Within this earthen vessel — a recurring Kabir phrase for the body — are the seven oceans and the unnumbered stars. The whole of creation mirrored in the human body. This is the microcosm-macrocosm doctrine Plato used, the Hermetic tradition used, the Kabbalists used. The Upanishads put it this way: "As is the atom, so is the universe." What Kabir adds, and what Tagore's word "earthen" carries beautifully, is the humility. You are a clay pot. But every ocean and every star is inside you.Chandogya Upanishad 8.1 on the Brahmapura; Emerald Tablet, "as above, so below."
The touchstone and the jewel-appraiser are within. The touchstone in Kabir's day was a small stone of schist used by goldsmiths to test the purity of gold by streaking the metal against it; the appraiser read the streak. Kabir is saying both are already inside you. The raw material is there, the assayer is there, the test is there. Teresa of Ávila used a similar image in the Interior Castle — the soul contains its own assayer. You do not need an external authority to tell you the gold is gold. The Bhagavad Gita 6:20-23 points at the same thing from another side: the self-recognizing self.Teresa, Interior Castle I.2; Bhagavad Gita 6.20.