Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You can wash and scrub your body until it shines.
But if your heart is still full of unkindness inside, what has the washing really changed? The cleaning that matters most happens inside.
This one says: the cleaning that matters most happens inside.
This is the Rahao, the "pause" line at the center of the shabad. Kaa-i-aa maajas ka-un gunaa: what good is scrubbing the body? Ja-o ghat bheetar hai malnaa: if the heart inside is still dirty.
Think of a shiny lunchbox with last week's lunch still going bad inside. Polishing the outside doesn't help. Kabir moves the whole idea of clean from the outside to the inside.
Washing is still good, and Kabir is not against being clean. He speaks to anyone, in any tradition, who hopes outward washing will do the heart's work.
What would it look like to 'clean' the inside, not just the outside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI