The Essential Works of Tagore. Rabindranath Tagore

it.

       No earth, no sky, no time, no thing, is there: no shore, no ford!

       There, there is neither body nor mind: and where is the place

       that shall still the thirst of the soul? You shall find naught

       in that emptiness.

       Be strong, and enter into your own body: for there your foothold

       is firm. Consider it well, O my heart! go not elsewhere,

       Kabîr says: "Put all imaginations away, and stand fast in that

       which you are."

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      II. 33. ghar ghar dîpak barai

      Lamps burn in every house, O blind one! and you cannot see them.

       One day your eyes shall suddenly be opened, and you shall see:

       and the fetters of death will fall from you.

       There is nothing to say or to hear, there is nothing to do: it is

       he who is living, yet dead, who shall never die again.

      Because he lives in solitude, therefore the Yogi says that his

       home is far away.

       Your Lord is near: yet you are climbing the palm-tree to seek

       Him.

       The Brâhman priest goes from house to house and initiates people

       into faith:

       Alas! the true fountain of life is beside you., and you have set

       up a stone to worship.

       Kabîr says: "I may never express how sweet my Lord is. Yoga and

       the telling of beads, virtue and vice—these are naught to Him."

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      II. 38. Sâdho, so satgur mohi bhâwai

      O brother, my heart yearns for that true Guru, who fills the cup

       of true love, and drinks of it himself, and offers it then to

       me.

       He removes the veil from the eyes, and gives the true Vision of

       Brahma:

       He reveals the worlds in Him, and makes me to hear the Unstruck

       Music:

       He shows joy and sorrow to be one:

       He fills all utterance with love.

       Kabîr says: "Verily he has no fear, who has such a Guru to lead

       him to the shelter of safety!"

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      II. 40. tinwir sâñjh kâ gahirâ âwai

      The shadows of evening fall thick and deep, and the darkness of

       love envelops the body and the mind.

       Open the window to the west, and be lost in the sky of love;

       Drink the sweet honey that steeps the petals of the lotus of the

       heart.

       Receive the waves in your body: what splendour is in the region

       of the sea!

       Hark! the sounds of conches and bells are rising.

       Kabîr says: "O brother, behold! the Lord is in this vessel of my

       body."

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      II. 48. jis se rahani apâr jagat men

      More than all else do I cherish at heart that love which makes me

       to live a limitless life in this world.

       It is like the lotus, which lives in the water and blooms in the

       water: yet the water cannot touch its petals, they open beyond

       its reach.

       It is like a wife, who enters the fire at the bidding of love.

       She burns and lets others grieve, yet never dishonours love.

       This ocean of the world is hard to cross: its waters are very

       deep. Kabîr says: "Listen to me, O Sadhu! few there are who

       have reached its end."

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      II. 45. Hari ne apnâ âp chipâyâ

      My Lord hides Himself, and my Lord wonderfully reveals Himself:

       My Lord has encompassed me with hardness, and my Lord has cast

       down my limitations.

       My Lord brings to me words of sorrow and words of joy, and He

       Himself heals their strife.

       I will offer my body and mind to my Lord: I will give up my life,

       but never can I forget my Lord!

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      II. 75. ônkâr siwae kôî sirjai

      All things are created by the Om;

       The love-form is His body.

       He is without form, without quality, without decay:

       Seek thou union with Him!

       But that formless God takes a thousand forms in the eyes of His

       creatures:

       He is pure and indestructible,

       His form is infinite and fathomless,

       He dances in rapture, and waves of form arise from His dance.

       The body and the mind cannot contain themselves, when they are

       touched by His great joy.

       He is immersed in all consciousness, all joys, and all sorrows;

       He has no beginning and no end;

       He holds all within His bliss.

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      II. 81. satgur sôî dayâ kar dînhâ

      It is the mercy of my true Guru that has made me to know the

       unknown;

       I have learned from Him how to walk without feet, to see without

       eyes, to hear without ears, to drink without mouth, to fly

       without wings;

       I have brought my love and my meditation into the land where

       there is no sun and moon, nor day and night.