Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Think of the greatest fortress ever imagined — a mighty kingdom ringed by the ocean itself.
And now? Not a trace of that great king's house remains.
This one says: even the mightiest kingdom can vanish without a trace.
Kabir, a weaver-poet whose songs are in the Guru Granth Sahib, starts with Raavan, the mighty king of Lanka in the old epic, the Ramayana. "Lankaa saa kot samund see khaa-ee" — a fortress like Lanka, with the whole ocean as its moat. It looked impossible to break into: the very picture of power and safety.
Then Kabir makes his quiet, sharp point: "tih raavan ghar khabar na paa-ee" — there is no news of Raavan's house now. All that power is gone. Not even a rumor remains.
Think of the biggest sandcastle on the beach, with a moat all around. By the next morning, the tide has smoothed it flat.
It is the old question: where are they now? Kabir does not use it to scare us. He uses it to show what lasts. If even that could vanish, then power and grandeur were never as solid as they looked.
Can you think of something that once seemed huge and powerful but is gone now?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI