Scriptures and holy books speak about the soul but do not enable the seeker to experience its presence, to gain self-realization. Kabir describes the soul as a bird that is hidden behind the coverings of the physical body. Separated from its original source, the Lord, the soul is sustained by the energy of Naam or the divine Word, which is the all-pervading power of God in this world.

Continuing the imagery, Kabir says that although the bird lives in the hollow nooks and gloomy corners of this vast tree of the world, it has over it the imperceptible protecting shade of Naam. The bird flies from branch to branch, that is, the soul moves from birth to birth, from species to species.The ways of the birds that live in the tree of the world are unusual, for they fly away in the evening and return in the morning; the soul leaves the world at the end of its sojourn here and returns to the world the next morning — the beginning of the next birth.

Birds keep pecking at grains and eating a variety of fruits the whole day; but this bird, the soul, comes to the world to taste only two fruits — the fruits or results of its previous good and bad actions. Kabir concludes the poem by pointing out that if the bird returns to its original home, the Lord's abode, it will forever become free of the bondage of birth and rebirth in this vast tree of the world.

No one tells me about the bird
That sings within the body.
Its colour is a colorless hue,
Its form a formless form,
It lives under the shade of Naam.

No one tells me about the bird
That sings within the body.

In the vast tree dwells a bird,
It hops, it pecks, it eats,
And from branch to branch it flies.
No one knows where it comes from,
No one knows what makes it sing.

No one tells me about the bird
That sings within the body.

Numerous vines entwine the tree,
Throwing shadows dark and dense;
Numerous birds huddle together
To build their nests
In the tree's sunless gloom.
But they fly away in the evening,
Morning they return for the day;
No one understands their strange ways.

No one tells me about the bird
That sings within the body.

Only to taste two fruits comes the bird,
Not for ten, not for twenty,
Nor for countless, nor for many.
But vast and inaccessible,
Boundless and eternal
Is the bird's true home;
If the bird will only return
To its original home,
It will not be forced
To come and go again.

But no one tells me about this bird
That sings within the body.

Says Kabir: Yes, my friends,
The story I tell you
Is hard to comprehend;
But where, O Pundits,
Where, O learned ones,
Is the Home of that bird
That no one is able to see,
That sings within each body?

Satt Kabir, Shabd 358
So panchhi mohi koi na batāvai