Ways of the Mind
Kabir, do not follow
The dictates of your mind,
Give up this habit
Which is ages old;
Just as the yarn
Spun on the spindle,
On the spindle is wound again,
So bring your mind back
To the center from where it came.
K.G., p. 21:1
Do not follow
The trends of your mind,
There is no end
To its tricky ways;
One who tames his mind,
Kabir, is a rare sage.
K.S.S., p. 146:1
The lane leading to the Home
Is narrow, O Kabir,
But like a thief
The restless mind
To others' houses runs;
Even when the devotee
Believes he is absorbed
In the Lord's worship,
His mind is engaged
In thoughts other than God.
K.G., p. 22:4
Mind knows well
What is good, what is bad,
But knowingly
Adopts evil ways;
What happiness
Can a man obtain
When he falls into a well
With a lamp in his hand?
K.G., p. 22:7
Kabir, you made no efforts
To curb your restive mind,
Nor the onslaught of the five
Did you try to repulse,
Nor purity, truth and faith
Did you inculcate;
Shamelessly your senses run
To pleasures one should shun.
K.G., p. 22:15
Kabir, your mind has sunk
Into desire's dungeon,
Through blind pursuit of pleasures
It has brought about its own fall;
Though forewarned,
It swallowed the bait —
How can it now escape
Its dreadful fate?
K.G., p. 23:16
Your mind has become
Heedless and indolent,
It does not attend
To simran;
Much will be the torment
It will have to endure
When hauled into Kal's court.
K.G., p. 23:17
In a twinkling the mind
Does a thousand deeds
Under the sway
Of craving for pleasures;
It heeds not the Master's words
And wastes
This precious human birth.
K.G., p. 23:18
Kabir, where has that mind gone
Which yesterday was
Towards God inclined?
Like the rain that falls
On the top of a hill,
Mind went gushing down,
Desire's dirty ponds to fill.
K.G., p. 23:22
Kabir, I'll not trust my mind
Though it become docile and dead;
Even a dead mind I dread
Lest with the gale of passions
It should come to life again.
K.G., p. 23:23
Body is a temple
And mind its flag
Fluttering in the wind
Of desire and craving;
If the temple sways
With the fluttering of mind,
The entire edifice
Will become debris one day.
K.G., p. 23:28
Kabir, do not trust your mind
Even if you find it dead,
Even if you have crushed
And made it sublime;
A true devotee
Is wary of his mind
As long as the birds of breath
Come and go
In his body's cage.
K.G., p. 23:28, fn.
Kabir, mind is only one,
Engage it in the direction
That you choose —
In the Master's devotion
Or in the pursuit of desire.
K.S.S., p. 147:8
Throughout the three worlds
The thief steals
With cunning and stealth
And deprives all
Of their true wealth.
No one can see
And catch the thief,
For he goes about
Without a head.
K.S.S., p. 147:10
Far less are the waves in the sea
Than the waves of mind;
Many surge and submerge
Helpless souls,
Many spring
And ebb with the tide.
K.S.S., p. 147:14
Mind is the ocean,
Desires, the wild waves;
Many have been sunk,
Many swept away —
Only they escape
Whose heart stays
Absorbed in Truth.
K.S.S., p. 151:60
In the very presence
Of the soul,
Mind sways and runs
In devious ways.
Mind rules over
The three worlds;
Mind is worshipped
By one and all
In every spot,
At every place.
K.S.S., p. 151:61
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