From the day of creation when it was separated from the Lord and sent to this realm of birth and death, the soul has been going from one species to another according to its karmas. Whenever it obtained the human form — the only form privileged to love and realize God — it involved itself in external practices, yogic exercises, asceticism and penances. Sometimes it was born as a king, sometimes as a beggar, but both in prosperity and penury it failed to realize the Lord. It continued therefore to revolve in the wheel of transmigration. Kabir says that the sakats — people who crave worldly pleasures and possessions and cling to them — continue to live and die again and again. But the Saints, who devote themselves to the practice of Naam, go within and drink the nectar of Naam and achieve freedom from the chain of birth and death; they become one with the Lord and attain eternal life.

In the immobile and the mobile,
Among the worms and the moths,
Many births I had,
In many forms I reveled.

Since the day Thou subjected me, Lord,
To visitations to the womb,
In many a home have I made my sojourn.
Sometimes I was a yogi,
Sometimes an ascetic;
Sometimes I was a hermit,
Sometimes a celibate;
Sometimes I became an emperor,
Sometimes a beggar on the streets.
Since the day Thou subjected me. Lord,
To visitations to the womb,
In many a home have I made my sojourn.

The sakats die again and again,
But the Saints forever live,
For they imbibe the elixir of God.
Kabir submits: O Lord, have mercy on me;
Wearied, I have come to Thy feet,
Pray bless me with the state of perfection.

A.G., Gauri, p. 325
Asthāvar jangam keet patangā