The Spiritual Athlete in an Orange Robe | Kabir by Robert Bly

photograph by MysticLens | at a Hindu Temple, Singapore
...

The spiritual athlete often changes
the color of his clothes,
but mine remains gray and loveless.

he sits inside the shrine room all day
so that God has to go out and praise the rocks.

or he drill holes in his ears,
his beard grows enormous and matted,
people mistake him for a goat.

and he goes into wilderness areas
and he strangles his impulses
and makes himself neither male or female.

he shaves his skull
puts his robe in an orange vat,
reads the Bhagavad Gita
and becomes a terrific talker.

Kabir says,
actually you are going in herds
to the country of death
bound
hand and foot.

. Kabir: Ecstatic Poems | translated by Robert Bly .

. click here to listen to Robert Bly's translation and recitation.
The video is from performance of poetry of Kabir at one of the Mythic Journeys conferences. Musical accompaniment by Eugene Friesen and Arto Tuncboyaciyan is simply gorgeous!

here mystic poet Kabir is criticizing the spiritual tourists and ascetics who went too far in their pursuit while neglecting what it means to be human. Kabir lived in an age where asceticism in hindu path was "the spiritual thing" of the time. but Kabir was not so crazy about it.

while listening to this poem, it resonated very much what dear blog reader, sneez wrote in the comment: "spirituality disconnected from real life and suffering of others is vanity of ego. I think that noticing such events and expressing the pain is what belongs to every (one) concerned about human spirit and mind."