Kabir was a famous 15th-century saint, poet, and mystic. His writings suggested that the ultimate truth resided within and could be accessed by anyone who considered all things living and non-living as divine. Kabir’s followers saw his poems and songs as a path to spiritual awakening. With his flair for unraveling profound concepts through simple verses in the Indian language of Hindi (Braj and Awadhi dialects), Kabir’s ideas became accessible to almost everyone.
This beautiful song describes a conversation between a potter and the soil he kneads as clay. The soil asks the potter, “Why are you kneading me? A day will come when I will knead you. Everyone who is born will die someday, be it a king or a poor man.” The song emphasizes the inevitability of mortality, regardless of one's status in life.