हिरण समझ बूझ बन चरना ...
एक बन चरना दूजे बन चरना तीजे बन पग नहीं धरना ...
पांच हिरना पच्चीस हिरनी उनमें एक चतुर ना ...
तोये मार तेरो मास बिकावे खल का करेंगे बिछोना...
कहे कबीर जो सुनो भाई साधो गुरु के चरण चित्त धरना...
Explanation
Traditionally, in Indian spiritual terminology, the Deer symbolizes
the senses. However, the more latent meaning of a Deer is our pleasure-seeking
desire. Fundamentally, each one of us is looking for pleasure and that search is
what is alluded to, in this song, as the grazing of the deer.
The "third"
forest is the physical reality guided by our senses. The "second" forest is the
mental world that is guided by our mind/intellect - included in this are the
visions and sounds heard by sages in meditation. Perhaps, Kabir does not see the
internal visual and sound experiences much different from a mental state where
thoughts are the driving force. The "first" forest is the true spiritual realm
where oneness with the ultimate is complete. So he says its okay to graze in the
first forest of oneness and the second forest of meditation/practice but not in
the third forest of physical and sensual pleasures.
Why? He explains
that in the third forest the pleasure-seeking tendency is at the mercy of the
five sensual stimuli (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch) that are the
hunters. He warns that one should stay out of their line of
attack/vision.
The deer identifies so completely with the five senses
that it takes on the form of five deer seeking the pleasures offered in the
third forest. Each of these five senses of perception combined with the five
motor organs of action (mouth, hand, feet, excretory and reproductive) makes a
combination of twenty five different ways (five multiplied with five) in which
the physical world is experienced. While, none of these experiences are
permanent, all twenty-five pleasure-seeking ways of the physical world continue
relentlessly. Kabir says that none of these pleasure-seeking methods are shrewd
enough to see this obvious truth.
Eventually this pleasure search at the
physical level ends unsuccessfully with the five sensory hunters "killing" the
spirit of the search. Each of these modes become non-living/dead reality that
serve as mere external display for feeding, beautifying and adorning the
physical world.
So what is the way out of this bleak and hopeless
reality? Kabir explains that the root of this transient mode of pleasure seeking
is the mind. And therefore instead of controlling the senses, the mind needs to
be tamed. But that's a daunting task in itself. Therefore Kabir, in all
humility, says that the mind should be offered at the feet of the Guru (within)
to show the way, directing it inwards to the true storehouse of pleasure - one
that is abundant with everlasting ecstasy.
