Wisdom of the Mystics: Guru Kabir Ji

In this episode, The Bearded Mystic Podcast discusses the wisdom of one of my favorite poets Guru Kabir Ji. His teachings were based on the realization of the One, by going beyond religious divide and he was honest and straightforward with his views on the religious ideas and practices of his time. 

In this episode, I go through  some amazing poetry of Guru Kabir ji that mainly focus on the simple state of Awareness.

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Transcript

0:02

Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Bearded Mystic Podcast. And I'm your host Rahul N Singh. Thank you for taking out the time today to either watch or listen to this podcast episode. Today, we will be continuing on with the series that is titled The Wisdom Of The Mystics. If you would like to support The Bearded Mystic Podcast, you can sign up to our Patreon page and the details are in the show notes and video description below. Every Saturday, there is a free meditation class. If you would like to join, please find the details in the show notes and video description below. Earlier this month, as you know, we had looked into the teachings of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev Ji. And we looked into the mool mantar and we were very inspired by Guru Nanak Dev Ji's beautiful message, which really highlighted the essence of the Upanishads, the essence of Vedanta and in a such simple but effective manner. Today we're going to be looking at some of the poems of Sant Kabir Ji or Satguru Kabir Ji. Kabir Ji was also a poet, a Guru in the same time as Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Just to let you know, for Kabir Ji's poetry that I've looked at The Weaver's Songs by Penguin Classics. So we'll go into some of the poetry right now. It's titled The Final State and I'll read the poem completely, and then we will break it down. The Final State. The ineffable tale of that final, simple state: it's utterly different. It can't be weighed on a scale. Can't be whittled down. It doesn't feel heavy and doesn't feel light. It has no rain, no sea, no sun or shade. It doesn't contain creation or destruction. No life, no death exists in it, no grief, no joy. Both solitude and blissful union are absent from it. It has no up or down, no high or low. It doesn't contain either night or day. There's no water, no air, no fire that flares again and again. The True Master permeates everything there. The eternal one remains unmoving, imperceptible, unknowable. You can attain him with the Guru's Grace. Kabir says, sacrifice yourself to the Guru and remain ensconced in the true community. This is very deep poem. Something we will have to go into, but it describes very beautifully that state of Awareness. We talk about this state of Awareness, this state of Aham Brahmasmi, we've constantly talked about Tat Tvam Asi - You Are That. What is it to feel like being in That? Kabir Ji in this poem literally describes it and he calls it the Simple State. Let's look at the first few lines. The ineffable tale of that final, simple state. The ineffable tale. Ineffable, we know means overwhelming, marvelous, beyond our comprehension, beyond something we can explain to anyone. It's so amazing. So astonishing. Beyond our description. That is what this tale is about. That time when you become Awareness, this is what it's describing and he calls it the final, simple state. Now, the reason why Kabir Ji calls it 'the final simple state' is because we need to know that once we get to this level of Awareness, when we have attained that level of being in the Formless and we're constantly in the Formless and nothing can be taken out of the Formless nor can something be put into the Formless. That is that final, simple state. That Awareness which cannot be manipulated, changed, mixed or anything. Nothing can happen to that Awareness now. When we get to that final state, we can recognize it completely through this great poetry of Kabir Ji. And he says, it's It's not like your normal waking day-to-day life. Yes. Waking day-to-day life happens in this state, but it is not that state. Yeah. It happens within that state, but not that state. We need to really understand the language here. It's very nuanced and very deep, but we can understand this. So it's utterly different. See in our waking state everything is changing. Everything is subject to being one thing or another. Everything relies on other things to be itself. But in this one, it's utterly different. It is beyond change. Kabir Ji says it can't be weighed on a scale. Normally we can weight things on a scale. We can weigh our experiences. We can look at the quality of an experience. We can look at the quality of a product. We can look at the quantity of a product. We can see how much it weighs. We can see how many pounds it is, how many ounces it is. But this state cannot be measured in any way. It cannot be weighed on a scale. You cannot say, I am 20% enlightened. I am 30% enlightened. Either you are, or you're not. This final state cannot be weighed on a scale and it cannot be whittled down. You cannot change it in any way. You cannot break it down. You cannot peel it away. You cannot cut it away. It is complete as it is. It doesn't feel heavy and doesn't feel light. Sometimes when you're going through a tough day, the day feels heavy on your shoulders. It feels heavy on your mind. Here you don't feel that. And it doesn't feel light. Sometimes we meditate and we say we feel light again, we feel that bliss has made us feel light and easy. But here he is saying that final state is neither that also. This is why the saints and sages, they're not impressed by our words . Basically Kabir ji's doing here is saying what it is not. More so That than what it actually is. Because what it actually is, as he said, is utterly different. How can words communicate this? When you're in Awareness, when you've actually got into Awareness and you understand that there is only Awareness, you've identified completely, that Awareness only is, even the identification disappear. Because there's no need for Awareness to say that I am Awareness. So it doesn't feel heavy and doesn't feel light. Anyone that tells you love and light is the way, they're fooling you. Kabir Ji did not like people who would fool others. He was very much against this. He continues. It has no rain, no sea, no sun or shade. It doesn't contain creation or destruction. We know that none of these elements are in that Awareness, are in that Formless state, are in that simple state. He used the word simple remember. Keep it simple. Don't complicate it. Don't complicate the enlightened state. It is simple. There is no creation or destruction in It. Therefore there's none of this world that we see, this transactional reality is not in that Ultimate Reality. Yeah, the Ultimate Reality can contain the transactional reality, the relative reality, the reality of exchange, but that relative reality, transactional reality cannot be the Ultimate Reality. The Ultimate Reality is beyond that. And therefore, if there's no creation or destruction, Kabir ji makes it clear that there's no life, no death exists in it. That simple state. There's no life and there's no death. There's no living, no dying. There's no birth. There's no rebirth. There's no heaven. There's no hell. There's no now or after. Once we get rid of creation, we get rid of time and space. We get rid of location. We get rid of place, destination. Therefore he says, because there's no life and no death, there's no grief and no joy. Remember it's a simple state, no grief and no joy. There's no need to feel ecstatic in that simple state because that simple state doesn't require us to feel ecstatic and neither can there be grief because there's no death. Who is going to die? That simple state is everything. It's everyone's basic experience that they do not know that they experience. Then he says both solitude and blissful union are absent from it. So if you have people that love to be in solitude like me, that sometimes of the solitude of meditation, we don't feel this in this simple state. And again, if you're like me, you love the blissful union of being in that Formless, in that Brahman again, it's absent from it. That simple state doesn't require it. It doesn't even have it. You cannot experience it in that. You cannot create an experience from it. Like I often say that I have the mind of a Gyani, but a heart of a bhagat. I'm completely a devotee by heart and by my mind, I'm a complete Gyani. I want to know more. I want to exercise my intellect and it's an actual beautiful union between the two. And I think Kabir Ji is also hinting upon those lines that because the solitude of Gyana and then the expansive and union of devotion. You don't need both of those things. Those things are methods that eventually will collapse in realization. It has no up nor down. There's no where for it to go up. Nowhere for it to go down because there's no creation. Even if we measure experience, there's no higher experience, no lower experience, you cannot feel elated nor can you feel deflated. There's none of that in this. It doesn't contain either night or day. If there's no time, if there's no life, no death, then there's no night or day. If there's no creation or destruction, there's no day or night. Therefore again, making us understand that it's not the dark night of your soul, nor is it the day of realization. There's none of this. There's no day of enlightenment and there's no dark night of the soul, where we go through a lot of issues and we face our inner conflict. It doesn't contain any of that. This simple state. There's no water, no air, no fire that flares again and again. Making us understand that it's beyond the elements of nature. Then Kabir Ji takes a turn and he says the True Master permeates everything here. Now the True Master is the wisdom, the inner guru. That is what Kabir Ji is referring to, that the True Master permeates everything there. In that simple state, the True Master is there. That Gyana is there. That knowledge is there. That wisdom is there. The Eternal One remains unmoving, imperceptible, unknowable. If you know it, then it becomes another. Or the other. Therefore, it's unknowable because it is what you are. It's imperceptible. These senses of perception, even if they're cleansed enough, even if they are clean through constant meditation, even then this state is imperceptible. It cannot be perceived through any way, because there's no creation, no destruction. There's no elements. There's no nature. And it's unmoving since there's no time or space because there's no creation, therefore is unmoving. Where will it move to? If it has to move, that means that it can be in two locations, but it is in no location. You can attain him or it with the Guru's Grace. Now here, the Guru's Grace is that teaching of the Guru that takes you there. The method of the guru that takes you there. Yeah. That's the Grace. When you receive that knowledge for the first time, that wisdom for the first time, that takes you to that unmoving, imperceptible unknowable state. That final, simple state. The eternal one remains. For eternity. And you can attain this when it says attain. It doesn't mean that it is another either. What it's saying is that you realize that it is the only thing in existence or non-existence too. With the Guru's Grace, that's why it's very important. You know, nowadays we can become quite worried about gurus and we can be worried about their intentions, but this is a sign of a true guru. If you really want to know who a real teacher is or a real guide, they will tell you about this simple state. And they will say to you that you can get there. If someone says to you that you cannot get there, I would humbly just leave because they probably want to take you for a ride. Or someone will say that you're not ready for it. Now, if you're not ready for it inquire, whether it can be realized right now. If the person says, yes, it can be realized right now, but you are not at that point, where you can realize it right now and there has to be a process, that person is being genuine with you. As long as they can say that you can realize it right now and you have all the capability to realize it right now, I would go with them. If someone tries to tell you that it can't be realized it's difficult, maybe in the next lifetime. You know what, in this lifetime, you let go of that person and leave and go out the door as quick as possible, because they will take you for a ride. They will take each and every Dollar, Pound, Euro, Rupee that you have. This is a way to recognize the True Guru is the one that tells you about this final, simple state and tells you that you can achieve this. You are this, therefore it can take no time, but it's up to you. Whether you want to let go of what you think you are and become what it is. So that remains in you. Then the Guru's Grace works when you are completely ready for it and being ready for it is surrender. That is what we call samarpan or surrendering to the Guru. That's what that means. When you're willing to let go of your identity, to get rid of all identification to the body and mind, and to become this. That doesn't mean that you will no longer feel like you're the body and mind. No, but what you will understand is the feeling is not to be identified with. That's all. It doesn't mean that you will not feel the body, it does not mean your mind will not recognize that this is Rahul's body. Of course it will, but it will no longer identify that Rahul is the body. Yeah. In fact, there is no body and there's no Rahul. That's what is understood, when we enter that final, simple state. Then Kabir says, sacrifice yourself to the Guru. Sacrifice yourself, meaning get rid of your identification to this body and mind, sacrifice all your knowledge, all your wisdom, everything to the Guru. When you find your guru, when you find your teacher, let go of everything. I'll explain my own experience. I still recall the time when I let go of everything I thought I was at my Guru's feet. I remember that day so clearly, and it's not that I got everything in that moment. I recognize that I sacrifice everything. I said, everything I have is for my Guru and still is today. That has not gone. I sacrifice everything to my Guru and that has not gone. And then it was only months, maybe years later when I had that dissolution of self. I offered my self to the Guru but the Guru didn't take it straight away. Maybe with the understanding that I still had a little bit more work to do. And when my Guru finally accepted what I had offered, which was my self. Once He accepted it, then He told me I had reached. Sacrifice yourself to the Guru. Once the Guru takes your identification, the guru at the same time starts working on what you really are. Suddenly you start finding experiences occur where you no longer feel like this little self, but there is a larger self within this. Remain ensconced in the True Community. What this means is remain settled, remain established, remain in the shelter in the true community. Now, what is the true community? Something like we're doing with this podcast, anyone that's on my discord or you're signed up to my Patreon, you're investing in the community. You attend my TikTok lives or YouTube lives, or you attend the meditation class. You're part of the community. And this is what it means. You