Put aside your pride:
“YOU WOULDN’T WORRY SO MUCH ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE THOUGHT OF YOU IF YOU KNEW HOW SELDOM THEY DO!”
People are usually so busy worrying about how THEY appear to others, or how they look, or about the many things they have to get done today, or about the pain they are in at the moment, that they do not notice things about you that you might be so self conscious of.
– Grant Lawrence–Bodhi Thunder
Kabir – The couplet
???? ??? ? ?? ????, ?? ?? ??? ???? |
??? ?????? ? ???, ?? ??? ??? ???? ||
transliterated:
Maya mari na man mara, mar mar gao sharir |
aasha trishna na mari, keh gaio das kabir ||
Translation:
Illusion does not die, nor the mind – the body is the only one that dies |
Hope does not die – nor does thirst… so says Kabir ||
My understanding:
At a basic semantic level, the statement is very clear. Think about it for a while though, and multiple layers show through.
As history is witness to, ours desires get transferred to our succeeding generations, though the cause or driver for the desire is often lost (and hence the justification?). We subject ourselves to much internal distress to satisfy needs that we cannot explain or rationalize.
Our perceived need to deal with our problems seems to only successfully attract more problems to us. When we instead allow our inner light to expand and envelop us, the problems seem to diffuse in the brightness and soon vanish without the need to address them! The real solution to solving problems lies in seeing not the problem, but the solution, in the light of our inner wisdom, enveloped in an environment of calm and peace.
Our bodies are transitory guests in this ever-changing landscape – we are not. As poets keep reminding us at all stages, our thoughts, hopes, desires and ambitions live on, grow and take on an existence of their own long after our bodies have become dust scattered in the winds of time. So we need to be patient, careful and formulate the right ambitions, hopes and thoughts, for they live on long after we are no more to explain their genesis.