Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You cannot force separate things to truly become one just by tying them together. And you cannot really break apart what was always whole.
So the old questions begin to melt: who is the master, who is the servant, where does one go? Underneath, it is all one.
What is truly one can't be glued together or torn apart; it simply is one.
Kabir plays with two words. Jorhee means joining, and torhee means breaking. Jorhee jurhai na torhee tootai — joining does not join it, and breaking does not break it.
The deepest oneness is not made by tying things together. It is not undone by cutting them apart. It was never really split in the first place. Think of sunlight coming through two windows. It looks like two beams, but it is one sun.
Then the old questions: kaa ko thaakur kaa ko sayvak — whose master is it, whose servant? Ko kaahoo kai jaasee — where does it go, and to whom? These questions melt in the light of oneness.
This is Kabir's ulat-baasee, his upside-down riddle style. The boxes we sort life into grow soft once we sense the single ground underneath them all.
Have you ever felt so connected to someone that "you" and "them" seemed less separate for a moment?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI