Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
People beg and beg for pleasure — and pain seems to arrive instead.
So I would rather not go chasing that kind of pleasure at all.
Kabir notices that chasing pleasure often brings pain, so he steps off that chase.
This is the start of a longer hymn called an Ashtapadee, a song in eight parts. At the top is a short blessing, a Mangalacharan: the One, known by the Guru's grace. It opens the song the way a greeting opens a letter.
Then Kabir makes a clear-eyed observation. Sukh maangat dukh aagai aavai — people beg for sukh, pleasure, and dukh, pain, shows up instead. Think of eating a whole bag of sweets because it feels good. The stomachache comes right after. Chasing pleasure just for itself tends to circle back as disappointment.
So Kabir simply stops chasing it. The real subject of the whole hymn, the mind, is coming next.
Have you ever wanted something so badly that getting it wasn't as good as you'd hoped?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI