Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Tell me, O pandit, learned one: which place is clean?
Where can I sit down to eat my meal?
If every place counts as unclean, there is nowhere left to sit down and eat.
This is the rahaa-o, the "pause" line, the center of the shabad. kaho pandit soochaa kavan thaa-o — tell me, pandit (learned teacher), which place is soochaa, clean? Where should I sit to eat my meal?
It is like a friend who says every chair in the house is "too dirty" to sit on. At some point you ask, "Then where can anyone sit?" Kabir asks this openly and honestly. He wants the teacher to see that the rule leaves no place at all.
What do you think makes a person good — their rules, or their heart?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI