Salok Bhagat Kabir, Salok 91 — the riddle of one, two, four and six

ਕਬੀਰ ਏਕ ਮਰੰਤੇ ਦੁਇ ਮੂਏ ਦੋਇ ਮਰੰਤਹ ਚਾਰਿ ॥

kabeer ayk marantay du-ay moo-ay do-ay marantah chaar.

Kabir, when one died, two were dead. When two died, four were dead.

ਚਾਰਿ ਮਰੰਤਹ ਛਹ ਮੂਏ ਚਾਰਿ ਪੁਰਖ ਦੁਇ ਨਾਰਿ ॥੯੧॥

chaar marantah chhah moo-ay chaar purakh du-ay naar. ||91||

When four died, six were dead, four males and two females. ||91||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

Kabir says: when one thing inside me died away, two died with it. When those two died, four were gone.

When those four died, six were gone: four like men, and two like women.

When the proud mind lets go, a whole crowd of troubles leaves with it.

The deeper layer

When the proud, self-willed mind gives up, the troubles that live with it go too.

Ayk marantay du-ay moo-ay: when one died, two died. This is one of Kabir's riddles. Nobody dies here; the "deaths" happen inside a person.

Teachers explain the numbers in different ways. One common reading: the one is the self-willed mind; when it lets go, the two of hope and craving go with it, and then the rest of the crowd inside, pictured as chaar purakh du-ay naar, four men and two women.

A Question to Sit With

What one habit, if you let it go, might take others with it?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

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