Stay Awake!

These short poems are taken from the Hindi Kabir Sakhi Sangreh using an original translation.

Kabir, what’s the point of sleeping –
Stay awake, calling the Compassionate!
One of these days you’ll really sleep –
Stretched out flat with feet apart.

Kabir, what’s the point of sleeping –
Why not get up and avoid weeping
  from pain?
You will sleep blissfully
When your home is the grave.

Kabir, what’s the point of sleeping –
Why not crave to stay awake!
Each breath is a ruby, a diamond:
Count them out one by one
  into the Master’s care.

Kabir, what’s the point of sleeping –
Why not stay awake and see?
Absorb yourself in His company –
You’ve been separated from Him so long.…

You’ve wasted your life in sleep.
You want a harvest? Stay awake.
The Lord doesn’t hold back Truth:
When you ask, He gives.

Go on calling Beloved, Beloved –
Don’t go to sleep, persist!
If you call out day and night,
He’ll start calling you in return.

Sleep is better than being awake
If you know how to sleep:
Attention absorbed within,
Simran going on gently
  all on its own.

To sleep while awake,
To be absorbed while asleep –
Attention held fast,
The flow unbroken.

Kabir, the Creator is awake –
But no one else.
We are either awake in sensual pleasures
Or fast asleep at devotions.