Stop Pinning Your Hopes on the Next Shiny Thing
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
As long as you keep pinning your hopes on other things — this prize, that person, the next shiny wish — you won't find the true home you're looking for, the settled presence of the One.
But the moment your heart falls in love with the One and rests there, everything shifts.
Then, says Kabir, you become clear and clean all the way through — pure in your very fibers, right down to the core of who you are.
As long as you pin your hopes on other things, you miss your true home. Love the One, and you become clear all the way through.
This is the closing verse of the Seven Days poem. It comes last in this whole long set of Kabir's poems, and it is a fitting close. Jab lag ghat meh doojee aan — as long as doojee aan, "another hope," lives in the heart. That means leaning on some second thing. Ta-o la-o mahal na laabhai jaan — until then, the mahal is not found. The mahal is the Mansion: the felt Presence of the One, your true home.
Ramat raam si-o laago rang — when rang attaches to Raam. Rang is color, the color of love. Raam here is the One who is in everything. Think of a white shirt dipped in dye. The color soaks into every thread. Kahi kabeer tab nirmal ang — says Kabir, then you become nirmal, pure, in every ang, every part of you.
So the whole long walk through the days of the calendar ends right where it should. It does not end on any special day. It ends on love that fills the whole self.
What's one thing you sometimes pin all your hopes on — and what would it feel like to rest your heart somewhere steadier?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI