A collection of quotes of Sant Kabir Das
Everyone turns their mind to God in adversity, but not in prosperity. If one were to turn to God in prosperity, there would be no room for adversity.
Everyone turns their mind to God in adversity, but not in prosperity. If one were to turn to God in prosperity, there would be no room for adversity.
Some are in suffering because of their body, some because of
the mind, some are plagued by wealth. Kabir says all are aggrieved. Only the
servants of the Lord are happy.
As fish cannot live out of water; as the thirst of the
chatrak can be quenched only by the rain; with a like intensity, the saints
yearn for the Lord; only the sight of Him can slake their thirst for Him!
We are like grains of wheat caught between the grinding
stones of life. The grains that cling to the central axile of the grinding
stones are uncrushed, while those that move away from the center are crushed into
powder.
One enemy or the other always treads upon our heel; Lust may
be driven out, but anger lingers; and greed will stay when anger goes; and
then, when greed is gone, vain glory, vanity and the wish to be honored fills
the emptiness left in the mind.
You haven’t puzzled out any of the weaver’s secrets:
It took Him a mere moment to stretch out the whole universe on His loom.
Kabir says, I have convince my heart to be content:
For when the heart is content it comprehends Hari
Only they are pure who have completely cleansed their thinking.
Everybody stays within the limits of the mind – no one has transcended the limits of the mind. Those who have gone beyond, the limits of the mind, they alone knows the joys of life.
He who sees the nature of the mind is above time – time does not affect him at all.
The spiritual experience – Samadhi – is a natural experience I do not close my eyes nor do it plug my ears. With open eyes I see His beauty and His splendor, with smile on my face. Whatever I say is His name, whatever I hear is His name, whatever I do is my worship and my adoration.
For me my home and the garden are not different – the place where I am engaged in performing my duties is also the place desolate and lonely.
Beyond the dualities of pain and pleasure is Joy.
The guru who babbles through the ears teaches the limited. The guru who teaches the way to the Unlimited (Supreme Being) is very different. When you meet the guru who knows the Supreme, you are able to realize the Self.
The true Guru removes the veil from the eyes, and gives the true vision of Brahma: He reveals the worlds in Him, and makes me hear the un-struck Music.
It is the mercy of my true Guru that has made me know the Unknown; Kabir says: The Guru is great beyond words and great is the good fortune of the disciple.
It is the Spirit of the quest which helps; I am the slave of this Spirit of the quest.
O men and women; seek shelter with the One and Only. Repeat His singular Name, you creatures: for only then will you be able to cross life’s ocean.
My good men, what comes and goes bustling about the world, is Maya.
As a honeybee accumulates its honey, so a man accumulates his wealth. But when he is dead, the others say, take him away, take him away! Why have we let his corpse lie here so long?
Those who break the circuit of the senses aren’t very far from the supreme station, their destination.
When the heart is content, it comprehends Hari.
In a world of disaster, you can’t find your way without the True Master.
The earth bears all the kicks, the trees sway of floods; similarly the noble tolerates hot harsh words that others cannot bear.
You gain in power by becoming humble. Little ants move with sugar in mouth; mighty elephants bath in dust.
Speak in soft and sweet words that will soothe your mind. It will please others and you will also find it pleasing.
For fear of others opinion man forgets value of truth. He discards gold in favor of glass and defaces himself.
There is a sound that is made when a sword is being cleaned, and when it is clean – meaning when the impurities are gone – there is no more sound. In this same way, clean the impurities of the mind and make the consciousness like a mirror.
There is a sound that is made when a sword is being cleaned, and when it is clean – meaning when the impurities are gone – there is no more sound. In this same way, clean the impurities of the mind and make the consciousness like a mirror.
Both the greedy guru and the lust/desire filled disciple are trying to strike a profitable bargain with each other. This type of guru and disciple both are on a boat made of stone and will drown in it.
Do not wait to leave the company of a false guru. If you do not leave at the earliest you will not find the door to the Omkar Sound, and you will fall in the net of delusion and remain in the world-ocean.
Everything visible that you see – all of that is subject to destruction. Whatever you hold by name, that will go away. So get hold of the imperishable.
Where there is bliss, sorrow is far away.
Those who break the circuit of the senses are not very far from their destination.
I have convinced my heart to be content; for when the heart is content; it comprehends Hari.
They are the fortunate ones who have kept the company of good men, and hence are imbued with Hari’s color – they share in the Lord’s substance. They have found perennial happiness, in this word, in that one – they have won the priceless object.
Hari becomes sugar and scatters himself in the sand. No elephant can sift the crystals from the sand grains. Kabir says, renounce all family, caste, and clan. Turn into an ant’ instead – pick the sugar from the sand and eat.
People are divided into various groups (religions) and that is how the whole world is misguided. One who performs devotion to the Almighty God, being impartial to worldly groups (religions) it the true saint.
If you do not break your ropes while you are alive, do you think ghosts will do it for you later.
Only they are pure who have completely cleansed their thinking.
Search your heart, your heart of hearts; that’s HIS abode that’s His camp.
All the women and men ever born are nothing but your embodied forms.
Only one in a million awakens…when he does, he gives up what is tainted and joins the incorruptible.
The king, the beggar, and the saint
All are disconsolate
Only he who controls his mind
Is happy and content
Speech is the most precious wealth
If you know what to speak,
Diamond you can buy with money
Speech is priceless gem to seek.
Words of love and welcome dry up
In moments and forever
As soon as you stretch your hand
And beg for the smallest favor.
At the falling dry old leaf
The tender leaf does sneer,
Says the falling leaf –
Today my turn, tomorrow yours
Have patience, O my dear.
Do so meditate on the Lord
The flow it will not drain.
Serve the Lord with attributes; contemplate the Lord without attributes. Our goal is to reach the State beyond attributes and no attributes.
Infidels are those who kill the innocent and steal.
Diamonds are not found in heaps. The fragrant sandalwood trees do not grow in rows. Lions do not move in herds. The spiritual man has no followers.
The life where there are no stirrings of love is comparable to a cremation ground. Just as the bellows of a blacksmith have a process of breathing in and breathing out, but with no vitality.
Everyone has gone upto their limits and boundaries no one has crossed over the frontiers. Kabir plays in the open spaces that have no boundaries.
Pandit, do some research and let me know how to destroy transiency.
Do not oppress the poor and weak
Think not they are helpless
Remember, the breath of the lifeless blower
Can burn steel to ashes.
Who pricks you with nail
You prick him with flower
You will get back flower for flower
He a trident for nail, be sure.
Why should Kabir be afraid
For, God is above all
On elephant’s back is anyone afraid
If dogs howl from below.
A mere quarrel if retorted
Grows to fighting and death
Says Kabir you don’t retort
The quarrel will end at that.
Gone is your youth, old age has come
Yet you continue doing evil deed.
End of your days is not far off
Seek God’s shelter take heed.
All that rises shall set one day
All that blooms decay
What one builds shall crumble down
Whoever born shall die.
Do not judge a man by his clothes
Measure his knowledge
The real worth of the gold you
On the touch stone along gauge.
Lord Rama dwells in the heart of man
Him he never explores
Forgetting the God in the heart’s temple
The stone idol he implores.
The lustful, the greedy, the angry man
Can tone for salvation
But for the liquor addicted one
There is no way to atone.
There is no way to atone.
Tell me brother, how can I renounce maya?
When I gave up the tying of ribbons, still it tied my garment about me.
When I gave up the tying my garment, still I covered my body in its folds.
So, when I give up passion, I see that anger remains.
And when I renounce anger, greed is with me still.
And when greed is vanquished, pride and vainglory remain.
When the mind is detached and casts maya away, still it clings to the latter.
Kabir says, Listen to me dear Sadhu! The true path is rarely found.
In dream did my Love come to me
I woke up to His tender touch.
To retain the bliss of my dream
I do not at all open my eyes.
Do come once inside my eye my love
I shall at once drop the lids
So I alone shall see You there
And none else You can see!
Says Kabir – O Lord long long since
I parted from you.
Now my mind is too restless
For the reunion
Do extend your kind hand
And take me near you
My Lord do hear my entreaty.
The wooden rosary said to the one who was counting the beads, ‘Oh! What is the use of rolling me on your fingers? Just turn the bead of your mind and you shall immediately meet the Lord.’
I am mad with the love of the Lord,
Why should I be careworn?
Not for me the lures of the world,
I am attached to none.
He who is mad with the love of the Lord is not careworn in any manner. He remains untouched by the lures of the world and unattached to any of the bonds of earth. One immersed in the love of the Lord is above worldly worries and allurements.
If one surrenders himself wholly to the Lord, all his desires get fulfilled by His grace in due course, for He never forsakes His devotees.