One Hundred Poems of Kabir/XX
XX
II. 22. man tu par utar kanh jaiho
man tu par utar kanh jaiho
aage panthi panth n koi kooch-mukaam n paiho
nahin tanh neer, naav nahin khevat, na gun khainchanhaaraa
dharnee-gagan-kalp kachhu naahin, na kachhu vaar na paaraa
nahin tan, nahin man, nahin apanapou sunn mein siddhi na paihou
balivaan hoy paitho ghat mein, vaheen thouryen hoihou
baar hi baar bichaar dekh man, ant kahun mat jaihou
kahyen Kabir sab chhadi kalpanaa, jyon ke tyon thahraihou
To what shore would you cross, O my heart? there is no traveller before you, there is no road:
Where is the movement, where is the rest, on that shore?
There is no water; no boat, no boatman, is there;
There is not so much as a rope to tow the boat, nor a man to draw it.
No earth, no sky, no time, no thing, is there: no shore, no ford!
There, there is neither body nor mind: and where is the place that shall still the thirst of the soul? You shall find naught in that emptiness.
Be strong, and enter into your own body: for there your foothold is firm. Consider it well, O my heart! go not elsewhere.
Kabir says: "Put all imaginations away, and stand fast in that which you are"