Kabir

The sacred texts are like a map, but the true path is within your own heart.

The true prayer is not to ask for anything, but to be grateful for everything.

The wise man does not cling to anything, for he knows that everything is transient.

The world is a prison, and we are its prisoners; let us break free from its chains, and find liberation.

The true devotion is to live in harmony with all creatures, and to see the divine in every form.

I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.

You don't grasp the fact that what is most alive of all is inside your own house; and you walk from one holy city to the next with a confused look!

I went in search of a bad person; I found none as I, seeing myself, found me the worst.

Nindak niyare rakhiye aangan kuti chhawaye; Bin sabun pani bina nirmal karat subhaye. (Keep your critics close, even making a place for them in your courtyard. Without water or soap they clean up your blemishes.)

Bada hua to kya hua, jaise ped khajoor. Panthi ko chhaya nahin, phal lage atidoor. (What good is it to be big like a date palm tree? It gives no shade to travelers, and its fruit is far out of reach.)

Pothi padh padh kar jag mua, Pandit bhayo na koye. Dhai aakhar prem ke, jo padhe so Pandit hoye. (Reading books, the world died, but none became learned. He who reads but two and a half letters of love, he becomes learned.)

Chalti chakki dekh kar, diya Kabira roye. Dui paatan ke beech mein, sabit bacha na koye. (Seeing the grinding mill, Kabir wept. Between the two stones, no one remains whole.)

Kabir stands in the market, wishing all well. Friends with none, enemies with none.

Kabir, take no pride in high dwellings. Death levels all to earth, grass grows above.

Me, I'm drunk on love! Why should I connive? I stay free of the world. What friend of it am I? If you leave the one you love, You wander door to door. My friend's inside of me. Who am I waiting for?

What, then, O friend, are you searching for like a fool? The object of your quest is within you, as the oil is in the sesame seed.

Between the pillars of spirit and matter the mind has put up a swing.

So many bodies, so many opinions! But my Beloved, though invisible, is in all these bodies. There is no life at all without the Beloved; the Self lives as each and every one.

Aisi vani boliye, mann ka aapa khoye. Auron ko sheetal kare, aaphun sheetal hoye. (Speak such words that your ego is lost. They cool others, and you yourself become cool.)

If God be within a mosque, then to whom does this world belong?