Saint Kabir Session 5 - Kabir's Poem On Non-Duality

Listen to Ektaji talk about Saint Kabir's life story and his teachings on non-duality. These teachings are aimed at the experiential understanding of the true nature of the self and are focused on the idea of the oneness of everything.

Transcript

Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām So the next is a song by Kabir.

Yes,

It's,

Or you can say it's a longer poetry.

This poetry will make it very clear to you how Advaita Vedanta or the teaching of non-duality is what Kabir was really teaching.

He was not teaching anything else other than non-duality.

Non-duality simply means oneness,

To break the divide and in that time,

Like I told you,

There was a lot of tug of war between Hindus and Muslims.

So he saw this a lot right in his surroundings in Varanasi.

Hīro kavyapār sugura mañaf sadakare nugura mool kavaaye anhad ke mehdaan mee mara sahabjiki sej,

Kahat kabira dharmi das se,

Nathumare na bhura hoe So we'll go line by line.

Nirgun galiya sakri fahatu chalia nahi jaya hai.

So he's talking about that witness consciousness.

When you experience the witness,

It is like nothingness,

Correct?

Let's do it right now.

You are looking at me.

You are looking through those eyes at the computer screen in front of you.

The computer screen in front of you is the scene and the eyes are the seer.

I'll repeat that.

The eye is the seer and the computer screen is the scene.

Clear?

Yeah.

Take one step behind.

If you recognize,

There is still the mind seeing the eyes.

The mind knows that I can see.

Now close your eyes.

Now the mind knows that I cannot see.

Now open the eyes.

Now the mind knows I can see.

Is this clear that the mind is behind the eyes?

So the mind is the seer and the eyes are the scene.

We've taken one step back.

The first step was eyes are the seer and the computer screen is the scene.

Now we are taking one step behind that and we are saying mind is the seer and eyes are the scene.

Very clear?

Now look carefully.

Take one more step behind.

You can close your eyes if you want where the mind is seeing that I cannot see now.

There is somebody behind that thought,

Behind that mind,

Quietly witnessing the mind saying I can see or I cannot see.

Yes?

You got that?

The witness.

The witness is like emptiness.

Nirgul is the word used by Kabir for the witness or the emptiness that you just experienced for the consciousness.

Nirgul translation,

Devoid of a quality,

Devoid of a characteristic,

Devoid of any objects.

There are no objects there.

It's just emptiness.

The witness is like nothing.

It's like empty.

It's like complete blank.

Nirgul,

Devoid of attribute or devoid of any quality.

Understood quality,

No?

Right,

Wrong,

Good,

Bad,

Human,

Animal,

Tree,

All these are qualities to define an object.

But there,

There is nothing I can define.

It's nothing.

Yes?

That is why it is called Nirgul in Kabir's language.

Every master who taught gave different,

Different words.

In the Bhagavad Gita,

It is fullness.

Even in the Upanishads,

It is fullness.

The word is Purnata.

Buddha gave it the word Shunyata,

Emptiness.

Yes?

In some of the scriptures,

In some Upanishads,

It is called Chidakaasha.

In some it is called Sat or existence.

In some it is called Isness.

It doesn't matter what the word is.

Kabir uses the word Nirgul.

We have to just understand that all of them are referencing the same thing.

Ashtavakra calls it Sakshi.

Super clear?

That's the explanation of the first word,

Nirgul.

Yeah?

So now,

When I am in the witnessing consciousness,

There is nothing,

Absolute nothing blank.

So it's so difficult now for me to get there.

Every time I get stuck in the mind,

I get stuck in,

I like this,

I don't like this,

I understand this,

I don't understand this.

Why is my spiritual path so long?

Why,

Why,

Why,

Why,

Why am I stuck in the mind?

I'm doing my best to go to that witness and be in awareness and again I lose it.

I come out with some thought.

Yes?

So he is saying,

Nirgul galiya sakri,

The street to that quietness,

To that blankness,

That street,

Those alleyways are so tricky.

I keep slipping,

I keep falling.

Vahato chadio nahi jai.

I cannot climb up there.

I just cannot negotiate through these alleys.

These alleys of formlessness.

Vaha chadhe to piyu mille.

I have climbed there once before and I have experienced my piyu.

My piyu is my beloved.

Where I am at peace,

Kabir calls that the home of the beloved.

Where I am absolutely quiet,

Absolutely happy.

Where there is no mind,

Where there is no I like this,

I don't like this,

All that drama is completely gone.

Even I have had just one glimpse but I know that I find my piya there.

I find my daland there,

My beloved there.

Vaha chadhe to piyu mille.

Avagaman mith jai.

What is avagaman?

I come into this cycle of I like,

I don't like,

I like,

I don't like and because of that I get angry,

I create karma and then that karma follows me again and again and again.

I want to get out of this whole cycle because this karmic cycle doesn't go on just till the end of this body's lifetime.

It brings me back into another body.

The bird sitting on that tree,

If it does not find the higher bird,

What happens to the lower bird?

It consumes,

Consumes,

Consumes,

Consumes and at the end of the life,

This lower bird flies away to another tree and again he starts consuming,

Consuming,

Consuming,

Consuming this fowl,

That fruit and he never finds the higher bird and when he again doesn't find the higher bird,

Again the same thing repeats,

The same cycle repeats.

Avagaman coming and going,

Coming and going,

Coming and going.

That cycle does not end only when I do not realise who am I when I do not meet my piyu.

But when I meet my piyu,

Avagaman mith jai.

Kabir says it is so simple,

Just be the witness.

The witness is always there.

It is not very difficult.

Now understand,

Kabir is not educated.

Kabir has not read a million scriptures.

Kabir has not sat like you in classes and made notes.

Definitely not.

Simple guy,

Very simple.

We were super poor,

Super,

Super poor.

He made one saree or one piece of silk cloth.

He went to the market,

Sold it,

Got money and then he could provide his family for the day.

He could only make that much money.

How much?

He was enough to get through a day for himself and his family.

Such a simple person,

No scriptures,

No classes.

Nobody to teach him.

He found that witness so simply.

He said,

Oh it's there.

What have I been looking for?

And oh Sadhu,

What are you looking for?

You go to that Mandir and that Masjid and that Guru and here,

There,

What are you doing?

Look within,

Look within.

It is here,

It is here.

It was so simple to get there and it is very simple for you.

Vaachade toh piyumile aagaman mith jai.

First paragraph clear or first part of the song is clear?

And then the chorus of the song is,

Mari haili aao hamare des.

My dear come to that land of emptiness.

My des is my land.

Yeah,

Mara des is my land.

And Kabir calls it emptiness or nirgun.

Yes,

It is that land of emptiness means that witness consciousness is empty,

No?

You can't find anything there.

It is empty.

It is quiet.

There is no thing there.

The land of nothingness,

The land of emptiness.

That silent feel,

That consciousness that I am.

So he says,

Come to that land of emptiness.

Maare lagya bhajan mala baan.

Bhajan is not the bhajan you sing.

Ram Ram Ram Krishna Krishna Krishna.

Bhajan means to share.

So he says,

I am struck with that arrow of sharing about my land.

Please come to my land.

Please come to my land of emptiness.

That is the song.

He is not talking about doing bhajan.

He's not talking about singing songs.

He's not talking about praising the Lord.

He's not talking about any worship,

Any puja.

He's talking about sharing.

He's saying,

I have developed this urge to share with you about my land of emptiness.

Maari heli wo aao sahib ji ke desu.

So now in the first paragraph,

He called the beloved Piyu.

Now in the chorus,

He calls him sahib ji.

Same thing.

These are just different words that people use to address the witness consciousness or God or awareness,

Whatever word you like.

So he's saying,

Come come to the land of the beloved.

Very clear?

Yes.

So those who did Advaita meditation,

The first two paragraphs that we just did is the first leg of the meditation.

He's saying,

Come come to that land of emptiness.

So from the sight of people,

Situations and things,

You come to the seer that who is seeing.

The eyes.

Again,

The eyes are the sight.

You come to the seer,

That is the mind.

And then from there,

You come to the land of emptiness,

The witness consciousness.

And you drop this mind,

Ego,

Intellect,

Memory and the body and this world outside,

Drop everything and be in this land of emptiness.

And now see that this land of emptiness,

Does it have a limit?

Oh no,

It's not limited.

The emptiness is extending beyond my body-mind complex.

Oh,

It is everywhere.

So this emptiness is everywhere.

It's all pervading and things are in it.

People are in it.

The mountains are in it.

The trees are in it.

Everything is in this emptiness.

Everything is here.

I've given you one homework in Advaita retreat.

I'll give that to you again.

To the same process that I explained to you,

Come from the seen to the seer.

You come to this witness and then look out the window.

And now look out at the buildings,

The fields,

Whatever you have in front.

Look at the mountain,

Look at the sky and then see what is beyond the sky.

What is beyond the sky?

Oh,

It is me only.

It is my awareness,

My consciousness.

I cannot see outside my own field of awareness,

Outside my own field of consciousness,

Outside my own field of emptiness.

This is the land of the beloved.

Everything happens in this land.

So do this homework.

When you do this homework,

You will understand the next paragraph.

And those who've already been practicing since the Advaita retreat,

You will definitely understand this paragraph now.

Where is it rising?

Where is it setting?

Where is the light radiating?

Where is this happening?

You tell me what is the answer.

In me only,

Everything is in me.

Everything is in Brahman.

So he answers,

Yahi uge,

Ne yahi aste,

Ne yahi ujala ho.

If you did that exercise,

You know this answer already.

Because everything is in me only,

In this land.

I can never ever experience anything outside my own field of awareness.

I can never ever experience anything outside this field of consciousness.

I can never ever experience anything outside this witness.

This witness is who I am.

And this witness is all-pervading.

People,

Situations and things are not really the way I perceive them to be.

I perceive it as matter.

Matter,

The name matter is also an assumption.

Because I do not experience them as matter.

I experience only my perception,

My sensation and my thought and my feeling.

I do not experience matter.

It is only an assumption.

So when this Advaita understanding becomes very very clear,

It percolates into life.

You see it so clearly,

Ka ha garje,

Ka ha barse,

Where is it thundering,

Where is it showering,

Ka ha sukha ka haryaho,

Where does the dry turn green?

Yahi garje,

Here it is thundering,

Yahi barse,

Here it is showering,

Yahi sukha ka haryaho,

Here the dry turns green.

Because there is no outside,

There is no outside.

I am Brahman.

Everything happens within Brahman.

It is like a wave arising in Brahman and it is falling in Brahman.

It is so simple to see it and yet so difficult because of the minds,

Ragas and vishas.

So you can very well,

Those who did Advaita retreat can very well correlate the first leg of the meditation with the first paragraph and the second and the third leg of meditation with the next two paragraphs.

Correct?

Nirgun ke bazaar mehove hero ka vyapar.

He calls it nirgun ka bazaar,

This witness consciousness that you are experiencing,

That silence,

That blank,

Absolute quiet background.

That he is calling the marketplace of emptiness,

Nirgun ka bazaar.

He says here I am trading in the jewels of insight.

Yes,

I get so many insights,

I start recognizing I am not the body,

I can see the body.

Oh,

The body does not see me,

I can see the body.

That means I am separate and body is separate.

I have a body,

I am not the body.

First insight,

Wow,

I am not the body.

Second insight,

I have a mind,

I am not the mind.

I see a thought coming,

I see a thought going.

The thought arises and falls,

It changes but I do not change.

I am constant.

I was the same little kid who had thoughts about the sky and why the sky is blue 20 years ago.

I am the same person today,

An adult having these thoughts and I will be the same 20 years,

30 years down the line.

I do not change.

The mind changes,

It arises and falls,

It arises and falls and I see it arising and falling.

Aha,

I am not the mind.

I have a mind.

Slowly,

Slowly the gap starts increasing between the real I and the fake I.

Who is this person who says I then to this body?

When I say I,

Why do I point to the heart or to this physical body?

Oh,

I am thinking this is I.

Why am I saying I to this?

Who is saying that?

Oh,

It's the ego.

But I see this ego becoming big when it's in front of the boss or in front of the spouse and this ego shrinking absolutely not there when I am alone in my room with myself.

I see the ego increasing and decreasing.

I see the ego coming and going.

That which increases and decreases,

Comes and goes.

Can that be permanent?

Can that be the real I?

No I am the one who is recognising that this ego is increasing and decreasing.

This ego is coming and going.

I am that real I.

This is the fake I and slowly you will notice that this you're not giving any fuel to the fake I and it shrivels and shrinks because of lack of fuel.

This I,

The witnessing consciousness becomes stronger and stronger and stronger.

In the nirgurta bazaar,

I trade in the jewels of insight.

I am not the body.

I am not the mind.

I am not the ego.

These are jewels of insight.

When these become very very clear,

Experientially a distancing happens between the fake I and the real I.

This bazaar,

This nirgurta bazaar becomes bigger and bigger.

The witnessing consciousness becomes stronger.

You tend to become more and more silent and silent because you are with your piyu all the time with your sahibji all the time.

This being with the piyu,

Being with the sahibji is called being with the guru.

That is the guru.

So that is there in the next line.

Sugura manav saudha kare.

The one who is with the guru,

He can trade in insights.

He can get all these insights.

I am not the body.

I am not the mind.

I am not the ego.

I am not the intellect.

I am this quiet witness.

He can trade in these jewels of insight because he has that understanding to be with the sugura,

To be with that witnessing.

But the nugura mul gavai means he loses all his capital in the marketplace of emptiness.

Are you clear?

Nirgul ke bazaar mehove hi ro ka vyapar.

Sugura manav saudha kare nugura mul gavai.

Beautiful,

Isn't it?

This is my favourite part of this song.

It's my favourite all over of Kabir.

Yeah.

Nirgul ka bazaar is your destination.

If you are still not there,

That is where you need to go.

Those who have tasted it,

Many of you have tasted it.

I know that.

Again and again become steady.

Again and again become steady in the nirgul ka bazaar.

Because only there will you trade in these invaluable insights.

Otherwise it's not happening.

Yeah.

We move on to the last paragraph of the song.

Anhad ke mehdaan meh mara sahibji ki sage.

Kahe kabira dharmi dase na tu mare na budha hoe.

Anhad,

I told you this word.

Yes,

Anhad is limitlessness.

This witness consciousness is limitless.

There is no end to it.

Yes.

And because it is limitless,

How many limitless consciousnesses can there be?

There has to be only one limitless.

And so we are one field.

We are one single field of limitlessness.

That is why anhad ka mehdaan.

Mehdaan,

Hindi word.

Field.

Yeah.

So in this field of limitlessness,

Mara sahibji ki sage.

The peace,

The love that you attain here in this single field is the piyu,

Is the beloved.

That is the only place you will find Him.

Remember that.

Love,

Peace cannot be found in the mind.

It cannot be found in the intellect.

It cannot be found in the memory.

It cannot be found in the ego.

Forget about it.

And physical body is out of question.

That is only lust.

We are not even going in that direction.

Yeah.

Where can you find that love?

That love is only available in that anhad ka mehdaan,

In that witnessing consciousness.

Maare sahibji ki sage.

My sahib,

My beloved,

He stays there.

He lives there.

He is resting there.

Tahi kabira dharmidas das se.

So probably this song was told to dharmidas and kabira singing to dharmidas,

Na tu mare you will not even die and you will not even become old in that anhad ka mehdaan.

Oh,

Now I want this anhad ka mehdaan.

I am going to look all young and beautiful there.

This body will not grow old.

No,

No,

Not that.

That is the wrong understanding.

A lot of people went to Haridwar and take Ganga Sanan for this reason.

They think,

Oh,

Once I go to Ganga and take a shower,

I want bed in the river,

I will not lose my beauty and always look young.

No,

No.

It's not true.

What he means to say is that witness consciousness is who I am.

I have mistakenly thought that I am this body and that is why I feel I am getting old or I have sickness and I will die.

