Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
An outer mark or custom on the body doesn't make a person belong to God.
If being God's really depended on such a thing, it would simply happen on its own — not by our doing.
Kabir questions the idea that an outer bodily mark or ritual is what makes someone belong to God (his specific example is a religious custom of his day). His reasoning is gentle and logical: if God truly wanted it to define you, it would happen on its own, by nature — the fact that it's something people do to themselves shows it isn't what God requires. It's the same teaching as Guru Nanak's sacred-thread refusal: no external sign — no thread, no mark, no ritual — is what makes you God's. What makes you belong to the One is inward: a loving, true heart. Outer signs can be fine as customs, but they were never the thing that counts.
Why do you think Kabir says an outer mark can't be what truly makes someone belong to God?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI