The main pursuits of man in this world are health, wealth and possessions. Deeply involved in them, he has neither the time nor the inclination to strive for spiritual wealth and inner peace. He pays no heed to the advice and warnings of the Saints and wastes the chance of his human birth. Kabir says that the disciple who lives according to the directions of a Saint or Master gains true devotion and love for the Lord and becomes worthy of admittance to His treasury. Those who want to succeed on the touchstone of the world are living in delusion and will continue to do so, for winning the esteem of worldly people does not entitle one to entry into the Lord's court.

Men take great pains to preserve
Their health, possessions and wealth;
In multifarious ways their mind
Remains involved in them.
Even if I exhort them a hundred times,
They do not give up their ways.

He who abides within the words
Of the Lord's slave
Gains all powers, all boons
That men strive for.
Devotion takes abode in his heart;
He puts himself on the Lord's touchstone:
He is tested and made whole.
But he who goes elsewhere to be tested
Is a fool, he continues to revel
In his own foolishness.

The deadly noose of Kal
Tautens around your neck;
It is time you thought of release.
In the company of Saints
Men become divine like the Saints,
But in the company of the vile
Men become vile and mean.

Bijak, Ramaini 64
Kāyā kanchan yatan karāyā

Rare are tlie friends of Kabir, O brother;
To whom can he reveal the Truth?

Live cheerfully as and how the Lord
In his wisdom deigns to keep you,
For he has the power to create,
To destroy and to sustain one and all.
I thoroughly scanned the entire world;
I realized: Without knowledge of God
All knowledge is ignorance.
The six philosophies,
The ninety-six rituals
Know not the One —
The One who has no lineage.

Engaging themselves in chanting,
In austerities and penance,
In worship and obeisance,
In the appeasement of stars,
People have added
To their own bewilderment.
They scrawl roll after roll of paper;
Juggling with words,
They delude the world,
But never does their mind go within
To merge in the universal mind.

Says Kabir: The yogis, the jangams,
All toil in the vain hope of salvation.
Repeat the Name blessed by the Master;
Repeat with the ardor of the rainbird
Wailing in thirst for the rain;
Then will your devotion be fruitful,
Then the everlasting abode you will gain.

K.G., p. 77:34
Bhāi re birle dost kabir ke