Why do I say I will die?

Because I have wrongly identified with this physical body.

But I am not this physical body.

This has to become very clear.

And Advaita helps us become very,

Very clear on this.

So I will give you a few pointers,

But I want you to take this as your homework for the rest of the day.

Pointer number one,

The difference between Nitya and Anitya,

Changing and not changing.

That is number one.

What does it mean?

This body is constantly changing.

I have seen this body when it was a little baby.

I have seen this body as it grew and became a teenager body.

I have seen this body grow into an adult.

I have seen this body go through lots of changes of sickness and health.

Correct?

I have seen this body go through change.

That means I am separate and that which is changing is separate.

Is this clear?

So what is Nitya and what is Anitya here?

I am Nitya and this body that has gone through these changes is Anitya.

Body is changing and I am unchanging.

Really clear?

Yes?

Now this is something that you are understanding intellectually.

I want you to do manana for the rest of the day and go through your own life that do I see the change?

Even during the night you will see that the body has energy.

Now it is daytime.

In the night the energy fizzles out and I can see the change in the body.

Body wants to now lie down.

I can see that.

So I want you to experientially understand the meaning.

Nitya and Anitya.

Yes will you do that homework?

Number one Nitya and Anitya at the body level.

That's homework number one.

Now the same thing applies to the mind.

Yes?

The mind is happy.

I can see that the mind is jumpy,

Happy,

Joyous right now.

The mind is sad.

I can see that the mind is sad.

I have seen throughout my life the mind go up and down,

Up and down,

Up and down.

Excitement depression,

Happy,

Sad,

Likes this,

Does not like this.

I have seen this.

I has been constant.

Nitya.

This I is Nitya and this mind is Anitya.

Very clear?

So homework number two is observing Nitya and Anitya at the level of the mind.

Homework number one was observing Nitya and Anitya at the level of the body.

Homework number two observing Nitya and Anitya at the level of the mind.

Homework number three.

You observe Nitya and Anitya at the level of this ego,

The one that says I.

When is I there?

When there is a you in the room.

Doesn't matter who the you is,

Father,

Mother,

Child,

Husband,

Wife,

Whoever.

When there is a you in the room,

There is a very prominent I.

When this you leaves the room,

This I also leaves.

I want you to experientially recognise this today.

It will definitely happen with somebody,

With your friends,

Family,

Wherever.

You will notice it comes up and it's just like a feeling,

A sense of I,

A sense of I am somebody and that I wants to say something,

Wants to prove something,

Wants to make its presence felt.

And when the you is not there,

This I is also not there.

Now comes the main thing.

There is another real I that was seeing the play of this I come up and go down,

Come up and go down.

The fake I comes up in the presence of you,

Plays for a while and it goes away.

Who knows this?

There is this quiet witness consciousness,

That blank field,

That nose that is seeing the dance of this I.

So what is Nitya and Anitya here?

Nitya is that witness and Anitya is that fake I.

Here witness is the non-changing and this fake I which is coming and going is the changing.

Very clear at what levels I have to see it?

Level of the body,

I see the changing and unchanging.

At the level of the mind,

I see the changing and unchanging and at the level of the ego,

The fake I.

Very clear?

This is homework.

Yes?

This will help you create the gap that I'm talking about.

The gap between the real I and the fake I.

The gap between the witness consciousness and this ego,

This mind,

This intellect unnecessarily it's jumping and trying to prove I exist.

A gap will start happening and then we'll make an attempt to increase this gap more and more with Kabir.

Yes?

But you have to constantly practice this.

It's not even a practice.

You have to just be aware.

It's naturally happening in your environment.

Yes?

You have to just be aware of what is happening.

Yes?

Practical Advaita is what Kabir taught.

Is there any Bhakti you see here?

Well,

One Bhakti you can see is the fake I surrendering to the real I.

That is one Bhakti.

Yes?

The surrender.

Yes?

The letting go and just dissolving in the witness.

That is the only Bhakti that is really there on Kabir's path.

Very clear?

Reviews

Very clear! ❤