Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The something that lives inside me can't be pinned down by any label.
It isn't 'a person' or 'a god,' not this kind of holy man or that kind — not even 'mother' or 'son.' It is bigger than every name.
Kabir says that what lives inside you is bigger than any name we could give it.
He points at it by saying what it is not. Naa ih maanas naa ih day-o — it is not a human, and it is not a god. It is not a jatee, someone who never marries, and not a worshipper of Shiva. Naa ih jogee naa avDhootaa — it is not a jogee, a yogi, and not an avDhoot, a wandering hermit. It is not a mother, and it is not anyone's son.
Think of a gift wrapped in many layers of paper. Kabir tears away one layer after another. What is left is not nothing. It is something too big for any single word to hold. Saying what something is not is a very old way of pointing at what is too vast to describe.
Which labels do people put on you that don't come close to who you really are inside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI