Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
There's one well, and five who keep hauling water from it.
Even when the rope has snapped and the bucket won't come up, they are still tugging at a rope that's broken.
This is a riddle about a busy mind that keeps pulling on a rope that no longer works.
Kabir loved ulat-baasee, upside-down riddles that make you stop and think. Koo-ataa ayk panch panihaaree — there is one well, and five water-carriers. The well is the mind. The five carriers are the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. They keep drawing on the mind, pulling it five ways at once.
Tootee laaj bharai mat haaree — the rope is broken, and still those who have lost their good sense keep trying to draw water. Picture someone pulling and pulling on a rope with no bucket on the end. They are tired and getting nowhere.
The verse is not calling anyone a fool to make fun of them. It is a kind way of noticing what we all do. We keep tugging at what no longer works.
The riddle sets up the answer in the last verse. You can put the rope down.
Have you ever kept trying the same thing that wasn't working? What finally made you stop and let go?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI