99 Timeless Kabir Quotes: A Guiding Compass for Spiritual Seekers
Last updated on May 3rd, 2024 at 08:53 am
Kabir, a highly respected figure in the India, was like no other. He was seen as a saint who embraced true secularism, valued by both Hindus and Muslims. Kabir’s wisdom as a mystic, religious reformer, and spiritual teacher was profound. Kabir believed in uniting people of different faiths and promoting a Universal Religion of Man. His ideas were ground-breaking, crossing barriers of society, religion, and spirituality.
Here’s a profound quote by Kabir that serves as a fitting prelude to his wisdom, inviting us to delve into the depths of his teachings.
“There is nothing but water in the holy pools. I know, I have been swimming there. All the gods sculpted of wood or ivory can’t say a word. I know, I have been crying out to them. The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words. I looked through their covers one day sideways. What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through. If you have not lived through something, it is not true. “ ~ Kabir
According to Kabir, true knowledge can only be gained through first-hand encounters, not by relying on rituals, idols, or books. He encourages us to embark on our own journeys to discover truth and wisdom.
Wherever you are is the entry point. ~ Kabir
If you haven’t experienced it, it’s not true. ~ Kabir
When at last you are come to the ocean of happiness, do not go back thirsty. ~ Kabir
Wear a crown of flowers on your head, let its roots reach your heart. ~ Kabir
Between the poles of the conscious and the unconscious, there has the mind made a swing: Thereon hang all beings and all worlds, and that swing never ceases its sway. ~ Kabir
When you feel most alive, find out why, this is one guest you won’t greet twice. ~ Kabir
Love does not grow on trees or brought in the market, but if one wants to be LOVED one must first know how to give (unconditional) LOVE. ~ Kabir
Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath. ~ Kabir
Only in the heart can one experience the divine presence of truth. ~ Kabir
As the bee collecteth honey with great zest, so the fool collecteth wealth. ~ Kabir
Now I have no caste, no creed, I am no more what I am! ~ Kabir
All know that the drop merges into the ocean but few know that the ocean merges into the drop. ~ Kabir
I do not quote from the scriptures; I simply see what I see. ~ Kabir
My heart is so intoxicated with love that I have no wish to speak. ~ Kabir
I felt in need of a great pilgrimage, so I sat still for three days and God came to me. ~ Kabir
I went in search of a bad person; I found none as I, seeing myself, found me the worst. ~ Kabir
The truth of love is the truth of the universe: it is the lamp of the soul that reveals the secrets of darkness. ~ Kabir
The Qazi is searching the words of the Quran, and instructing others: but if his heart be not steeped in that love, what does it avail, though he be a teacher of men? ~ Kabir
Take a pitcher full of water and set it down in the water-now it has water inside and water outside. We mustn’t give it a name, lest silly people start talking again about the body and the soul. ~ Kabir
I am not a Hindu, nor a Muslim am I, I am this body, a play of five elements, a drama of the spirit dancing with joy and sorrow. ~ Kabir
Music without words means leaving behind the mind. And leaving behind the mind is meditation. Meditation returns you to the source. And the source of all is sound. ~ Kabir
Reading books everyone died, none became any wise. One who reads the word of Love, only becomes wise. ~ Kabir
Forgiveness is a game only saints play. ~ Kabir
My Beloved One gleams like the lightning flash in the sky. ~ Kabir
I sell mirrors in the city of the blind. ~ Kabir
Listen to me, my Friend! My beloved Lord is within. ~ Kabir
Jewels and jewels are made of one gold bar; but in it is one nature only. In speech and hearing only, two are made : one Namaz, another Puja. ~ Kabir
When you really look for me you will see me instantly. ~ Kabir
All darkness vanished, when I saw the Lamp within my heart. ~ Kabir
Veda and Purana are the mirror of the blind : what does the spoon know of the taste of delicacies? ~ Kabir
What is a holy person? The one who is aware of others’ suffering. ~ Kabir
Listen to me brother! bring the vision of the Beloved in your heart. ~ Kabir
The purpose of labour is to learn; when you know it, the labour is over. ~ Kabir
God, provide me with enough sustenance that my family is taken care of, that neither I remain hungry, nor does my guest go unfed. ~ Kabir
Slowly slowly O mind… Everything in own pace happens, Gardener may water a hundred buckets… Fruit arrives only in its season. ~ Kabir
When the bride is one with her lover, who cares about the wedding party? ~ Kabir
The apple blossom exists to create fruit; when that comes, the petal falls. ~ Kabir
The flute of the infinite is played without ceasing, and its sound is love. ~ Kabir
Sing such a song with all of your heart that you’ll never have to sing again. ~ Kabir
But if a mirror ever makes you sad, you should know that it does not know you. ~ Kabir
Do what you do with another human being, but never put them out of your heart. ~ Kabir
As the river enters into the ocean, so my heart touches Thee. ~ Kabir
Only they are pure who’ve completely cleansed their thinking. ~ Kabir
If all the land were turned to paper and all seas turned to ink, and the forests into pens to write with, they would still not suffice to describe the greatness of the guru. ~ Kabir
Listen to your own Self. If you listen to that Self within, then you find the Truth. ~ Kabir
Are you looking for the Holy One? I am in the next seat. My shoulder is against yours. ~ Kabir
If you don’t break your ropes while you’re alive, do you think ghosts will do it after? ~ Kabir
Just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things, and stand firm in that which you are. ~ Kabir
The instruction of the foolish is a waste of knowledge; soap cannot wash charcoal white. ~ Kabir
Life the veil that obscures the heart, and there you will find what you are looking for. ~ Kabir
You have left Your Beloved and are thinking of others: and this is why your work is in vain. ~ Kabir
Faith, waiting in the heart of a seed, promises a miracle of life which cannot prove at once. ~ Kabir
A learned man’s knowledge will be of no avail to him if he doesn’t have control over his tongue. ~ Kabir
