Ang-1301 — Chapter 71
Kabeer, the flamingo pecks and feeds, and remembers her chicks.
She pecks and pecks and feeds, and remembers them always. Her chicks are very dear to her, just like the love of wealth and Maya is dear to the mortal's mind. ||123||
Kabeer, the sky is overcast and cloudy; the ponds and lakes are overflowing with water.
Like the rainbird, some remain thirsty - what is their condition? ||124||
Kabeer, the chakvi duck is separated from her love through the night, but in the morning, she meets him again.
Those who are separated from the Lord do not meet Him in the day, or in the night. ||125||
Kabeer: O conch shell, remain in the ocean.
If you are separated from it, you shall scream at sunrise from temple to temple. ||126||
Kabeer, what are you doing sleeping? Wake up and cry in fear and pain.
Those who live in the grave - how can they sleep in peace? ||127||
Kabeer, what are you doing sleeping? Why not rise up and meditate on the Lord?
One day you shall sleep with your legs outstretched. ||128||
Kabeer, what are you doing sleeping? Wake up, and sit up.
Attach yourself to the One, from whom you have been separated. ||129||
Kabeer, do not leave the Society of the Saints; walk upon this Path.
See them, and be sanctified; meet them, and chant the Name. ||130||
Kabeer, do not associate with the faithless cynics; run far away from them.
If you touch a vessel stained with soot, some of the soot will stick to you. ||131||
Kabeer, you have not contemplated the Lord, and now old age has overtaken you.
Now that the door of your mansion is on fire, what can you take out? ||132||
Kabeer, the Creator does whatever He pleases.
There is none other than Him; He alone is the Creator of all. ||133||
Kabeer, the fruit trees are bearing fruit, and the mangoes are becoming ripe.
They will reach the owner, only if the crows do not eat them first. ||134||
Kabeer, some buy idols and worship them; in their stubborn-mindedness, they make pilgrimages to sacred shrines.
They look at one another, and wear religious robes, but they are deluded and lost. ||135||
Kabeer, someone sets up a stone idol and all the world worships it as the Lord.
Those who hold to this belief will be drowned in the river of darkness. ||136||
Kabeer, the paper is the prison, and the ink of rituals are the bars on the windows.
The stone idols have drowned the world, and the Pandits, the religious scholars, have plundered it on the way. ||137||
Kabeer, that which you have to do tomorrow - do it today instead; and that which you have to do now - do it immediately!
Later on, you will not be able to do anything, when death hangs over your head. ||138||
Kabeer, I have seen a person, who is as shiny as washed wax.
He seems very clever and very virtuous, but in reality, he is without understanding, and corrupt. ||139||
Kabeer, the Messenger of Death shall not compromise my understanding.
I have meditated on the Lord, the Cherisher, who created this Messenger of Death. ||140||
Kabeer, the Lord is like musk; all His slaves are like bumble bees.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Leviticus 19:18
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
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.”
The Path to Wisdom
Proverbs 4:7
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”
Dhammapada 20:282
“Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes.”
Analects 2:11
“If you study the past and use it to understand the present, you are worthy of being a teacher.”
Tao Te Ching 33
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”
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.”