The One Is Right Beside You; Set Down Your Wants
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
**Chh** — the One, greater than any king, is right here with you this very moment. So close.
Then why walk around unhappy? Why keep clutching so many worried wants? O my mind, I try to remind you of this gently, moment after moment — the One is near — yet you keep letting go of it and tangling yourself up in a hundred other things. Come back. It never left.
The letter Chhachha opens with chhatrapat — “the One who holds the royal canopy,” sovereign of all — declared to be paasaa, right beside you. Then Kabir turns to address his own mind (ray man), as he loves to do: why be chhak (unhappy, unfulfilled) when the One is this near? The instruction chhaad ke na aasaa — set down the endless clutching wants — is not a scolding but an invitation to relief. The tender frustration in chhin chhin samjhaavaa (“moment by moment I try to teach you”) is Kabir talking to himself the way we all must: gently, repeatedly, patiently calling the wandering mind home.
What worries do you carry that you could set down, just for now, and feel a little lighter?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI