Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Your body is a village, and your soul is the farmer who owns it. Five farm-hands live there.
Your eyes, nose, ears, tongue and touch do not do what they are told.
The body is like a little village, and the senses are its five unruly workers.
Dayhee gaavaa jee-o dhar mahta-o — the body is a village, and the soul is the farmer who owns it. Baseh panch kirsaanaa — five farm workers live there. They are the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and touch. These are the five senses.
Kahi-aa na maanaa — they do not follow orders. The eyes want to see this, and the tongue wants to taste that. Think of five puppies on five leashes, all pulling different ways.
This is Kabir's picture of how the senses pull us in every direction. The inner farmer has to tend them, kindly and steadily, or they run the farm.
Which of your five senses is the hardest for you to keep from running off after whatever it wants?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI