Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
All the leather-workers of my family still go around Banaras, carrying away dead cattle.
Ravidas says: the Brahmins who keep every rule bow down before me, their son, the servant of the One's servants.
Honor comes from the Naam, and even the strictest rule-keepers bow to the humble servant who holds it.
Ravidas turns to his own family. Jaa kay kutamb kay dhaydh sabh means all the leather-workers of his family. Dhor dhovant fireh ajahu bannaarsee aas paasaa: even now, they go around Banaras carrying away dead cattle. People looked down on this work. Yet it was needed work, and the verse gives it dignity. What the shabad blames is the shame people attached to it, not the work.
Aachaar sahit bipar karahi dand-ut: the most rule-keeping Brahmins, the priestly group, bow flat on the ground before him. Honor comes from the Naam, whatever a person's birth or faith. Ravidas calls himself daasaan daasaa, the servant of the One's servants. The humblest name he could choose brings the highest honor.
Kabir and Ravidas, side by side, make the same point. The Name lifts people from every background, and even the keepers of the old ranking now bow.
Why might calling yourself "a servant of servants" be a kind of strength, not weakness?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI