Kabir Das was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writings influenced Hinduism’s Bhakti movement and his verses are found in Sikhism’s scripture Guru Granth Sahib. His early life was in a Muslim family, but he was strongly influenced by his teacher, the Hindu bhakti leader Ramananda.
If you’re searching for famous poems ever that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of best known Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi poems, and most famous Siegfried Sassoon poems.
Famous Kabir Poems
The Middle Region Of The Sky
The middle region of the sky,
wherein the spirit dwelleth,
is radiant with the music of light;
There, where the pure and white music blossoms,
my Lord takes His delight.
In the wondrous effulgence of each hair of His body, t
he brightness of millions of suns and of moons is lost.
On that shore there is a city,
where the rain of nectar pours and pours,
and never ceases.
Kabîr says: ‘Come, O Dharmadas!
and see my great Lord’s Durbar.’
How Humble Is God
God is the tree in the forests that
allows itself to die and will not defend itself in front of those
with the ax, not wanting to cause them
shame.
And God is the earth that will allow itself to
be deformed by man’s tools, but He cries; yes, God cries,
but only in front of His closest ones.
And a beautiful animal is being beaten to death,
but nothing can make God break His silence
to the masses
and say,
“Stop, please stop, why are you doing this
to Me? “
How humble is God?
Kabir wept
when I
knew.
Hope For Him
O friend! hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live,
understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides.
If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of
deliverance in death?
It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with Him
because it has passed from the body:
If He is found now, He is found then,
If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death.
If you have union now, you shall have it hereafter.
Bathe in the truth, know the true Guru, have faith in the true
Name!
Kabîr says: ‘It is the Spirit of the quest which helps; I am the slave of this Spirit of the quest.
How Do You
How do you,
Asks the chief of police,
Patrol a city
Where the butcher shops
Are guarded by vultures;
Where bulls get pregnant,
Cows are barren,
And calves give milk
Three times a day;
Where mice are boatmen
And tomcats the boats
They row;
Where frogs keep snakes
As watchdogs,
And jackals
Go after lions?
Does anyone know
What I’m talking about?
Says Kabir.
Lift The Veil
Lift the veil
that obscures
the heart
and there
you will find
what you are
looking for
When The Day Came
When the Day came –
The Day I had lived and died for –
The Day that is not in any calendar –
Clouds heavy with love
Showered me with wild abundance.
Inside me, my soul was drenched.
Around me, even the desert grew green.
The Bride-Soul
When will that day dawn, Mother;
When the One I took birth for
Holds me to His heart with deathless love?
I long for the bliss of divine union.
I long to lose my body, mind, and soul
And become one with my husband.
When will that day dawn, Mother?
Husband, fulfil now the longing I have had
Since before the universe was made.
Enter me completely and release me.
In terrible lonely years without You
I yearn and yearn for You.
I spend sleepless nights hunting for You,
Gazing into darkness after You,
With unblinking hopeless eyes.
When will that day dawn, Mother?
When will my Lord hold me to His heart?
My empty bed, like a hungry tigress,
Devours me whenever I try to sleep.
Listen to your slave’s prayer –
Come and put out this blaze of agony
That consumes my soul and body.
When will He hold me to His heart?
When will that day dawn, Mother?
Kabir sings, “If I ever meet You, my Beloved,
I’ll cling to you so fiercely You melt into me;
I’ll sing from inside You songs of union,
World-dissolving songs of Eternal Bliss.”
My Swan, Let Us Fly
My swan, let us fly to that land
Where your Beloved lives forever.
That land has an up-ended well
Whose mouth, narrow as a thread,
The married soul draws water from
Without a rope or pitcher.
My swan, let us fly to that land
Where your Beloved lives forever.
Clouds never cluster there,
Yet it goes on and on raining.
Don’t keep squatting outside in the yard –
Come in! Get drenched without a body!
My swan, let us fly to that land
Where your Beloved lives forever.
That land is always soaked in moonlight;
Darkness can never come near it.
It is flooded always with the dazzle
Of not one, but a million suns.
My swan, let us fly to that land
Where your Beloved lives forever.
I’Ve Burned My Own House Down
I’ve burned my own house down,
the torch is in my hand.
Now I’ll burn down the house of anyone
who wants to follow me.
My Body And My Mind
My body and my mind…
My body and my mind are in depression because
You are not with me.
How much I love you and want you in my house!
When I hear people describe me as your bride I look sideways ashamed,
because I know that far inside us we have never met.
Then what is this love of mine?
I don’t really care about food, I don’t really care about sleep,
I am restless indoors and outdoors.
The bride wants her lover as much as a thirsty man wants water.
And how will I find someone who will take a message
to the Guest from me?
How restless Kabir is all the time!
How much he wants to see the Guest!
My Body Is Flooded
My body is flooded
With the flame of Love.
My soul lives in
A furnace of bliss.
Love’s fragrance
Fills my mouth,
And fans through all things
With each outbreath.
The Word
Find the word, understand the word,
Depend on the word;
The word is heaven and space, the word the earth,
The word the universe.
The word is in our ears, the word is on our tongues,
The word the idol.
The word is the holy book, the word is harmony,
The word is music.
The word is magic, the word the Guru.
The word is the body, the word is the spirit, the word is being,
The word Not-being.
The word is man, the word is woman,
The Worshipped Great.
The word is the seen and unseen, the word is the existent
And the non-existent.
Know the word, says Kabir,
The word is All-powerful.
Plucking Your Eyebrows
Plucking your eyebrows,
Putting on mascara,
But will that help you
To see things anew?
The one who sees
Is changed into
The one who’s seen
Only if one is
Salt and the other
Water. But you, says Kabir,
Are a dead
Lump of quartz.
The Spiritual Athlete Often Changes The Color Of His Clothes
The spiritual athlete often changes the color of his clothes,
and his mind remains gray and loveless.
He sits inside a shrine room all day,
so that the Guest has to go outdoors and praise the rocks.
Or he drills holes in his ears, his hair grows
enormous and matted,
people mistake him for a goat…
He goes out into wilderness areas, strangles his impulses,
and makes himself neither male nor female…
He shaves his skull, puts his robe in an orange vat,
reads the Bhagavad-Gita, and becomes a terrific talker.
Kabir says: Actually you are going in a hearse
to the country of death,
bound hand and foot!
The Dropp And The Sea
I went looking for Him
And lost myself;
The dropp merged with the Sea –
Who can find it now?
Looking and looking for Him
I lost myself;
The Sea merged with the dropp –
Who can find it now?
The Impossible Pass
The pundits have taken
A highway that takes them
away,
and they’re gone.
Kabir has climbed to
The impossible pass
of Ram
and stayed.
Many Hoped
Many hoped
but no one found
Hari’s heart.
Where do the senses rest?
Where do the Ram-chanters go?
Where do the bright ones go?
Corpses: all gone
to the same place.
Drunk on the juice
of Ram’s bliss,
Kabir says,
I’ve said and I’ve said,
I’m tired of saying.
