Without this, all is worthless || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2019)
If you cannot win the love of the Lord, so what if you can lord over your neighbor? What is the good of dressing your hair and donning your feet with jingling jewelry? What is the value of all your makeup with kajal to your eyelids and vermilion to your forehead and all the efforts to deck yourself, if you are not loyal in your love? It is all a self-deception and does not touch the Lord at all. Says Kabir—if you can surrender your body, mind, and heart to the Lord and remain loyal in love to Him sans makeup and ornaments, you will win His favor in whatever state you be!
~ Kabir
Questioner: Could you please talk about the meaning of this poem?
Acharya Prashant: Full stop. Over. Why do you make me speak? Just recite this over and over, again and again.
Alright, let’s elaborate on this one. What is he saying? He is saying, “How do you manage to give yourself the right to celebrate?” Kabir is wondering, how does the ordinary man or woman—when I say man, I mean person; I have clarified that many times as a matter of habit. How does the ordinary man gather the guts, the dishonest audacity to pretend as if everything is alright? How do we manage to laugh out so loud? How do we manage to have such ravishing parties? How do we manage to sing and yell? How do we manage to say, “Thumbs up, all is well”? Wow, that rhymed! How do we manage to sing and yell, and how do we say thumbs up, all is well?
