Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
These shaven-headed holy folk have turned my household upside down!
They have got my son singing the Name of the One.
This is the pause line, the Rahao, the center of the shabad. It is a joke with a wise point inside it.
Kabir speaks in the voice of someone complaining. "These shaven-headed saints have ruined my house!" The saints shaved their heads as a sign of their simple, holy life. And what was the terrible "ruin"? Bitvahi raam ram-oo-aa laavaa — they got my son chanting the Lord's Name!
Of course, this is the best thing that could happen. The young man has turned from chasing money and status to a life of love and devotion.
Kabir is gently teasing the way of seeing that cares only about wealth and status. To those eyes, becoming humble looks like a disaster. Imagine a friend saying, "You quit the popular crowd to help at the food bank? You ruined everything!" But it was really a kind of freedom.
Sometimes what the world calls ruining your life, choosing goodness over status, is really the truest success.
Why might some people see choosing kindness over success as a 'mistake,' when it's really wonderful?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI