A devotee has to go within his own body, overcome the forces of the passions, the guiles of Maya and the tricks of his mind, and develop divine love in order to attain God. Kabir explains this through the imagery of a strong fortress that is protected by the double ramparts of duality, the triple moat of the three attributes and by a garrison of the five elements and the twenty-five tendencies, who are inspired by Maya, the lure of the world. Lust, avarice and attachment are the sharpshooters, who aim their arrows from hidden embrasures. Pleasure and pain are the gatemen that keep the soul involved in the world; virtue and sin are the gates that keep the soul confined here. Anger is the commandant and mind is the king of this fort of the human body. The troops, arrayed in the armor of sense pleasures and the helmet of ego, attack the soul with the shafts of low tendencies, desires and cravings.

Nevertheless, for the one who knows the way to storm it, the fortress is not invincible. The passions are to be overcome by the weapons or noble qualities of purity, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment, detachment and humility; the obstacles of the five elements, three attributes and twenty-five tendencies, which keep the soul bound to the world of matter, are to be removed through meditation, inner experience and divine love; the doors of the duality of virtue and sin, of good and bad karmas, are to be shattered through association with Saints; and mind, the formidable foe, is to be vanquished and made captive through the Master's grace. He who enters the fortress of his own body, in the words of Kabir, drives away the enemies that possess it, captures or stills his mind and wins the everlasting empire of God-realization.

Brother, how am I to seize
The formidable fortress
Protected by dual ramparts
And a triple moat?
The five and the twenty-five,
Pride, attachment and envy,
Inspired by Maya the powerful,
Are arrayed for battle.
Thy wretched slave
Is powerless to seize
The fortress by storm;
Lord, what am I to do?
Lust is its embrasure,
Pleasure and pain its sentries,
Virtue and sin its gates;
Anger is the belligerent chieftain,
And the willful mind holds sway as the king.

The troops wear the armor of sense pleasures
And the helmets of I-ness;
They raise the bow of evil tendencies
And aim the arrows of cravings —
Cravings that are stored
In the quiver of the heart.
I am unable, my Lord,
To storm and seize this fortress.

When I made love the fuse,
Meditation the cannon,
Loaded it with the shell of knowledge,
With Sahaj lit the torch of the divine flame,
In one shot, the fortress fell.

With truth and contentment
As my sure weapons, I gave battle
And battered down the two doors.
Through the company of Saints
And through the grace of my Master,
I took captive the king of the fort.

Through fear of God,
Through the power of simran,
I have cut the dreadful noose of Kal;
Kabir, the Lord's slave, mounted
To the top of the fortress
And won an everlasting empire.

A.G., Bhairau, p. 1161
Kiu leejai gadh bankā bhāi