Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If I fill my days with grabbing, pretending and showing off, my life keeps slipping past while I am busy.
Kabir says: better to wake up now, gently, and remember the One. Then whenever life reaches its close, my heart is already at home.
Life slips by quietly while we are busy with the wrong things.
Kabir names four habits: laalach (greed), jhooth (lying), bikaar (wrongdoing) and mad (pride that makes us act drunk on ourselves). They are the ego's junk food, and they quietly eat up a life. Ih bidh a-odh bihaan: this is how a lifetime passes.
Think of playing video games all through a sunny holiday. When it ends, you wonder where the days went.
Kabir then speaks of the very last moment, when death comes. He says it plainly to wake us up. The urgency is real, but the call is gentle: wake up now, and remember the One.
What is one small way you could pay attention to what matters, starting today?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI