Lamps burn in every house

Kabir 1440 (Banaras) – 1518 (Maghar)



Lamps burn in every house,
O blind one! and you cannot see them.
One day your eyes shall suddenly be opened,
and you shall see: and the fetters of death will fall from you.
There is nothing to say or to hear,
there is nothing to do:
it is he who is living, yet dead, who shall never die again.

Because he lives in solitude,
therefore the Yogi says that his home is far away.

Your Lord is near: yet you are climbing the palm-tree to seek Him.

The Brahman priest goes from house to house
and initiates people into faith:
Alas! the true fountain of life is beside you,
and you have set up a stone to worship.

Kabîr says: 'I may never express how sweet my Lord is.
Yoga and the telling of beads,
virtue and vice-these are naught to Him.'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

43 sec read
130

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXXBXBX XX C AXBX XXC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 735
Words 146
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 7, 2, 1, 4, 3

Kabir

Kabīr was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement. The name Kabir comes from Arabic al-Kabīr which means 'The Great' – the 37th name of God in Islam. Kabir's legacy is today carried forward by the Kabir Panth, a religious community that recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. Its members, known as Kabir panthis, are estimated to be around 9,600,000. They are spread over north and central India, as well as dispersed with the Indian diaspora across the world, up from 843,171 in the 1901 census. His writings include Bijak, Sakhi Granth, Kabir Granthawali and Anurag Sagar. more…

All Kabir poems | Kabir Books

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