In plain words
‘Do your legs ache?’ I asked. ‘Oh, we would walk even another ten miles, Swami! It is a great joy. This is a chance for us,’ they said. ‘If we had come sitting in a car, we would not have remembered this Name,’ they said. That is why in ancient times they said, ‘Kaṣṭephale.’ Only when we toil does the fruit come into our hands. In just that way Kabīr too walked at every moment saying ‘Rām Rām’ as he took his steps. His Bhakti and prapatti spread through the whole land. The king of that land came to know of it. ‘Kabīr, poor fellow, is very poor. He has no one to turn to; he is masterless. Take these things to such a masterless man and give them to him’: so saying, he filled a palanquin to the brim with things to eat and sent it to Kabīr's house. Kabīr went to the river, bathed, came back and saw it. It was a big palanquin. Four men had come carrying it. It was full of all the provisions one could need. In astonishment he questioned these four. It was this: ‘Only the two of us live in our house! You four have come carrying this palanquin, yet the two of us are quite well, are we not!’ What four men carry is a corpse. Tell the king that we are quite well,’ he said. Then those bearers: ‘No, no! Kabīr Swāmī! You are very poor. Masterless. This is the king's command! The king said to give it to that masterless man,’ they said. Oho! So the king said to give it to the masterless man! Very well; I am not masterless. I have God, Rāma, as my master. I am not masterless. Rāma alone is masterless. He has no other master. So take all these and give them to Him alone,’ said Kabīr. Do you see? How much meaning there is in those words! In the world no one is masterless. God alone is masterless! Each one has some master. But God has no other master. He is not a king; He is the Kingmaker. God alone is masterless! Many people keep saying, ‘Swami! Please do not make me masterless.’ To that I: ‘You are not masterless, My child; I am masterless. Do not say that you are masterless,’ I keep saying.