The Intoxication of Love
Divine love can only be obtained when the devotee pays the price with his head; that is, only when he completely crushes his ego and becomes oblivious of the world, its lures and attachments can he taste the wine of love. Love is the merging of the individual's identity in that of the Beloved. In these couplets Kabir says that love is the wine that intoxicates the soul and keeps it in a perpetual state of bliss; it is the nectar that makes one immortal, the alchemic potion that transforms man into God.
Avidly did Kabir drink
The nectar of God's love:
He is transformed and made whole;
The well-baked vessel
Cannot be placed
On the potter's wheel again.
The wine of the Lord's love
Becomes more delicious
The more you drink it;
But it is hard to obtain,
For the wine merchant, O Kabir,
Demands your head in exchange.
Kabir, many crowd around
The wine merchant's stall;
Only he drinks to his fill
Who offers his head,
Others are turned away
Empty and dry.
He is truly drunk
With the wine of God's love
Whose intoxication
Never wanes,
Who roams
Like a mad elephant —
Oblivious of himself.
The intoxicated elephant
Will not eat grass,
For the arrow of love
Rankles within his heart;
He's tied to the door of love,
He throws dust on his own head.
The intoxicated one
Is absorbed in the Unknown,
He has conquered desires
And become free of cares;
Under the spell of love's wine,
While living he goes beyond
The stage of salvation.
The lake in which once
Not even a jug could be sunk,
The love-intoxicated elephant
Now bathes in it with bliss;
The temple has submerged
Along with its spire,
Yet thirsty go the birds.
Kabir, I tried
Many alchemic recipes
But found not one
Like the Lord's love;
If even one drop
Enters the body,
Your entire being
Turns into gold.
K.G., p. 13:1-8
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