settle in that true community. It's only true, when we talk about that final, simple state. If we're talking about things here and there, then it's not the true community, meaning that it's not that in the true community, you only speak about spirituality. No, that's not what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is that takes the majority of the time and attention. You remain settled in that true community. That true community of yourself and the simple state. Once other people have realized this same simple state, this final, simple state, once they realized it, they will recognize that you've realized it and that creates the community. We go through that through meditation, through remembrance, through listening to pious thoughts, through serving others in the community, not just people who know what the Formless is or what Brahman is. No. Anybody and everybody, we serve others in that sameness. And that's what it's all about. We study the scriptures, we study the books that tell us about what we really are. So that's what be look at. That's what we explore. The next poem by Kabir ji and it's titled meditation. Recollect him first in your mind. No one else compares with him. Nobody can measure his full extent. He knows no beginning and no end. Impossible to tell if he has a form or not. His lightness or heaviness cannot be weighed. Neither hunger nor thirst, neither sun nor shade. He exists in everything without sorrow, without happiness. He's Brahman- unmanifest unlimited. He permeates everything as absolute knowledge. I've contemplated him at length. There's no one else like Rama. So we'll go through this again. Recollect him first in your mind. No one else compares with him. What is this him that he's referring to? When he says him again with the pronouns, remember at the time, when this was translated.' Him' has been a common word. He has been a common pronoun, but we can say 'It'. Recollect It, meaning Brahman, first in your mind. So it has to begin with the mind. Remember this Formless, remember this Awareness and keep thinking about this Awareness. Keep thinking about Brahman in your mind. No one else compares with It. No one else can compare to Brahman. You find that anything that you put against Brahman dissolves away because only Brahman is Supreme. Only the formless is Supreme. Nobody can measure his full extent. Neither Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh (Shiva). They cannot measure his full extent. He knows no beginning, no end. It doesn't have any beginning. It doesn't have an end. Impossible to tell if he has a form or not. We cannot say that Brahman has a form. Neither can we say he does not have a form. We do not know. We cannot say because if we say it has a form, we've compartmentalized It. If we say it doesn't have a form, we've also compartmentalised It. Then we may see it as empty space, then we miss it. There's a deeper intuition that is required to understand the poetry of Kabir Ji. Then he says his lightness or heaviness cannot be weighed like the previous poem. There's no heaviness or lightness there. Neither hunger nor thirst, neither sun nor shade. None of that exists in this state. None of this can be It - this Brahman. It exists in everything without sorrow, without happiness. Beyond pleasure and pain, beyond happiness and sorrow. Beyond all opposites. It exists in everything. It is Brahman. Unmanifest, unlimited. Limitless and unmanifest, it cannot be manifested into anything. It permeates everything as absolute knowledge. Remember we talked about the True Master permeates everything there. Here the same thing is being established, but here we are understanding what it means. It permeates everything as absolute knowledge. Absolute Gyana. The Gyana of the Absolute that's what it's talking about. I've contemplated it at length. Kabir Ji's constantly thought about it, at length. It requires time. It requires us to spend time on this. We can't just get it instantly. By listening to this podcast doesn't mean you're just going to get it. No. Even after listening to this podcast or watching this podcast, we have to contemplate about it. Whenever we get a moment spare, we think about Brahman, we contemplate about Brahman. There's no one else like Rama. Rama meaning this Brahman, this Formless, this Awareness. There's no one else. No one else will come close to that. Even if you think your physical guru will not come close to that. Even the physical Guru will tell you Brahman is everything. This formless is everything. Okay. That's a very nice meditation. Very beautiful thought. Now another poem. And you can see that there's a link in what I've presented through the poetry here. This is called the Simple State. Listen, you saints. I see that the world is crazy. When I tell the truth, people run to beat me up. When I tell lies, they believe me. I've seen the pious ones, the ritual mongers, they bathe at dawn. They kill the True Self and worship rocks. They know nothing. I've seen many masters and teachers. They read their book, their Qu'ran. They teach many students their business tricks. That's all they know. They sit at home in pretentious