Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
They dig with the shovel of compassion and light a warm inner fire of clear seeing.
They keep love tucked in their heart, and stay peacefully absorbed in it through all time.
The inward reinterpretation continues with beautiful images: compassion is his shovel, his own body the firewood, and he kindles the fire of divine vision — a warm inner light of clear seeing. And at the center of it all: he places love within his heart and remains absorbed in it. Notice that the very first tool named is compassion — kindness is the shovel that does the real digging. Kabir's true seeker isn't cold or severe like the stereotype of the harsh hermit; he's warm — built of compassion and love, glowing with an inner fire that comes from seeing clearly and loving deeply. The deepest spiritual life turns out to be, at its core, simply kindness kept warm in the heart.
How is being kind like a 'tool' that does real work in the world?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI