Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
As a life ends, the body's powers gently fade — the ears, the hands, the voice all grow still.
Everything that once worked so busily comes quietly to rest.
Kabir describes, plainly and without horror, the body's powers fading at the end of a life: the ears go quiet, the hands go still, the feet fail, the voice falls silent. He's simply naming what happens as the player prepares to leave the instrument — the strings going slack one by one. For a child this is handled best as Kabir handles it: matter-of-factly and gently, part of the natural mystery of life rather than something to dread. The busy, capable body that did so much eventually comes to rest. And the whole point of noticing this is not fear but perspective: since the instrument won't play forever, tend the player — the soul, the love, the connection to the One — which is what truly lasts.
Since our bodies don't last forever, what part of a person do you think is most worth taking care of?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI