My mind did not shake, so why should my body be afraid?
The Arc
A short, steadying hymn drawn from a story of Kabir's persecution: bound in chains, he is brought to the deep river. But his mind does not waver — his heart rests in the beauty of the One — and so the body has nothing to fear. The chains fall away in the waves, and he sits calm and free. The close names the source of that steadiness: no worldly companion, but the One who protects everywhere, on water and on land.
Key Vocabulary
Gang gusaa-in — the mother Ganges, deep and grave. Janjeer — chains. Man na digai — the mind does not waver. Charan kamal — the lotus feet (the beauty of the One). Marigchhaalaa — a deer-skin (a seat of calm meditation). Sang / saath — companion. Raghunaath — a name of the One, from the Rama tradition. Jal thal — water and land (everywhere).
Themes and Cross-Connections
The hymn is a portrait of inner steadiness under threat — the unshaken mind that frees the body from fear. It connects to the scripture's teaching of sahaj and fearlessness, and to Kabir's own life as a low-caste mystic who met hostility with calm. The refrain "on water and on land" affirms an ever-present shelter, not deliverance by human allies.
For Raag Bhairao
Bhairao can hold intensity, and this hymn holds a frightening scene without losing its poise. Its energy is steady rather than agitated — the calm at the center of the storm.
Translation Notes
— Structure: this composition merges the rahau with the second verse inside Pauri1, so that file's For Your Children carries both units (the unshaken-mind refrain and the chains-falling verse). — Wellbeing: the persecution and near-drowning are handled gently and kept firmly hope-forward — the emphasis is courage, steadiness, and rescue, never terror; the historical hardship is noted softly in the Deeper Layer. — Raghunaath kept as a devotional name of the One.
My mind did not shake, so why should my body be afraid?
The Arc
A short, steadying hymn drawn from a story of Kabir's persecution: bound in chains, he is brought to the deep river. But his mind does not waver — his heart rests in the beauty of the One — and so the body has nothing to fear. The chains fall away in the waves, and he sits calm and free. The close names the source of that steadiness: no worldly companion, but the One who protects everywhere, on water and on land.
Key Vocabulary
Gang gusaa-in — the mother Ganges, deep and grave. Janjeer — chains. Man na digai — the mind does not waver. Charan kamal — the lotus feet (the beauty of the One). Marigchhaalaa — a deer-skin (a seat of calm meditation). Sang / saath — companion. Raghunaath — a name of the One, from the Rama tradition. Jal thal — water and land (everywhere).
Themes and Cross-Connections
The hymn is a portrait of inner steadiness under threat — the unshaken mind that frees the body from fear. It connects to the scripture's teaching of sahaj and fearlessness, and to Kabir's own life as a low-caste mystic who met hostility with calm. The refrain "on water and on land" affirms an ever-present shelter, not deliverance by human allies.
For Raag Bhairao
Bhairao can hold intensity, and this hymn holds a frightening scene without losing its poise. Its energy is steady rather than agitated — the calm at the center of the storm.
Translation Notes
— Structure: this composition merges the rahau with the second verse inside Pauri1, so that file's For Your Children carries both units (the unshaken-mind refrain and the chains-falling verse). — Wellbeing: the persecution and near-drowning are handled gently and kept firmly hope-forward — the emphasis is courage, steadiness, and rescue, never terror; the historical hardship is noted softly in the Deeper Layer. — Raghunaath kept as a devotional name of the One.