The spiritual athlete often changes the color of his clothes

Kabir 1440 (Banaras) – 1518 (Maghar)



The spiritual athlete often changes the color of his clothes,
and his mind remains gray and loveless.

He sits inside a shrine room all day,
so that the Guest has to go outdoors and praise the rocks.

Or he drills holes in his ears, his hair grows
      enormous and matted,
people mistake him for a goat...
He goes out into wilderness areas, strangles his impulses,
and makes himself neither male nor female...

He shaves his skull, puts his robe in an orange vat,
reads the Bhagavad-Gita, and becomes a terrific talker.

Kabir says: Actually you are going in a hearse
      to the country of death,
bound hand and foot!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
124

Quick analysis:

Scheme XX AX XAXXX XX XXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 612
Words 111
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 5, 2, 3

Kabir

Kabīr was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement. The name Kabir comes from Arabic al-Kabīr which means 'The Great' – the 37th name of God in Islam. Kabir's legacy is today carried forward by the Kabir Panth, a religious community that recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. Its members, known as Kabir panthis, are estimated to be around 9,600,000. They are spread over north and central India, as well as dispersed with the Indian diaspora across the world, up from 843,171 in the 1901 census. His writings include Bijak, Sakhi Granth, Kabir Granthawali and Anurag Sagar. more…

All Kabir poems | Kabir Books

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