JO TOKU KANTA BUWAY, TAHI BOYE TU PHUL
TOKU PHUL KE PHUL, BAKO HAI TIRSHUL
जो तोकूँ कॉटा बुवै, ताहि बोय तू फूल।
तोकूँ फूल के फूल हैं, बाकूँ है तिरशूल ।।
Rough Meaning: Who pricks you with nail, prick him with a flower. You will get back flower for flower; and he a trident (a three-pronged spear) for nail. His thorn will become thrice thorny.
My father and I had many discussions on this KABIR DOHA. Father never agreed with this philosophy. For many millions it speaks of non-violence and love. But for my father it reeks of violence & ill will.
Let us assume that someone did prick you with a thorn. Think of him as an idiot and ignore him. That is the best you can do in any given time. But if you prick him with a flower, do you think the thorn pricker will be pleased? For some reason he pricked you with a thorn; if you were to prick him, in response, with a flower, he would be so irritated / encouraged to prick you with a trident!
How selfish we are! No. I would say how violent we are! We are extremely violent in our thinking and outlook towards life. We are selfish in the sense that we expect to get flowers for flowers; we expect flowers because we pricked the thorn/nail pricker with a flower. Further we expect in our violent thoughts that the thorn pricker will get a trident; his thorn to become thrice thorny.
Who is more violent here? Who is cunning? Who is selfish? Traditionally it is believed that the thorn pricker is violent! Even if I agree with the foregoing statement, he was violent only in his ACTION. But the flower pricker turns out to be extremely violent and provoking not only in his actions but also in his thoughts too, for he expects the thorn pricker to be pricked thrice as much. The flower pricker turns out to be very selfish for he expects thrice as much flowers for himself!
Thus this Kabir Doha preaches selfishness, perennial violence and endless hatred. This Doha of Kabir is disguised in the grab of non-violence, like a tiger wearing sheep skin!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
