Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
It doesn't really matter whether someone goes without clothes or wears a rough animal skin — not while they still haven't remembered the One living inside their own soul. The costume is not the point. The remembering is.
No outfit matters as much as recognizing the One who already lives inside you.
This is the Rahao, the "pause" line, the center of the shabad. Some seekers went without clothes. Some wore a deer skin. Kabir asks what either one is worth, jab nahee cheenas aatam raam — when you have not recognized the One inside your own soul. Aatam raam means the One living within.
That inner recognizing is the missing piece. Without it, the outer clothes change nothing. Think of a birthday box wrapped in beautiful paper with nothing inside. Kabir aims this at empty show in any tradition. He is not aiming it at any group of people.
What is something true about you that no outfit or outward change could ever show?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI