“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.”
– Izaak Walton
Kabir – The couplet
ऋद्धि सिद्धि मांगो नहीं, मांगो तुम पाई ये ।
निसदिन दर्शन साधु को, प्रभु कबीर कहु दे ||
transliterated:
Riddhi Siddhi Mangou Nahi, Mangou Tum Pai Yeh |
Nishidin Darshan Sadhu Ko, Prabhu Kabir Kahu Deh ||
Translation:
Wealth or fame I ask not, all I ask for is just this|
Every day to be spent in the company of a good man, Lord, please grant this (asks Kabir)||
My understanding:
We begin every journey with the most appropriate of intentions, and the best of thought. Then we encounter our first co-traveller, and our intents seem to magically merge with theirs. Along come the next, then the next, and more follow.
We complete the journey, and wonder in retrospect how we completely changed course midway and when it all went astray. But the time for the journey is done, the budget spent, and the opportunity behind us. So we just shake our heads, resolve to be more focused the next time, and move on.
This is often the story of our daily life. We start each morning with a set or priorities, which somehow drop from focus with each new person we meet (or website we visit J), until the day is behind us with none of the original planned work complete. Additionally, we have now loaded our plate with new work that we do not know how to accomplish – mostly because we took it from another’s plate without a proper understanding or content or expected result.
Kabir is guiding us here to find the right company for each of our days – for the right company will help us stay true to course while simultaneously enriching our experience and enhancing our understanding. This is as much our top priority as any other task we set ourselves.