Who do you seek? Where do you look? - Gleanings from Kabir and Tagore

Are you looking for me?
I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is next to yours.
You will not find me in stupas,
not in Indian shrine rooms,
not in masses,
nor in kirtans,
not in legs winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you look for me,
you will see me instantly—
you will find me
in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

O servant, where dost thou seek Me?
Lo! I am beside thee.
I am neither in temple nor in mosque:
I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash:
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies,
nor in Yoga and renunciation.
If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me:
thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time.
Kabir says, 'O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath.'


Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads!
Whom dost thou worship
in this lonely dark corner of a temple
with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God
is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground
and where the pathmaker is breaking stones.
He is with them in sun and in shower,
and his garment is covered with dust.
Put off thy holy mantle
and even like him come down on the dusty soil!