Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O Mullah, teacher of the mosque, give the call to prayer.
The one mosque has ten doors.
Your own body is the one mosque with ten doors, and prayer rises from within it.
This is the rahaa-o, the "pause" line, the center of the shabad.
Kaho ray mulaan baang nivaaj means "O Mullah, give the call to prayer." A Mullah is a Muslim teacher and prayer leader. Baang is the call to prayer, sung out from the mosque. Nivaaj is prayer.
Then comes the surprise. Ayk maseet dasai darvaaj means "the one mosque has ten doors." The mosque is the body. The ten doors are its openings, like the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Worship is what happens inside.
Think of a house with many windows and a family praying together in the room at its center. Kabir is not attacking the Mullah. He is inviting him deeper, into the prayer inside.
What would it feel like to treat your own self as a place worth keeping sacred?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI