Kabir – Day 1

First, today’s thought:

 

“The world steps aside to let any man pass if he knows where he is going.”

-David S. Jordan

 

Sant Kabir – day 1:

 

original couplet, transliterated –

“Chalti Chakki Dekh Kar, Diya Kabira Roye Dui Paatan Ke Beech Mein,Sabut Bacha Na Koye”

 

Translation

 

Looking at the grinding stones, Kabir laments In the duel of wheels, nothing stays intact.

 

My understanding

This doha picks up a situation from our daily life. Kabir watches the woman grinding wheat on the flour mill. I have used the word woman here as generally it is the woman who does this work even today in the rural Indian society. The wheels are made of stone.  One is stationary while the other on top is made to rotate by turning it with the help of a handle attached to it. The grain that is put into it gets crushed and the crushed flour comes out.  Thus the literal translation given above conveys that.

 

(Diya Kabira Roye) Kabir cries out, however,  is what makes the reader to contemplate on this Doha and realize for oneself the hidden meaning behind this metaphor. Dui Patan here signifies earth (Prithvi) and sky (Akash) and within the ambit of these is all creation and life as also the manifestation of all natural phenomenon of dualities – day and night, life and death, joys and sorrows, thereby making life forever in motion (Chalti Chakki) and an ever changing process. Trapped in this duality, whatever we see is perishable. Nothing that we comprehend is eternal.