The Talons of Delusion
The human mind always runs after sense pleasures, justifying its pursuits by calling them 'small' or 'innocent' pleasures. But Saints warn the devotee to be wary of them, for one indulgence leads to another, the small pleasures become an obsession and thus the cause of the further misery of births and deaths. Kabir urges the devotee to give up his attachment to the objects and pleasures of the world which, being transient, only lead to sorrow and frustration. The world, caught in the delusion of maya, fails to realize that all relationships, all pleasures and possessions, are perishable, a fraud practiced by the negative power to keep man bound by the chain of transmigration.
Small pleasures in the beginning
Turn into pain in the end,
Yet mind revels in them
Like a rogue elephant.
Indifferent to true happiness,
How can man attain salvation?
He forsakes the truth
And runs after the false.
The raging fire of desire
Consumes one and all;
To gratify the hunger of its eyes
The moth rushes into the flame.
Ponder and act with wisdom
That all your troubles may end:
Give up your infatuation
For what is fleeting and false.
Swayed by cravings, you are wasting
This precious chance of human birth;
Old age and death are coming,
Each moment drawing closer.
Caught in the talons of delusion
The world continues to come and go;
You are blessed with the human birth,
O man, why deceive yourself?
Bijak, Ramaini 23
Alp sukh dukh ādi o antā
Look, look at the folly of men:
They neglect the roots
And water the stem.
The One who is free from all bonds,
Who himself resides in the body,
They pay no heed to Him
And go to worship stones.
Look at the folly of men!
They neglect the roots
And water the stem.
They wash stone idols
And drink that water
As a blessing from their gods —
Gods which were 'born' from stone
And which will in the end
Become a heap of rubble.
Look at the folly of men:
They neglect the roots
And water the stem.
He whose head is beyond
All the firmaments,
Whose feet go past
The farthest underworlds,
How can that Mighty Lord
Ever be contained
In your caskets of gold?
He who is invisible,
Who has not a trace
Of maya and attachment,
How can you expect Him to live
On the delicacies you offer?
Look at the folly of men:
They neglect the roots
And water the stem!
Again and again I call,
But men pay no attention
To my message of Shabd;
They only argue,
They resent what I say.
Look at the folly of men:
They neglect the roots
And water the stem.
Says Kabir: Men do not try
To search for Truth;
They wander and die
Like a meandering doe.
Satt Kabir, Basant 3
Dekho dekho re yā nar ki bhool
_______________
Footnote: