Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.
– Jorge Luis Borges
Kabir – Day 5
The couplet, transliterated:
Dheere Dheere Re Mana, Dheere Sub Kutch Hoye Mali Seenche So Ghara, Ritu Aaye Phal Hoye
Translation
Process slowly, o mind, for everything happens at its own pace The gardener may water the plant with a hundred buckets, but fruit arrives only in its season
My understanding
Nature never works in haste. Picking up from this eternal law of Mother Nature, Kabir brings forward the state of our daily hurried lives.
We are always in a rush to achieve, acquire and be victorious. It is like a mad race. This brings us under pressure causing ill-health, fatigue and frustration. More than that it breeds ill-discipline. We get forced into a habit pattern whereby we find ourselves either negligent or indulgent.
Kabir, addressing the couplet to the mind which is fickle, highlights the importance of a relaxed mind, a quiet mind. A very active mind can also be very relaxed. Relaxation comes through awareness and acceptance.
It is a known fact that a seed sprouts into a sapling only after some time and the sapling grows into a tree gradually. And the fruit arrives only in its own season. The gardener pouring “a hundred buckets of water”
(extensive irrigation) will not hasten the arrival of the fruit, but on the contrary may ruin the process.
Kabir thus makes us realize that one must do one’s best and yet should have the patience for the results to manifest in their own appropriate time. For Nature does not work in haste.