Herat, herat he sakhi
Rahya, Kabir, herai

“Searching and searching and searching, oh my friend, the searcher is lost. Seeking and seeking and seeking, the seeker is lost.”

Bund samani samund mein
Sokat herijai

“The dewdrop has slipped into the ocean; now there is no way to get it back.”

But it was too early to say that. The dewdrop was still there, slipping towards the ocean, but it had not yet fallen into the ocean.

When Kabir was dying, he became enlightened. He called his son Kamal and told him, “I have written something wrong. At that moment, that was my feeling – that I had come to the ultimate. Before I die, you write this down, and change it.”

The change is very small in words, but in experience it is tremendous. He has used again the same words:

Herat, herat he sakhi

“Oh beloved, seeking and searching, the seeker is lost.”

Samund samund bund mein
Sokat herijai

“And the ocean has fallen into the dewdrop; now it is impossible to find it.”

Just a little difference in the words… “The dewdrop has fallen into the ocean” – something of the self has remained in it. But “the ocean has fallen into the dewdrop”…that is the tremendous experience and explosion of enlightenment. The first statement was about self-realization; the second statement is about enlightenment.

From enlightenment, falling is simply impossible. You are gone – and gone forever; not even a shadow or a trace of you is left behind.

Up to self-realization the possibility remains – it becomes less and less, but it remains. You can start being egoistic about your self-realization: “I have known, I am a realized person. I am a saint, I have encountered God” – but that “I” is there, howsoever pious. Even its shadow is dangerous; it can pull you back.

I have heard a very beautiful story about Jesus….