poses. Their minds are full of vanity. They begin to worship brass and stone. They're so proud of their pilgrimages. They wear caps and beads. They paint their brows with the cosmetics of holiness. They forget the true words, and the songs of witness, the moment they sung them. They haven't heard the news of the self. The Hindu says Rama's dear to them. The Muslims say it's Rahim. They go to war and kill each other. No one knows the secret of things. They do their rounds from door to door selling their magical formulas. They're vain about their reputations. All the students will drown with their teachers at the last moment. They'll repent. Kabir says, listen, you saintly men. Forget all this vanity. I've said it so many times, but nobody listens. You must merge into the simple state. Simply. I love Kabir Ji. Kabir Ji is one of my favorite poets. We'll go through this poem. It's really deep, it requires a bit of attention. But remember when he criticizes a particular religion, he's not actually criticizing the religion per se, but our actions that we associate with religion, that's what he's criticizing. And he's saying that that's not religion. Religion is that simple state. If you identify that you are a particular religion, then you're removing yourself from that simple state. Here he says, look at the respect first. He says, listen, you saints. So he's giving respect to these holy people. He's giving respect to them, but he wants them to listen. I see that the world is crazy. Yeah. The rituals that we do in this world, whether it's any type of ritual. Praying five times a day, praying in the morning and the evening. Waking up at amrit-vela. Doing any of these things, these are rituals. And he's saying that's the world. Kabir Ji says, I see the world is crazy. And then he explains why they are crazy. When I tell the truth, people run to beat me up because nobody really wants the truth. Everyone says, ah, we are true seekers. We are seekers of the truth. We want the truth. But actually those that tell the truth are always condemned. Then they're never accepted by the majority. By the cheerleaders of religion or the so-called caretakers of religion. I get them all the time on my TikTok, where they claim that I have the wrong understanding of the Bhagavad Gita and they may be right, they may be wrong. I don't actually have a problem with them saying I'm wrong. It's when they can't defend what they say or they can't argue their point. Today in the world, you may not be beaten up, but you could be condemned by a comment on a social media post. When I tell the truth, people run to beat me up. When I tell lies, they believe me. Say anyone that follows a mass religion or a teacher that has a lot of followers in the world, they are most likely not telling lies, but they're not telling you the truth. Basically. They're not telling you the complete truth. They're not telling you about that simple state. So when you tell lies that this state would get you to heaven, or this will get you to have a better human birth in your next life. You'll believe them. If they say, do this ritual, do this mantra, do this Pooja, do this prayer five times a day. You will get this. You'll believe them. You don't know if it will happen or not. You're just going by hearsay, but you will do it. Then he says, I've seen the pious ones, the ritual mongers, they bathe at dawn. So even though they are pious, they may have good intentions. Those that keep going towards rituals, they killed the true self and worship rocks. It's very important to do murti puja, I understand the importance, but once you know the formless, once you know about that simple state, is it necessary to worship the rocks? To worship anything of form? Maybe in the beginning it can stabilize us. I understand that, but eventually do we need that? I'm not saying that I expect you that after this podcast, you'll put your mandir away or you won't enter your mandir. No, I'm not saying that. The nuance here is this. They kill the true self and worship rocks. What it means there is that anything that doesn't contain the true self is lifeless like a rock. A rock appears lifeless. We have to understand the metaphor. When they say they killed the true self remember if in the rock you can still see the true self, then you're okay. If in the murti you can see the true self, you're okay. If in the Kaaba, you can see the true self. You're fine. You're okay. But if you don't then it's just a rock. It's just an object. And as Kabir Ji says in the next line, they know nothing. They don't know anything. They look pious, they seem great. You look at them and you say, look how devoted they are. They're bathe every day in the Ganges or they do their puja-path every morning. They go to their satsang every week. Look how much love they have for their Guru. But they know nothing. If they don't know their true self. I've seen many masters and teachers, they read their book, their Qu'ran. They teach many students, their business tricks. Kabir Ji is slightly offensive actually. What he is saying is harsh words. And a lot of people like to say, speak sweetly and that's more important, but