“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy. “
– John Mason
Kabir – The couplet
आया था किस काम को, तू सोया चादर तान ।
सूरत संभाल ऐ ग़ाफ़िल, अपना आप पेहचान॥
transliterated:
Aaya tha kis kaam ko, tu soya chaadar taan|
Surat sambhaal ai gaafil, apna aap pehchaan||
Translation:
For what purpose did you arrive, now you are all bundled up and asleep? |
Recognize yourself, fool, (before time really runs out) ||
My understanding:
We arrive in this world as a child, with no baggage. But we promptly start accumulating weight, shells, and covers till the original me is completely hidden, covered and soon forgotten – under the false exterior.
These covers take the form of aspirations of parents, expectations of society, desire-driven aspirations of the self based on input from the physical senses, our presumptions of the world’s expectations of us, our own conceptions of what might make us more acceptable, and sheer laziness – it is always easier to take the softer option, and blame failure on anything except the self.
Very soon, we begin to truly believe that the presented exterior is the real self, and we begin to live out that created role with the belief that that is our true calling in the theater of life.
Only at the time of death, when all of the accumulated accouterments wither and fall off, do we once again see the real self – but by then, the body is bereft of vim and energy and time, and can do little to help the self attain it’s purpose for this round.
So the master is asking us to abandon these false shells of fake identities, and to become what we are meant to be!