Religion
Song LXXXI: In the beginning was He alone, sufficient unto Himself: the formless
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore, with Evelyn Underhill (1915) · From Songs of Kabir (1915)
In the beginning was He alone, sufficient unto Himself: the formless, colourless, and unconditioned Being.
Then was there neither beginning, middle, nor end;
Then were no eyes, no darkness, no light;
Then were no ground, air, nor sky; no fire, water, nor earth; no rivers like the Ganges and the Jumna, no seas, oceans, and waves.
Then was neither vice nor virtue; scriptures there were not, as the Vedas and Puranas, nor as the Koran.
Kabîr ponders in his mind and says, "Then was there no activity: the Supreme Being remained merged in the unknown depths of His own self."
The Guru neither eats nor drinks, neither lives nor dies:
Neither has He form, line, colour, nor vesture.
He who has neither caste nor clan nor anything else--how may I describe His glory?
He has neither form nor formlessness,
He has no name,
He has neither colour nor colourlessness,
He has no dwelling-place.
Cite this poem
MLA
Kabir. “Song LXXXI: In the beginning was He alone, sufficient unto Himself: the formless.” Translated by Rabindranath Tagore, with Evelyn Underhill. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/kabir/80/.
Chicago
Kabir. “Song LXXXI: In the beginning was He alone, sufficient unto Himself: the formless.” Translated by Rabindranath Tagore, with Evelyn Underhill. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/kabir/80/.
Read this poem with the Codex →
More by Kabir
- Song XIV: The river and its waves are one
- Song XXXIII: Where is the need of words, when love has made drunken the heart?
- Song LII: When I am parted from my Beloved, my heart is full of misery
- Song LXXII: The jewel is lost in the mud, and all are seeking for it;
- Song XCIV: O sadhu! my land is a sorrowless land.