Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
It isn't the fasting monk or the holy teacher of any name.
And here is the gentle secret: it was never born, and it never dies. What lives in you can't be lost — so there's nothing to grieve there, only something to wake up to.
Kabir says that what is deepest in you is never born and never dies.
The list goes on. Naa ih tapaa kahaavai saykh — it is not a tapaa, someone who lives by very strict self-discipline, and not a Saykh, a Muslim elder. Kabir puts this Muslim title right beside the Hindu ones. He is fair to all of them, because the self is beyond every tradition's labels.
Naa ih jeevai na martaa daykh — it does not live, and it is not seen to die. The verse then says that whoever weeps over its death loses their honor. That is not a scolding of anyone who is sad. It is a deep comfort. Think of the sun at night. It seems to disappear, but it has not gone anywhere. In the same way, the essence inside a person is never truly lost.
How does it feel to imagine that the truest part of you can't be lost?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI