ਜਬ ਲਗੁ ਤਾਗਾ ਬਾਹਉ ਬੇਹੀ ॥
jab lag taagaa baaha-o bayhee.
As long as I pass the thread through the bobbin,
ਤਬ ਲਗੁ ਬਿਸਰੈ ਰਾਮੁ ਸਨੇਹੀ ॥੨॥
tab lag bisrai raam sanayhee. ||2||
I forget the Lord, my Beloved. ||2||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
As long as I'm running thread through the bobbin,
I keep forgetting the One I love.
The very focus that earns your bread can quietly swallow the attention you meant to keep for what matters most.
A strikingly honest confession about the pull of work on the heart: the mechanical absorption of the loom makes him "forget the Lord." This is not a claim that work is evil, but an honest self-knowledge — Kabir knows how easily busy hands crowd out remembrance. It is the tension every working person feels: the very focus that earns our bread can, if we let it, swallow the attention we meant to keep for what matters most.
A Question to Sit With
What work absorbs you so fully that you 'forget' the things you care about while doing it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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