Kabir rejects the popular belief that baths in 'holy' rivers or ponds remove the dross acquired by bad actions, cleanse the mind and enable one to become fit for realizing the Lord. Baths cleanse the physical body but cannot wash away the layers of dirt gathered through evil deeds and thoughts, through blind indulgence in sense pleasures or through sins committed to fulfil worldly desires and cravings. Kabir clearly states that only the practice of Naam can remove these stains, purify the mind and enable the devotee to attain God.

What use are your ablutions
And your dips in holy waters
If you have not realized
Your true self within?

What will you ever gain
From scrubbing and washing your body
When your inside is covered
With layers and layers of dirt?
Without the Lord's Name
You'll not escape the fires of hell,
Though a hundred times
You wash and bathe.

In order to attain the Lord
Men, like clowns, adopt different garbs;
They wear ochre robes,
They smear their body with ash.
A frog living in the holy river
Will not attain salvation.
Without himself realizing the Lord
Man can never be liberated.

O deluded one, give up your base cravings,
Repeat the Lord's Name —
This is my counsel, good friend.
Kabir the weaver submits:
The Lord's Name alone will lead you
To the high state,
Free from fear,
Full of bliss.

K.G., p. 154:346
Kyā hwai tere nahāi dhoi