ਮੈਲਾ ਬ੍ਰਹਮਾ ਮੈਲਾ ਇੰਦੁ ॥
mailaa barahmaa mailaa ind.
Brahma is polluted, and Indra is polluted.
ਰਵਿ ਮੈਲਾ ਮੈਲਾ ਹੈ ਚੰਦੁ ॥੧॥
rav mailaa mailaa hai chand. ||1||
The sun is polluted, and the moon is polluted. ||1||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Brahma, the creator in the old stories, is stained. Indra, king of the heavens, is stained.
The sun is stained, and the moon is stained.
If even the sun has spots, our rankings of “pure” and “impure” don't hold up.
Nothing that is made is perfectly spotless, not even the great gods of the old stories or the lights in the sky.
Kabir opens with a bold list. Mailaa means stained or polluted. In his day, rules about ritual purity, tied to caste, decided who could touch whom and who was born "clean." If even Brahma, Indra, rav (the sun) and chand (the moon) are called mailaa, then no one is born cleaner than anyone else.
A Question to Sit With
Have you ever seen someone treated as “less” for something they were just born into? How did that seem to you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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