Kabir

Indian mystic poet

Medieval influential 210 sayings

Sayings by Kabir

Seeing the grinding mill, Kabir wept. Between stones, nothing stays whole.

15th Century — Metaphor for the crushing nature of life and the cycle of birth and death, from his poetry (Dohas).
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God dwells in you like the pupil in the eye. Fools search outside, unaware.

15th Century — Emphasizing the internal presence of God and criticizing external seeking, from his poetry (Dohas).
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If God dies, then I will die; If he does not die, then why should I die?

15th Century — Expressing the interconnectedness of his existence with the eternal divine, from his poetry (Dohas).
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Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain.

15th Century — Reflecting on mortality and the transient nature of worldly life, from his poetry (Dohas).
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Don't open your diamonds in a vegetable market. Tie them in bundle and keep them in your heart, and go your own way.

15th Century — Advising discretion and protecting one's inner spiritual wealth from those who cannot appreciate it,…
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I am not a Hindu, Nor a Muslim am I. I am this body, a play of five elements, a drama of the spirit dancing with joy and sorrow.

15th Century — Transcending religious labels and identifying with the universal human experience, from his poetry (…
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Your Lord lives within you; what do you search for outside?

15th Century — Emphasizing inner realization over external seeking, from his poetry (Dohas).
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Who can name Him, or know His will? Who can say from whence He comes? Remembering the Void, the simple One, a light burst forth [within me]; I offer myself to that Existence who is non-existence.

15th Century — Describing the ineffable and paradoxical nature of the ultimate reality, from his poetry (Bijak, Ram…
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I shut not my eyes, I close not my ears, I do not mortify my body; I see with eyes open and smile, and behold His beauty everywhere: I utter His Name, and whatever I see, it reminds me of Him; whatever I do, it becomes His worship. The rising and the setting are one to me; all contradictions are solved.

15th Century — Advocating for a natural, integrated spiritual life rather than asceticism, from his poetry (Dohas).
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If you do not cut the noose of your karma while living, what hope is there of liberation when you are dead? It is a hopeless dream to think that union will come after the soul leaves the body.

15th Century — Emphasizing the urgency of spiritual practice in this lifetime, from 'The Inner Treasure'.
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The home is the abiding place; in the home is reality; the home helps to attain Him Who is real. So stay where you are, and all things shall come to you in time.

15th Century — Emphasizing finding truth in one's present circumstances rather than seeking it elsewhere, from his …
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Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive! Think . . . and think . . . while you are alive. What you call 'salvation' belongs to the time before death . . . .

15th Century — Urging immediate engagement with spiritual experience and redefining salvation as a present-life att…
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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.

15th Century — Describing the profound and ungraspable nature of the ultimate spiritual destination, from his poetr…
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Oh, how may I ever express that secret word? O how can I say He is not like this, and He is like that? If I say that He is within me, the universe is ashamed: If I say that He is without me, it is falsehood. He makes the inner and the outer worlds to be indivisibly one; The conscious and the unconscious, both are His footstools. He is neither manifest nor hidden, He is neither revealed nor unrevealed: There are no words to tell that which He is.

15th Century — Articulating the inexpressible and paradoxical nature of the divine, from his poetry (Dohas).
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Pundit, you've got it wrong.

15th Century — Directly challenging learned scholars and their conventional understanding, from his poetry (Dohas).
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If by worshipping stones one can find God, I shall worship a mountain. If by immersion in the water salvation be attained, the frogs who bathe continually would attain it. As the frogs, so are these men, again and again fall into the womb. You kill life and call it an act of religion.

15th Century — Critiquing ritualistic practices and hypocrisy in religion, from his poetry (Dohas).
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If you don't know what the dark is, you don't know what light is.

c. 15th century — Songs of Kabir (Tagore translation)
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The lock of the world is on the door of the heart.

c. 15th century — Songs of Kabir (Tagore translation)
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The jewel is lost in the mud, and all are searching for it, but no one knows where it is.

c. 15th century — Songs of Kabir (Tagore translation)
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The fish in the water is thirsty.

c. 15th century — Songs of Kabir (Tagore translation)
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