Living in the land of the dead

An article by The Ranting Dream    No Comments

Look around…

Conscience is dead, Intelligence is dead, Humility is dead, Compassion is dead, Honesty is dead, Integrity is dead, Humanity is dead!!!

I’m not so sure anymore that I like what reflects back at me in the mirror…the inner self is very, very ill – and before the sun sets on the horizon, it too, may be dead…

Death is a certainty for all things living…but the dead today still have pulses…not sure I want to die this way…

When I first heard Kabir‘s poem ’…yeh murdon ka gaon…’ (…this is the land of the dead…), I perceived an entirely different meaning than I do now…

At first it inspired me to reflect on the totality of existence and the limited span of the superficial things that make our even more superficial world go round…today, I resonate with its core theme – “Sadho Re…yeh murdon ka gaon” (“Listen, Oh Mystic…this is the land of the dead”)…

And I struggle with this as I continue living, through my death, in the land of the dead…

Sharing Kabir‘s wisdom [I've inserted translations/interpretations of my own in square brackets]

Listen, Oh Mystic, This is the land of the dead !

The Saints are dead, the Messengers are dead,
The life-filled Yogis [those who aspire to spiritual growth and/or are enlightened courtesy of their aspirations] are dead too.
The Kings are dead, their Subjects are dead,
Physicians and their patients are dead too.

 Listen, Oh Mystic, This is the land of the dead !

The Moon and the Sun both have an end,
The Sky and the Earth too will some day cease.
The Caretakers of the fourteen astral levels will also die,
Why, in vain, aspire for these.

Listen, Oh Mystic, This is the land of the dead !

The nines die, the tens too die,
Die easily the eighty eight.
The thirty three crore [1 crore = 10,000,000] enlightened beings die,
Such is Time’s great might.

Listen, Oh Mystic, This is the land of the dead !

Only The Unnamed lives without any end,
There is no other Truth.
Listen, Oh Mystic! says Kabir,
Don’t you get lost and Die !!

Listen, Oh Mystic, This is the land of the dead !

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” – Albert Einstein

- RD