Kabir

(1398 - 1518)

Quotes from Kabir

Oh beloved, seeking and searching the seeker is lost.
And the ocean has fallen into the dewdrop; now it is impossible to find it.

Oh beloved, seeking and searching the seeker is lost.
And the ocean has fallen into the dewdrop;
now it is impossible to find it.

"That which you see is not: and for that which is, you have no words. Unless you see, you believe not: what is told you, you cannot accept. He who is discerning knows by the word; and the ignorant stands gaping.

Some contemplate the Formless, and others meditate on form: but the wise man knows that Brahma is beyond both. That beauty of His is not seen by the eye: that metre of His is not heard by the ear. He who has found both love and renunciation never descends to death."

The river and its waves are one surf:
where is the difference between the river and its waves?
When the wave rises, it is the water;
and when it falls, it is the same water again.
Tell me, Sir, where is the distinction?
Because it has been named as wave,
shall it no longer be considered as water?

Within the Supreme Brahma, the worlds are being told like beads:
Look upon that rosary with the eyes of wisdom.

To what shore would you cross, O my heart?
there is no traveller before you, there is no road:
Where is the movement, where is the rest, on that shore?
There is no water; no boat, no boatman, is there;
There is not so much as a rope to tow the boat, nor a man to draw it.
No earth, no sky, no time, no thing, is there: no shore, no ford!
There, there is neither body nor mind:
and where is the place that shall still the thirst of the soul?
You shall find naught in that emptiness.
Be strong, and enter into your own body: for there your foothold is firm.
Consider it well, O my heart! go not elsewhere,
Kabîr says: 'Put all imaginations away, and stand fast in that which you are.

Listen carefully,
Neither the Vedas
Nor the Qur’an
Will teach you this:
Put the bit in its mouth,
The saddle on its back,
Your foot in the stirrup,
And ride your wild runaway mind
All the way to heaven.