Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Offer up your dark nature, your doubt and your cruelty, and cut them away.
Swallow up the five troublemakers inside you, and you will be blessed with contentment.
The deepest work of faith happens inside: letting go of the rough parts of yourself.
Kabir takes a word from ritual and turns it inward. Misimil means the ritual act of slaughter. But Kabir points it at our own worst habits. Taamas is dark heaviness, like a gloomy, stubborn mood. Bharam is doubt. Kadooree is bitterness or cruelty. These are what we give up.
Bhaakh lay panchai ho-ay sabooree means "swallow up the five, and you will be content." The panch, the five, are five inner thieves: anger, greed, clinging, strong craving and pride. Sabooree is a beautiful Sufi word for deep contentment. The Sufis are the loving, mystic poets of Islam.
Think of weeding a garden. You pull out what chokes the flowers, and then the garden can bloom. The offering that matters most is letting go of our own worst impulses.
Which of those inner pulls — anger, wanting more, holding a grudge — is hardest for you to calm?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI