky
The middle region of the sky,
wherein the spirit dwelleth,
is radiant with the music of light;
There, where the pure and white music blossoms,
my Lord takes His delight.
In the wondrous effulgence of each hair of His body, t
he brightness of millions of suns and of moons is lost.
On that shore there is a city,
where the rain of nectar pours and pours,
and never ceases.
Kabîr says: 'Come, O Dharmadas!
and see my great Lord's Durbar.'
The Lord Is In Me
The Lord is in me, and the Lord is in you,
As life is hidden in every seed.
So rubble your pride, my friend,
And look for Him within you.
When I sit in the heart of His world
A million suns blaze with light,
A burning blue sea spreads across the sky,
Life's turmoil falls quiet,
All the stains of suffering wash away.
Listen to the unstruck bells and drums!
Love is here; plunge into its rapture!
Rains pour down without water;
Rivers are streams of light.
How could I ever express
How blessed I feel
To revel in such vast ecstasy
In my own body?
This is the music
Of soul and soul meeting,
Of the forgetting of all grief.
This is the music
That transcends all coming and going
Illusion and Reality
What is seen is not the Truth
What is cannot be said
Trust comes not without seeing
Nor understanding without words
The wise comprehends with knowledge
To the ignorant it is but a wonder
Some worship the formless God
Some worship His various forms
In what way He is beyond these attributes
Only the Knower knows
That music cannot be written
How can then be the notes
Says Kabir, awareness alone will overcome illusion
Many Hoped
Many hoped
but no one found
Hari's heart.
Where do the senses rest?
Where do the Ram-chanters go?
Where do the bright ones go?
Corpses: all gone
to the same place.
Drunk on the juice
of Ram's bliss,
Kabir says,
I've said and I've said,
I'm tired of saying.
I Played day and night
I played day and night with my comrades,
and now I am greatly afraid.
So high is my Lord's palace,
my heart trembles to mount its stairs:
yet I must not be shy, if I would enjoy His love.
My heart must cleave to my Lover;
I must withdraw my veil,
and meet Him with all my body:
Mine eyes must perform the ceremony of the lamps of love.
Kabîr says: 'Listen to me, friend:
he understands who loves.
If you feel not love's longing for your Beloved One,
it is vain to adorn your body,
vain to put unguent on your eyelids.'
Kabir reading 'Kabir
See this fine manuscript
so beautifully illuminated round the picture –
why, it’s none other than Kabir!
reading a book entitled The Poems of Kabir;
he’s smiling, laughing, waving his hands –
how can he be enjoying himself so much?
The manuscript doesn’t tell you this;
only Kabir can tell you, in that other place..
of all the poems, he only recognises two
as poems that he wrote himself..
but here’s Kabir’s delight today:
many of the other poems, he thinks,
could pass for his!
How wonderful to be so praised in spirit!
As he reads – see, he’s circled round with angels;
they’re all laughing too.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Kabir reads 'Kabir
See this fine manuscript
so beautifully illuminated round the picture –
why, it’s none other than Kabir!
reading a book entitled The Poems of Kabir;
he’s smiling, laughing, waving his hands –
how can he be enjoying himself so much?
The manuscript doesn’t tell you this;
only Kabir can tell you, in that other place..
of all the poems, he only recognises two
as poems that he wrote himself..
but here’s Kabir’s delight today:
many of the other poems, he thinks,
are good enough to be his!
How wonderful to be so praised in spirit!
As he reads – see, he’s circled round with angels;
they’re all laughing too.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
O lord Increate, who will serve Thee?
O lord Increate, who will serve Thee?
Every votary offers his worship to the God of his own creation:
each day he receives service-
None seek Him, the Perfect:
Brahma, the Indivisible Lord.
They believe in ten Avatars;
but no Avatar can be the Infinite Spirit,
for he suffers the results of his deeds:
The Supreme One must be other than this.
The Yogi, the Sanyasi,
the Ascetics, are disputing one with another:
Kabîr says, 'O brother! he who has seen that radiance of love,
he is saved.'
His Death In Benares
His death in Benares
Won't save the assassin
From certain hell,
Any more than a dip
In the Ganges will send
Frogs—or you—to paradise.
My home, says Kabir,
Is where there's no day, no night,
And no holy book in sight
To squat on our lives.
O Slave, liberate yourself
O Slave, liberate yourself.
Where are you, and where's your home,
find it in your lifetime, man.
If you fail to wake up now,
you'll be helpless when the end comes.
Says Kabir, listen, O wise one,
the siege of Death is hard to withstand.
I Have Attained The Eternal Bliss
I have attained the Eternal Bliss.
There is no time for sorrow or pain,
for now I enjoy singing His glory.
The tree of His pleasure has neither root, nor seed,
as revealed by the grace of the true Guru.
Now there is effulgence of a million suns,
my swan has dipped in the lake of His knowledge.
Says Kabir, listen, O wise brother,
Now comings and goings have come to an end.
Between the Poles of the Conscious
BETWEEN the poles of the conscious and the unconscious, there has the mind made a swing:
Thereon hang all beings and all worlds, and that swing never ceases its sway.
Millions of beings are there: the sun and the moon in their courses are there:
Millions of ages pass, and the swing goes on.
All swing! the sky and the earth and the air and the water; and the Lord Himself taking form:
And the sight of this has made Kabîr a servant.
When He Himself Reveals Himself
When he himself reveals himself,
Brahma brings into manifestation
That which can never be seen.
As the seed is in the plant,
as the shade is in the tree,
as the void is in the sky,
as infinite forms are in the void-
So from beyond the Infinite,
the Infinite comes;
and from the Infinite the finite extends.
The creature is in Brahma,
and Brahma is in the creature:
they are ever distinct,
yet ever united.
He Himself is the tree, the seed, and the germ.
He Himself is the flower, the fruit, and the shade.
He Himself is the sun, the light, and the lighted.
He Himself is Brahma, creature, and Maya.
He Himself is the manifold form, the infinite space;
He is the breath, the word, and the meaning.
He Himself is the limit and the limitless:
and beyond both the limited and the limitless is He,
the Pure Being.
He is the Immanent Mind in Brahma and in the creature.
The Supreme Soul is seen within the soul,
The Point is seen within the Supreme Soul,
And within the Point, the reflection is seen again.
Kabîr is blest because he has this supreme vision!
The Word
Find the word, understand the word,
Depend on the word;
The word is heaven and space, the word the earth,
The word the universe.
The word is in our ears, the word is on our tongues,
The word the idol.
The word is the holy book, the word is harmony,
The word is music.
The word is magic, the word the Guru.
The word is the body, the word is the spirit, the word is being,
The word Not-being.
The word is man, the word is woman,
The Worshipped Great.
The word is the seen and unseen, the word is the existent
And the non-existent.
Know the word, says Kabir,
The word is All-powerful.
Oh Friend, I Love You, Think This Over
Oh friend, I love you, think this over
carefully! If you are in love,
then why are you asleep?
If you have found him,
give yourself to him, take him.
Why do you lose track of him again and again?
If you are about to fall into heavy sleep anyway,
why waste time smoothing the bed
and arranging the pillows?
Kabir will tell you the truth: this is what love is like:
suppose you had to cut your head off
and give it to someone else,
what difference would that make?
Hang Up The Swing Of Love Today!
Hang the body and the mind between the arms of the beloved,
in the ecstasy of love's joy:
Bring the tearful streams of the rainy clouds to your eyes,
and cover your heart with the shadow of darkness:
Bring your face nearer to his ear,
and speak of the deepest longings of your heart.
Kabir says: 'Listen to me brother!
bring the vision of the Beloved in your heart.'
Friend, Hope For The Guest While You Are Alive
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 join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten—
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
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 search 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.
To be a Slave of Intensity
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 join with the ecstatic
Just because the body is rotten -
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
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.
The Time Before Death
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 join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten --
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
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.