#kabir

Do not go to the garden of flowers! O friend! go not there; in your body is the garden of flowers.

Slowly, slowly, O mind, everything in its own time happens. The gardener may water with a hundred pots, but fruit arrives only in season.

The jewel is lost in the mud, and all are looking for it; some search in the east, some in the west, some in water and some in stones. But the servant Kabir has appraised it in the quiet heart.

I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. You do not see that the One is in your home, and so you wander from forest to forest listlessly.

The river that flows in you also flows in me. Look within: you will see the light shining in every breath.

When the drop merges into the ocean, all understand it. But when the ocean merges into the drop, rare is the one who grasps it.

What is found now is found then. If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the city of death.

The clay says to the potter: You trample me today; but a day will come when I shall trample you under the earth.

Listen to the secret sound, the sound that is all around. When you hear that sound, everything is clear.

Between the bars of the cage, the bird has made its nest. Break the bars, O seeker, and take to the open sky.

Where there is mercy, there is righteousness. Where there is greed, there is sin. Where there is anger, there is death. Where there is forgiveness, there is God.

Read a thousand books, and you remain a scholar. Read two and a half letters of love (*Prem*), and you become truly wise.

Why should I search in Kashi and Kaaba when my Beloved sits right beside me in the quiet breath?

The tree does not eat its own fruit, nor does the river drink its own water. The wise take birth solely for the welfare of others.

He who has conquered his own mind has conquered the world. He who is a slave to his mind remains a beggar in royal robes.

Speak such words that will bring peace to your own heart and fill others with serene joy.

As the scent dwells in the flower and the shadow in the tree, so the Divine resides within you; seek Him there, O traveler.

The guru is the potter and the disciple is the clay; through gentle strikes without, he supports from within to shape the perfect vessel.

Do not count the faults of others when your own chest is packed with flaws. Look first to your own mirror.

The musk deer runs frantically across the forest searching for the intoxicating scent that emanates from its own navel.

When ego existed, my Lord was absent; now that my Lord is realized, ego has vanished into the mist.

Live in the world as the lotus lives on water: rooted in the mud yet untouched by the slime.

A sword must be bought for its sharp blade, not for its ornate scabbard. Value essence above external appearances.

Be like the diamond: when struck with a hammer, the anvil shatters while the jewel remains indestructible in its truth.

Without devotion, ritual is a dry branch. With love, every common action becomes high worship.

You have built castles on shifting sand and forgotten the stone foundation of eternal consciousness.

The heart that burns with envy can never reflect the cool radiance of divine truth.

Do not mock the poor or the weak, for the rudder of their ship is held directly in the Master's hands.

The swan separates milk from water; the wise human separates truth from falsehood in every experience.

Night passed in sleeping, day passed in eating; this priceless diamond of human birth was traded for a handful of cowrie shells.