??? (?haau)
Meaning: noun: Place.
Quote:
??? ????? � ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?? ????? ????
kahu pa??it�� soochaa kavan ?haau. jahaa bais hau bhojan khaau.
Tell me, O pandit, which place is uncontaminated, where I can sit to eat my meal? -Bhagat Kabir, Guru Granth Sahib, 1195
Message: Of purity and dirt of the mind
In this verse Bhagat Kabir is conversing with a typical pandit or Brahmin who wouldn�t let any person of a lower social order touch his food, lest it is made impure or unholy to eat.
Some people on account of their underlying belief are very particular about maintaining the ritual purity of the food they cook and consume.
They will first sweep and clean the cooking place, plaster it with cow dung (an ancient practice) and then draw a circle around it to mark the boundary of the cooking yard, and then will not allow anyone (especially of the lower caste) to enter the cooking area.
Kabir advises such people that in reality everybody and every place, including the enclosure prepared by a Brahmin, is impure as everywhere there are some microorganisms or bacteria.
Although we should try to be as hygienic and clean as reasonably possible, we should not be obsessed with such fallacies that a mere touch of a person is going to pollute our food or place.
If we think deeply then there is pollution and impurity all around and within us. The only way by which we can become pure and immaculate is by having pure thoughts and practising good deeds.
Etymology: From Sanskrit sthaaman (station, place) ? Pali thaam (steadfastness) ? Prakrit thaam (place, strength)? Sindhi thaau (station, place) and Nepali ?haau (place).
