Kabir was a 15th century Indian mystic and poet who was also a weaver by trade. His vision combined the philosophies of Hinduism and Sufism, and he is considered both a Sufi and Brahmin saint. His poetry is rooted in nature and the experience of the ordinary, through which he seeks the ‘unstruck drum of eternity.’ ‘The Moon Shines in My Body’ is an ode to the human condition, to the blind eyes that can’t perceive their own intrinsic divinity and which clamour after individualistic pursuits, unaware of the constant imminence of God.
The Moon Shines in my Body
The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it:
The moon is within me, and so is the sun.
The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; but my deaf ears cannot hear it.
So long as man clamours for the I and the 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.
For work has no other aim than the getting of knowledge:
When that comes, then work is put away.
The flower blooms for the fruit: when the fruit comes, the flower withers.
The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass.
Kabir (1440-1518)
From: Songs of Kabir, Translated by Rabindranath Tagore