Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If shaving your head could hand you perfect wisdom, then the sheep — freshly shorn every season — would surely have found it first. The outer sign is not the inner truth.
An outward sign of being holy is not the same as being awake inside.
Mood mundaa-ay means shaving the head. In Kabir's time it was a well-known sign that someone had given up the world. A siddh is someone said to have reached perfect wisdom.
Kabir makes a gentle joke. If shaving your head made you a siddh, the sheep would have got there first. They get shaved every season!
The joke shows the gap between a sign of holiness and holiness itself. Think of wearing a doctor's coat. It does not make you a doctor. Like the deer before, the humor is aimed at mixing up the symbol with the real thing. It is never aimed at people who sincerely seek. Real wisdom is on the inside.
Why might someone show off a sign that they're wise or good, even when the sign isn't the real thing?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI