Ang-1301 — Chapter 68
When I saw that my boat was rotten, then I immediately got out. ||67||
Kabeer, the sinner does not like devotion to the Lord; he does not appreciate worship.
The fly abandons the sandalwood tree, and goes after the rotten smell. ||68||
Kabeer, the physician is dead, and the patient is dead; the whole world is dead.
Only Kabeer is not dead; there is no one to mourn for him. ||69||
Kabeer, I have not meditated on the Lord; such is the bad habit I have developed.
The body is a wooden pot; it cannot be put back on the fire. ||70||
Kabeer, it came to pass, that I did whatever I pleased.
Why should I be afraid of death? I have invited death for myself. ||71||
Kabeer, the mortals suck at the sugar cane, for the sake of the sweet juice. They should work just as hard for virtue.
The person who lacks virtue - no one calls him good. ||72||
Kabeer, the pitcher is full of water; it will break, today or tomorrow.
Those who do not remember their Guru, shall be plundered on the way. ||73||
Kabeer, I am the Lord's dog; Moti is my name.
There is a chain around my neck; wherever I am pulled, I go. ||74||
Kabeer, why do you show other people your rosary beads?
You do not remember the Lord in your heart, so what use is this rosary to you? ||75||
Kabeer, the snake of separation from the Lord abides within my mind; it does not respond to any mantra.
One who is separated from the Lord does not live; if he does live, he goes insane. ||76||
Kabeer, the philosopher's stone and sandalwood oil have the same good quality.
Whatever comes into contact with them is uplifted. Iron is transformed into gold, and ordinary wood becomes fragrant. ||77||
Kabeer, Death's club is terrible; it cannot be endured.
I have met with the holy man; he has attached me to the hem of his robe. ||78||
Kabeer, the physician says that he alone is good, and all the medicine is under his control.
But these things belong to the Lord; He takes them away whenever He wishes. ||79||
Kabeer, take your drum and beat it for ten days.
Life is like people meeting on a boat on a river; they shall not meet again. ||80||
Kabeer, if I could change the seven seas into ink and make all the vegetation my pen,
and the earth my paper, even then, I could not write the Praises of the Lord. ||81||
Kabeer, what can my lowly status as a weaver do to me? The Lord dwells in my heart.
Kabeer, the Lord hugs me close in His Embrace; I have forsaken all my entanglements. ||82||
Kabeer, will anyone set fire to his home
and kill his five sons (the five thieves) to remain lovingly attached to the Lord? ||83||
Kabeer, will anyone burn his own body?
The people are blind - they do not know, although Kabeer continues to shout at them. ||84||
Kabeer, the widow mounts the funeral pyre and cries out, "Listen, O brother funeral pyre.
All people must depart in the end; it is only you and I." ||85||
✦ Connected Across Traditions
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277
“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
Tao Te Ching 76
“A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. The soft and yielding is the disciple of life.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita 2:22
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Genesis 1:3
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”