|
Life And Death |
 |
|
1. From days, quarters from quarters hours; so our life wears off. For death, like hunter or a butcher walks abroad; O, what is one to do to save oneself ? (Rag Dhanasri, Bhagat Kabirji)
2. Thy forelocks are in the Yama’s grip, still knowest thou not, O mind? (Tilang M. 1)
3. My wife, son, father, brothers, O none of them will hold my hand. And when I fall in the grave, not one will come to my rescue, when the last prayer is read. (Rag Tilang M. 1)
4. One remembers not the time when the thorn of death will pierce him through. Nanak: Him the Lord saves, in whose heart, by His Grace, He Himself dwells. (Tilang, M. 4)
5. One’s riches, chariots, possessions and dominions which one cherishes, all becomes strangers to one, when the noose of death grips one’s neck. (Tilang, M. 9)
6. By true living, they who find the Truth and receive the Wisdom of the Guru they are neither born nor do they die. Their comings and goings are ended. (Sri Rag M. 1)
7. Honoured were they by God (who) kept death ever before their eyes, and equipped themselves with the Lord’s Name. (Sr Rag M. 2)
8. One loses the fear of birth and death in the love of the Lord. (Sri Rag M. 5)
9. The bride is widowed not, if she merges in her true Lord. (Sri Rag M. 1, Ashtapadis)
10. Enjoy thou thy spouse and do away with the pain of births and deaths.
(Sri Rag M. 4, Pahre)
11. (Says the Angel of Death): "Where the saints ever worship the Lord and the Lord’s praise is sung, thither repair not, O my couriers, for there neither ye nor I will be safe." (Gauri Bavan Akhri M. 5, Shloka)
12. The Lord has given us a fixed number of days: they increase not, nor do they decrease even by an iota.
13. As the pigeon falls into the net, so are the self-willed trapped by death. (Bihagra, M. 4)
14. If the God so wills, He may keep man alive without breath. (Gauri Sukhmani M. 5)
15. As water mingles with water, so man’s light merges with God’s light. (Ibid)
16. As the rays of the sun gather again in the sun and the drop mingles with the ocean, so does the light of man merges in God’s light and the man is fulfilled. (Bilawal, M. 5)
17. Neither is one born nor does one die. It is all God’s play and He alone plays it all by Himself. (Gauri Sikhmani M. 5)
18. This play of the world is Thy Creation, O God, and Thou art life, permeating its every pore. It is like a myriad waves rising from the sea, and then merging again into their source.
(Nat M. 4)
19. It is the self-bound who come and go for the God-man abides ever in Truth.
(Ramkali, M. 1, Sidha Goshti)
20. Man emerges from the Lord’s Will. He quints as is the Will. He merges too in the Will. (Ibid)
21. The false ones come into the world, but find no refuge and, leaning on the Other, they come and go. (Ibid)
22. They are born not nor do they die. They come nor go, where minds are instructed, by the Guru’s Grace. They are like the one from whom they emanated. (Ibid)
23. He who looks upon pain and pleasures alike, by the Guru’s Grace, he tastes not death. (Ibid)
24. Death terrifies everyone, but it gives joy to me. For, if one dies not (to the self) how will one attain supreme Bliss? (Shlokas of Kabir)
25. Why weep for the Saint who goes back to his Home? Cry only for the cretched lovers of Maya who are sold from shop to shop (Ibid)
26. They who know death, why should they spread their feet wide? They alone are involved in their own affairs who know life to be everlasting.
(Var of Rag Suhi M. 3, Shloka, M. 2)
27. For a mere night (of life), we treasure our riches, and then we depart in the morn. And our riches go not along with us, and we grieve. (Var of Rag, Suhi M. 3 Shloka M. 2)
28. In the unbaked earthern jar, the water will remain not, so the body withers away when the swan-soul departs. (Suhi, Kabirji)
29. The service (of life) has ended; now I hae to render account (to my God). The cruel
couriers of the Yama have come to seize me. What have you earned? What have you lost? Haste, O life, the King of Dharma calls thee to His court. (Suhi, Kabirji)
30. Man live only if he lives in god. But dies he and is wasted away even in death, if he loves the Other. (Bilawal M. 5)
31. Death laughs over his head, but this quadruped minds not. He is engaged in strife, full of ego, and knows not death. (Bilawal, M. 5)
32. (Our life is like) a tree on the sea-shore, but it can root itself in eternity, if the tree-top is eternally attuned (to God). (Inid)
33. Neithe childhood, nor youth, nor age is safe from the clutches of death. Man is but a mouse, and the cat of death devours it in the end. (Bilawal, Kabirji 1)
34. The breath mingles with air; the air (of the soul) merges in the Oversoul. The dust returns to dust, so what does the man grieve for? Who is dead, pray, who is dead ? O wise ones, reflect on this and see. This is but the play of God. (Ramkali M. 5)
35. All this is the creation of the Lord, and one comes and goes as is the unfathomable Will of God. Neither one comes nor is one capable of dying. Nor one perishes, for, the Soul is eternal and ever-alive. (Ramkali, M. 5, 10)
36. In thy childhood you were ignorant and blind. And in your youth, you were lured away by sin. In the third stage, you gather riches and when you get old, regretfully you leave them all off.
(Ramkali, M. 5)
37. Lo, another one, beguiled by Maya, gold and women, has passed away, abandoning beauty, love, fragrance and other joys of the flesh. He was proud of his vast treasures and was comforted in mind. But nothing kept him company (in the end). (Ramkali, M. 5)
38. Nanak: Life is the fish, the fisherman the desire, like death. The blind mind thinks not and lo, he’s netted. (Shloka M. 1, Var of Ramkali M. 3)
39. (Thy Life) passes like the shade of the tree or like the clouds scattered by the winds. (Maru M. 5)
40. One loads the Boat (of life) with sin and launches it upon the Sea (of material existence),
and lo, one sees not the yonder shore, nor the port of sail. Dreadful is the Sea, but there is no Boatman, nor the rows to row the boat across. (Maru, 1)