“Joy can be real only if people look on their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.”

– Leo Tolstoy

 

..and now Kabir day 11

 

First, the couplet transliterated:

 

Kabira Khara Bazaar Mein, Mange Sabki Khair

 

Na Kahu Se Dosti, Na Kahu Se Bair ||

 

Translation

 

Standing in the bazaar, Kabir wishes for all to be satisfied.

He has no special friendship with anyone, nor enmity towards anybody.

 

My Understanding

 

There are two levels to look at this couplet.

 

At the simpler lever, Kabir, the professional weaver, is talking of the best practice for a businessman in the marketplace. He is asking the businessman to conduct business impartially and without any low or underhand strategy. Selling is a competitive affair – Kabir asks to nor use dirty tricks to make the extra buck, but to stay calm and courteous to all potential customers, and stay balanced in the entire approach.

 

At the spiritual level, this couplet likens life to the noise and confusion of the traditional bazaar. Continuing from yesterday’s discussion on ‘Maya’, the bazaar has more distractions and disturbances than the average human can ignore. Kabir, the teacher, in this couplet, is presenting the listener with the option of the more balanced approach to life. By not succumbing to the overages of emotion, one can maintain equanimity in their daily dealings both within and without. Kabir is presenting us here with an idea of how our mental and physical attachment to material things and emotions can create/change/alter our experience of life – attachment both to and against various aspects and things.

 

Here, he offers us a way out of the quandary – by staying calm and detached, we can balance out the extremes of emotion and passion. Difficult – yes, but not impossible, and it does become easier with practice. After all, no one ever said life was easy!