actually. No. Sometimes you have to tell people that a spade is a spade. You can't tell someone that a spade is a spoon or a spade is a spatula. They're not, it's two different things. He says I've seen many masters and teachers. Kabir Ji is talking about his experience. He's not talking about someone else's experience. He's talking about his own. I've seen them, they read their book. Whether it's the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Gita, the Quran, the Bible, anything, but all they're doing is teaching their students, their business tricks. This is what happens to you. This is what will happen to you. This is the code that you have to follow. These are the commandments. That's called business tricks. They're not getting you to the simple state. They're saying, do this then you will get this. Have faith in the Lord and all your sins will go away. Accept Christ and all your sins will go away. That's a business trick. Go to this guru and all your problems will be solved. That's a business trick. Come to this Guru, you realize the truth. That's a business trick. That's all they know. That's what Kabir Ji says. That's all they know. Just business tricks. How to get you trapped. Remember, once a guru is done with you, then they tell you to go away. They tell you they don't need you. Or they will say, you are your own teacher in your own right now, go and spread the teaching. They'll never keep you restricted to just the teacher or to the community. They will tell you to go and share this message. Then he says, they sit at home in pretentious poses. In whatever pose they do. It's pretentious. Their minds are full of vanity. This can be looked at the yoga industry today. They do the pretentious poses. They think yoga is about doing some exercise of the physical body, but the real yoga is about meditation. Getting ready for meditation and meditation of what? That final, simple state. That is samadhi. But these people are full of vanity. Look good in yoga leggings or whatever they call them, or let me look like I have a six pack and show off this body that I do yoga in. That's vanity. They begin to worship brass and stone. They're so proud of their pilgrimages. It's all vain. Look how much I do. Look how much I worship. Look my murtis are made of gold. Does that mean your God is more sophisticated? Does that mean that your God is much better? Evolved? A Krishna in simple clay or Krishna in exquisite gold is the same Krishna. But the one that identifies gold as Krishna or the clay as Krishna, they both are fools. That's the reality. As Kabir Ji says, they forget the real thing, that final, simple state. They wear caps and beads. They paint their brows with the cosmetics of holiness. You notice those people straight away. They'll have markings on their heads. They'll wear robes. It's just as he says, cosmetic. It's makeup, it's accessories. It's a dress code. Nothing more. It doesn't mean that you're holy. It doesn't mean that you're more connected to the Supreme or you know your true self. These are just things to remind you of the True Self, but they are not the True Self. It's not that doing these things are wrong. It's about when we ignore the Ultimate Reality. They forget the true words and the songs of witness. Witness meaning Awareness. The moment they sung them. They haven't heard the news of the self. You see people, they just chant mantras or they sing bhajans or they do their prayers, they sing hymns. They do all this. But they forget the Awareness, the state of being aware, they forget that meditation straight away. The moment they sung them, they forget the reality because it's all about singing. It's all about showmanship. This is what Kabir Ji is telling us about. Then he says, they haven't heard the news of the Self. They're just singing, but they're not contemplating on the words. They don't know what the words mean. And then he says, the Hindu says Ram's dear to him, the Muslims say it's Rahim. They go to war and kill each other. No one knows the secret of things. They kill each other because they identify with a particular religion. The Hindu says the Hindu is the best. The Muslim says the Muslim is the best. They both cause harm. And none of them know that the secret of things is there's no Hindu and there's no Muslim. There's no east. There's no west. They do their rounds from door to door, selling their magical formulas. Remember they're methods, they're magical formulas. They're vain about their reputations. I am this, I am a pandit, I am a Brahmin. I am a scholar. I am this. I am that. I am this title. I am a Lama, all these things. This is all labels of reputation and they are so vain about it. I'm this title. That's why I am the one that knows more. That's vanity. What do you know if you're so vain? The sign of a true seeker or the true mystic is they're humble. They don't think they're everything. They don't think that way. And what reputation? Does the self have a reputation? Does that simple state have a reputation? No, not at all. It has no reputation. Therefore you don't need a title. Those that go after titles, that have all these titles in front of their name, they are