Kabīr

An original Tatpada life of Kabīr, weaver and poet of Banaras, in four parts for reading aloud, told together with Ravidās and Pīpā as the three took one teacher at one ghāṭ; with 147 of his songs.

147 Verses

The couplets
Read the couplets in one flow
  1. Dying and dying, the world has died
  2. My rosary is Rām on my tongue
  3. Everyone laughs at my caste
  4. Dead while still alive
  5. The day the I in me died
  6. I am the worst of them all
  7. The sandalwood among the scrub
  8. The bamboo drowned in its own greatness
  9. The axe on his own foot
  10. The saints' small hut is good
  11. Why weep when a saint dies
  12. The saints have eaten the butter
  13. Māyā the little thief
  14. The death the world is afraid of
  15. Do not untie the knot
  16. A room of lampblack
  17. They went away barefoot
  18. A human birth is hard to come by
  19. Your name is Kabīr
  20. The bones burn like firewood
  21. Grass will come up over you
  22. The plunder is the name of Rām
  23. Better than reading
  24. Do not leave the sea
  25. A house on the bank of the Gaṅgā
  26. Hari walks behind me calling
  27. Turmeric and lime
  28. A tenth of a mustard seed
  29. No thatch, no hut
  30. Guests for four days
  31. Only Kabīr has not died
  32. Rām's dog
  33. A rosary of wood
  34. The serpent in the mind
  35. The chance of a boat and a river
  36. Ink of the seven seas
  37. What can a weaver's caste do
  38. The mind has turned into a bird
  39. The one you used to call another
  40. No washing turns it white
  41. You have not shaved the mind
  42. Pearls scattered on the road
  43. Whose house is the grave
  44. A stone made Parmēsur
  45. What you would do tomorrow
  46. Cowrie by cowrie
  47. Be a pebble in the road
  48. So you became a pebble
  49. So you became dust
  50. So you became water
  51. High houses, gold and women
  52. Between Gaṅgā and Jamunā
  53. A diamond in the market
  54. Where there is forgiveness
  55. If pride will not go
  56. A single sabad let fly
  57. Grain of many kinds
  58. A house of wood
  59. The hailstone melted into water
  60. Sāīṅ is not deaf
  61. What use is the hajj without sabūrī
  62. The Name puts out the burning
  63. Khichṛī is fine food
  64. A difference in the saying of Rām
  65. Struck by the true Guru's arrow
  66. Khudā met me on the road to the Kaaba
  67. Nothing in me is mine
  68. Wherever I look, there you are
  69. Talk with the devotees is the gain
  70. I keep my eyes lowered
  71. Why would I lower my eyes
  72. Is it the soul or the Beloved
  73. Sugar spilt in the sand
  74. Cut off your head and make a ball of it
  75. If you keep a household, live by dharam
  76. Guru and Gōvind both stand before me
  77. Everyone remembers him in sorrow
  78. The rosary turns in the hand
  79. You threw the night away sleeping
  80. What you would do tomorrow, do today
  81. Why are you raising storeys
  82. The clay says to the potter
  83. Seeing the gardener come
  84. The whole world is happy
  85. When I was there, the Guru was not
  86. Love as the cakor loves the moon
  87. Do not ask the sādhū his caste
  88. So you have grown tall
  89. The redness of my Beloved
  90. Speak in such a way
  91. I set out to look for the bad man
The songs
Read the songs in one flow
  1. The unstruck lute of Rājā Rām
  2. I was burning, and I found Rām's water
  3. Mādhau, the thirst will not go
  4. When I knew the One as one
  5. What is it to go naked
  6. Why mourn when others die
  7. Taking water for curd
  8. Death has turned round and become Rām
  9. Those who take the Master's name
  10. King Rām has become my helper
  11. Tell me, Pandit, who is pure
  12. Settle one quarrel for me, Rām
  13. The storm of knowing has come
  14. The way the milk is churned
  15. The weaver leaves the house
  16. The elephant made of straw
  17. My whole family aboard the boat
  18. What is to be will be
  19. Slander is my father, slander is my mother
  20. In the end, even so, death
  21. Where did Hindu and Turk come from
  22. My hajj is on the bank of the Gomatī
  23. In leaf after leaf there is life
  24. We are the poor, the servants of Khudā
  25. In my house is the thread
  26. In both Hindu and Turk there is the One
  27. Stop, stop, bride, do not draw the veil
  28. Saints, the mind has come to ease
  29. A hungry man does no bhagati
  30. Remember Rām, remember Rām
  31. The worry in the heart does not go
  32. The young soul shakes and trembles
  33. This world is a show to look at
  34. A man dies and is of no use
  35. You are my Meru, my mountain
  36. One tree with boughs without end
  37. Let silence be your earrings
  38. Moon and sun, two shapes of light
  39. Sugar scattered in the sand
  40. The drum has sounded in the sky
  41. Remember Rām, mind
  42. This wealth of mine is Hari's name
  43. Naked we come, naked we go
  44. One mosque with ten doors
  45. The mullā who fights with his own mind
  46. The earth is in bloom, the sky is in bloom
  47. Write Śrī Gopāl on my tablet
  48. Where the principal shrinks and the interest grows
  49. Tell me, paṇḍit, what place is clean
  50. This mind is a bird of the woods
  51. I have found the jewel of Rām
  52. Whose is the rest of the land
  53. First Allah made the light
  54. Tell me the justice of Khudā
  55. Iron and gold the same
  56. We are the ones drunk on love