When affection for the I-creature and what it owns is dead, then the work of the Teacher is over. ~ Kabir
Do not praise yourself not slander others: There are still many days to go and anything could happen. ~ Kabir
The external forces conceal from the eyes the deep meaning of existence; True faith resides in the heart. ~ Kabir
Seeking Why run around sprinkling holy water? There’s an ocean inside you, and when you’re ready you’ll drink. ~ Kabir
The Lord is in me, the Lord is in you, as life is in every seed, put false pride away and seek the Lord within. ~ Kabir
As long as a human being worries about when he will die, and what he has that is his, all of his works are zero. ~ Kabir
The world will die, but I shall not die. If God dies, then I will die; If he does not die, then why should I die? ~ Kabir
Plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is, Believe in the Great Sound! ~ Kabir
As the river surrenders itself to the ocean, what is inside me moves inside you. ~ Kabir
A diamond was laying in the street covered with dirt. Many fools passed by. Someone who knew diamonds picked it up. ~ Kabir
Don’t open your diamonds in a vegetable market. Tie them in bundle and keep them in your heart, and go your own way. ~ Kabir
Do you believe there is some place that will make the soul less thirsty? In that great absence you will find nothing. ~ Kabir
I’ve burned my own house down; the torch is in my hand. Now I’ll burn down the house of anyone who wants to follow me. ~ Kabir
I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God. ~ Kabir
What is found now is found then. If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death. ~ Kabir
Look at you, you madman! Screaming you are thirsty and dying in a desert, when all around you there is nothing but water! ~ Kabir
There’s a moon in my body, but I can’t see it! A moon and a sun. A drum never touched by hands, beating, and I can’t hear it! ~ Kabir
Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive preachers, when critically examined, turn out to be false. ~ Kabir
If it were possible to meet the Beloved while laughing and in a state of comfort, why should one suffer the anguish of separation? ~ Kabir
Path presupposes distance; If He be near, no path needest thou at all. Verily it maketh me smile to hear of a fish in water athirst! ~ Kabir
The essence of life is in remembering God. ~ Kabir
When the flower opens, the bees will come. ~ Kabir
Do not keep the slanderer away, treat him with affection and honour: Body and soul, he scours all clean, babbling about this and that. ~ Kabir
Nada is found within. It is a music without strings which plays in the body. It penetrates the inner and outer and leads you away from illusion. ~ Kabir
The savour of wandering in the ocean of deathless life has rid me of all my asking: As the tree is in the seed, so all diseases are in this asking. ~ Kabir
So long as man clamours for the I and Mine, his works are as naught: When all love of the I and the Mine is dead, then the work of the Lord is done. ~ Kabir
Whether I be in the temple or in the balcony, in the camp or the flower garden, I tell you truly that every moment my Lord is taking His delight in me. ~ Kabir
The home is the abiding place; in the home is reality; the home helps to attain Him Who is real. So stay where you are, and all things shall come to you in time. ~ Kabir
Listen to the secret sound, the real sound, which is inside you. The one no one talks of speaks the secret sound to himself, and he is the one who has made it all. ~ Kabir
I don’t think there is such a thing as an intelligent mega-rich person. For who with a fine mind can look out upon this world and hoard what can nourish a thousand souls. ~ Kabir
Be quiet in your mind, quiet in your senses, and also quiet in your body. Then, when all these are quiet, don’t do anything. In that state truth will reveal itself to you. ~ Kabir
Go over and over your beads, paint weird designs on your forehead, wear your hear matted, long, and ostentatious, but when deep inside you there is a loaded gun, how can you have God? ~ Kabir
There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman. There is not even a rope to tow the boat, and no one to pull it. There is no earth, no sky, no time, nothing, no shore, no ford! ~ Kabir
Within the body there is played Music unending, though without stringed instruments. That music of the Word pervades the entire creation. Who listens to it is freed from all illusion. ~ Kabir
The Beloved is inside you and also inside me. You know the tree is hidden inside the seed. Let your arrogance go. None of us has gone far. Inside love there is more power than we realize. ~ Kabir
Do not go to the garden of flowers! O friend! go not there; In your body is the garden of flowers. Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the infinite beauty. ~ Kabir
Men have always looked before and after, and rebelled against the existing order. But for their divine discontent, men would not have been men, and there would have been no progress in human affairs. ~ Kabir
One love it is that pervades the whole world, few there are who know it fully: They are blind who hope to see it by the light of reason, that reason which is the cause of separation – The house of reason is very far away! ~ Kabir
The man who is kind and who practices righteousness, who remains passive against the affairs of the world, who considers all creatures on earth as his own self, he attains the Immortal Being; the true God is ever with him. ~ Kabir
Listen, my friend. He who loves understands. ~ Kabir
Why are we here? To become ourselves in you. ~ Kabir
The stone neither speaks nor gives anything. Therefore, its service is fruitless and its worship is of no avail. Though One Brahman is the Cause of the Many… Behold but One in all things it is the second that leads you astray. ~ Kabir
Be strong then, and enter into your own body; there you have a solid place for your feet. Think about it carefully! Don’t go off somewhere else! …just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things, and stand firm in that which you are. ~ Kabir
As long as I talked unceasingly about the Lord, The Lord stayed away, kept at a distance. But when I silenced my mouth, sat very still and fixed my mind at the doorway of the Lord, I was linked to the music of the Word, and all my talking came to an end. ~ Kabir
Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain. ~ Kabir