Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Some make a big show of giving up food to look holy — but it's just for show.
They announce that they live on nothing but air, then eat their fill in secret. A performance of goodness isn't the same as goodness.
Kabir's target here is pakhand — hypocrisy, the gap between the show and the truth. He points at those who publicly claim to live on milk or nothing at all, then guptee khaaveh, secretly eat plenty. His aim is never any particular faith's practices, but the universal trap of performing goodness instead of living it. The pretender is 'neither one thing nor the other' — lost in the in-between.
What's the difference between actually being good and just performing goodness for others to see?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI