A Song of Kabir
A Song of Kabir - meaning Summary
Renouncing for Spiritual Unity
The poem portrays a man who renounces wealth, status, and home to become a bairagi, an ascetic seeker. Moving toward Delhi and the open road, he leaves social councils and possessions to pursue the Way. The speaker frames this turn as spiritual clarity: worldly activity fades and a singular divine reality remains. The emphasis is on renunciation as a deliberate, compassionate quest to understand fellow humans, animals, and God.
Read Complete AnalysesOh, light was the world that he weighed in his hands! Oh, heavy the tale of his fiefs and his lands! He has gone from the guddee and put on the shroud, And departed in guise of bairagi avowed! Now the white road to Delhi is mat for his feet. The sal and the kikar must guard him from heat. His home is the camp, and waste, and the crowd -- He is seeking the Way as bairagi avowed! He has looked upon Man, and his eyeballs are clear -- (There was One; there is One, and but One, saith Kabir); The Red Mist of Doing has thinned to a cloud -- He has taken the Path for bairagi avowed! To learn and discern of his brother the clod, Of his brother the brute, and his brother the God, He has gone from the council and put on the shroud ("Can ye hear?" saith Kabir), a bairagi avowed!
bairagi - Wandering holy man. kikar - Wayside trees.
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