Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
There is only One. And the One is found by the True Guru's grace — a gift that is always here, waiting for an open heart.
By your rule, the mother is unclean, and the father is unclean too. The children they have are unclean.
Unclean they come, and unclean they go. The unlucky ones die still unclean.
An old rule called some people unclean from birth, and followed all the way to the end, it leaves everyone unclean.
In his time, some people believed certain people were joothaa, unclean, from birth. It depended on the family they came from. Kabir starts with that idea. If the mother is unclean and the father is unclean, then the child is unclean too. They come unclean and go unclean.
But follow that rule far enough, and everyone ends up unclean. Think of a game where the rules are set up so nobody can ever win. Sooner or later you see the problem is the rules, not the players. Kabir is taking apart the idea that birth makes anyone unclean. His target is the empty rule, not any faith.
Is it ever fair to decide about a person before you have even met them?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI