Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The potter takes the very same clay and shapes it into all kinds of different pots.
Some end up holding jewels, some end up holding scraps — but it's all one clay.
Kabir says that however different people look on the outside, everyone is made of the same clay.
He uses the picture of a potter, which Aasaa returns to often. Kumhaarai ayk jo maatee goondhee — the potter works the very same clay. Then he shapes and colors the pots in different ways. Into some he sets pearls. Others end up holding dirt.
Here is Kabir's answer to the unequal lives he described at the start. Under all the different pots, the fancy and the plain, it is one clay. Think of a box of crayons. The wrappers are many colors, but every crayon is made of the same wax.
The differences in what people have are like the paint on the pots. They do not change what everyone is made of, or whose hands made them.
So there is no reason for pride, and no reason for envy. The life in silk and the life in a straw hut are the same clay underneath.
If everyone is 'the same clay' underneath, how should that change how we treat the rich and the poor alike?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI