Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
What good is chanting? What good is hard discipline, or fasting, or careful worship,
when the heart underneath is still divided — half here, half chasing something else?
A perfect ritual with a divided heart is still empty.
Kabir starts by weighing outer practices against the heart. Ki-aa jap ki-aa tap ki-aa barat poojaa — what good is jap, chanting; tap, hard discipline; barat, fasting; or poojaa, worship? Jaa kai ridai bhaa-o hai doojaa — not if the heart loves the doojaa, the "second thing." Doojaa means twoness: a heart split between the One and something else.
Kabir is not against practice. He is saying practice is a container for love. Think of a lunchbox. It can be shiny and perfect, but if it is empty, nobody gets fed. The outer act can be perfect and still be hollow, because the One meets you where your heart truly is. As always with Kabir, the warning is aimed at hollow show wherever it appears, in any tradition.
Have you ever done all the right steps for something but felt nothing, because your heart wasn't really in it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI