The Garden of Flowers: A Poetic Journey to Spiritual Awakening

Click Here to Watch the Poem Reading and Spiritual Teaching

Do not go to the garden of flowers!
O Friend! go not there;
In your body is the garden of flowers.

Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus,
and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.

~ Kabir

The garden of flowers, which symbolizes a deep connection with God, has never been outside of you. It has always lived within you. Photo by Jill Wellington

It’s not often that I cover such short poems, but there are a few that really speak volumes. This deep poem by Kabir is definitely one of them.

So simple in its use of language, yet so powerful in how it makes you feel.

Kabir starts with a wonderful warning: “do not go to the garden of flowers.”

He then continues this caution in the second line, imploring us to not go out “there”…to not go outside the frame of our body.

But what really is the “garden of flowers” that he is referring to? And why is it so “bad” for us to go there?

To really understand and appreciate the meaning of this analogy, one must first understand the context in which it is used.

Kabir was a 15th century Indian mystic and poet that was influenced by a variety of spiritual and philosophical traditions that were…