The pundits, despite their study of scriptures, Vedas and Puranas, know nothing of their true self. Without spiritual practice and realization, all their acts of piety and worship, all their orthodox rituals and ceremonies are futile. Kabir maintains that by merely reading scriptures, chanting mantras and undertaking formal practices, no one has ever attained God-realization and no one ever will. The path to realization lies in searching for the Lord in the place where He resides, and that place is the human body. Referring to the pundits' haughty attitude of regarding themselves as so holy that if others touch them they feel they have been made unclean, Kabir says such pride will never lead them to the Lord, for He loves humility and showers his grace on the humble.

The pundits are deluded
Through reading and studying the Vedas;
They know not the secret
Of their own self.

Evening prayers, chanting
And the six deeds of piety
They perform and preach,
And consider them the essence
Of true religion.

During each of the four ages,
O Pundit, men kept chanting
The prescribed holy mantras;
Go and ask them, who
Has earned liberation this way?

If touched by others
You rush to wash your body,
But tell me, pray,
Who is lower than you?

Of your holy and pious acts
You are vain and boastful;
But pride opens the doors to doom.
The One who loves the humble,
How will He tolerate your pride, O Pundit?

Those who give up pride of status and lineage
And search for the abode of the Pure One,
They destroy the shoot, even the seed,
And while yet in the body, transcend its bounds.

Bijak, Ramaini 35
Pandit bhoole padhi guni beda