How do you, ask the chief of police, patrol a city, where the butcher shops are guarded by vultures, where bulls get pregnant, cows are barren, and calves give milk three times a day, where mice are the boatmen, and tomcats row the boats, where frogs keep snakes as watchdogs, and jackals go after lions? Says Kabir—does anyone know what I am talking about?
~ Kabir
Questioner: What is the meaning of this poem? What is Kabir talking about here?
Acharya Prashant: Kabir Sahib is talking about the inherent nonsense in the ways of man, the baffling contradictions, the inexplicable discrepancies. Cows are barren and bulls are being milked; vultures are guarding the shops of the butchers; frogs are keeping snakes as pets; jackals are chasing lions. These things should not happen, cannot happen, but are happening in this city.
Kabir Sahib is asking, “How to regulate this city? How to police this city? How to bring a modicum of order to the city? It is a city upended, it is a city distorted beyond any order.” He is pointing at the affairs of men; he is pointing at the way our cities are, our houses are and our minds are. That which cannot happen, that which should not happen, is happening.
