Until the introduction of modern industry, spinning yarn on a spinning wheel was a common practice among poor and middle-class families. It was mostly the womenfolk who spun the yarn during their free time. In this poem, Kabir identifies the devotee with a daughter-in-law in the family who is encouraged by devotion, her mother-in-law, to spin the yarn of meditation. Just as spinning provides a means of subsistence for the family, meditation sustains the devotee's love and yields the profit of spiritual bliss.

My mind is the spinning wheel,
My tongue its spindle.
My mother-in-law urges me
To repeat the Lord's Name:
Repeat, my good daughter-in-law,
And keep spinning at the wheel.

With four pegs I hold the wheel's base,
With two washers I protect the spindle,
And I turn the spinning wheel
With the belt of Sahaj.

My mother-in-law urges,
Spin, dear daughter-in-law, spin
With great care and diligence,
For without your spinning
How will we make a living?

Deftly did Kabir the spinning wheel ply,
Keen and strong is the yam he spun;
For him it is not a spinning wheel,
But the provider of supreme bliss.

K.G., p. 123:228
Man mero rahatā