vain, let go of those. Just keep the simple name you have, that your parents gave. There's no need to change your name to a Hindu name or to an Indian name or to an Islamic name or a Buddhist name or a Sikh name. You don't need to do any of that. What has that got to do with realization? Keep the name you have had at birth. Because this simple state is not about names. It never has been. All the students will drown with their teachers. Kabir Ji in another poem says the blind lead the blind, and this is exactly it. They will drown with their teachers. Their teachers are blind, they will go and drown. The students who are blind, they will also drown. They won't think for themselves. All they do is they get the mind of the teacher. And the mind of the teacher here thinks about the reputation, thinks about the formulas, thinks about how to sell things. Or they are businessmen or women. That's why he says at the last moment, they'll repent because they realize that they didn't get to that final, simple state. And repent, not in a way like a Christian or Abrahamic way. Repent as in regret that I had access to this and I didn't get there. I could see it yet, I ignored it. That's what they mean by repent. Not that they're gonna go to hell. No, that's not what Kabir Ji is talking about. Then Kabir Ji says, listen, you saintly men. Forget all this vanity. His compassion is that he wants them to realize this truth. I said it so many times, but nobody listens. You must merge into the simple state. Simply. He keeps the message simple. That's the sign of a true teacher. And he says, you must merge into the simple state. You must enter into that Awareness and then establish yourself in that Awareness, that formlessness and stay there. That's all. It's as simple as that. Nothing more, nothing more to do, nothing more to be. Nothing more to add, nothing more to subtract, nothing more to multiply, nothing more to divide, just simply be this. We'll do this final poem. It's very harsh but it's really amazing. I don't know what sort of Master you have. Is he deaf that the Mullah must screech from the mosque? Surely he can hear even the anklets that tinkle on an ant's feet. You count your beads, you smear your brow with marks. You grow long matted locks, but deep inside yourself, you carry the vicious dagger of apostasy. This isn't the way to attain the Master. So what Kabir Ji is saying, let's look at this. I don't know what sort of master you have. What is this true teaching you have? I don't know. What is this by you shouting is your God going to listen? Surely if your God is so great, then even the tinkling of the anklets on an ant's feet can be heard. The tapping of an ant's feet could be heard by this One. So why are you shouting? Or when you're chanting a mantra, why are you shouting that mantra for? Is your God deaf? Can your God not hear you? Is your God going to be proud of you chanting those mantras? You count your beads. You smear your brow with marks. Count your beads meaning you'll do the mantra 108 times. You color your brow. All that is merely an act of show. Yeah, it's showmanship. But deep inside you carry the vicious dagger of apostasy. Deep inside. Meaning that the vicious dagger of apostasy now what this means is not apostasy against a religion, the apostasy of not understanding who you really are. You betray your own self through these external showmanship. You are disloyal, you're faithless against your own inner self, your true self. Instead of going towards that realization that the Master wants to show you, that simple state, you rather have something that is more complex. You want the appearance of a Saint, but have none of the virtues of a Saint. Kabir Ji says, this isn't the way to attain the master. The master is that absolute knowledge. Remember we talked about that in the previous poems. That's what Kabir Ji is saying. If you really want to attain the way of the master, just be in that simple state that we discussed earlier. So that is the end of this episode, the wisdom of the mystics on Kabir Ji. I really enjoyed this episode. I really enjoyed talking about it, reading the poetry, it really felt like I was in satsang with you. It really felt that way and I really appreciate it. If you would like to follow me on social media to keep getting updates or subscribe to the monthly The Bearded Mystic Newsletter or join The Bearded Mystic Podcast Discord channel. Details are in the show notes and video description below. If you'd like to support The Bearded Mystic Podcast, there are a number of ways you can do so. You can utilize Patreon to get extra content in June, July, we'll be starting the conversations with The Bearded Mystic and also Guided meditations will be on there too for ten dollars a month. You can get access to that wonderful content. There's more tiers that you can check out or you can check other ways to support The Bearded Mystic Podcast. Please rate and review the podcast. The link is in the video description and show notes. Thank you very much for listening and we'll end with the shanti mantra. Aum Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Aum Peace, Peace, Peace. Namaste.