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40
PRABUDDH JEEVAN
DECEMBER 2013
Thus He Was Thus He Spake
KABIR
The bhakti path winds in a delicate way.
in terse vigorous language in the form of Padas, Dohas, On this path there is no asking and no not asking.
and Ramainis (forms of poetry). The ego simply disappears the moment you touch him. He advocated leaving aside the Quran and Vedas to The joy of looking for him is so immense that you just follow the Sahaj path or the simple, natural way to God. dive in,
He believed in the atma but spurned the Hindu societal
caste system and idol worship. The major part of Kabir's and coast around like a fish in the water.
work was collected by the fifth Sikh guru Arjan Dev If anyone needs a head, the lover leaps up to offer his.
and incorporated into the Sikh scripture Guru Granth
Sahib. The hallmark of Kabir's works consists of his Kabir was born to a Brahmin widow in a village near two line couplets. known as the 'Kabir ke Dohe'. The Varanasi in 1440. But she abandoned him out of fear Dohas reflect the deep philosophical thinking of the because he'd been born to her outside marriage. He
poet saint. was then brought up in a poor household, by a family of Muslim weavers.
Kabir composed in a pithy and earthy style, replete
with surprise and inventive imagery. His poems No wonder then that this boy grew up to be the Kabir
resonate with praise for the true guru who reveals the whose preachings married the best of Hindu and divine through direct experience, and denounce more Muslim philosophies. Vaishnava saint Ramananda usual ways of attempting god-union such as chanting, imparted divine teachings to Kabir but Kabir was just austerities, etc. 13 years old when his teacher passed away.
Legend says that he relinquished his body when he His mixed education in life led him to living the life of a was about 120 vears old. There is a famous legend mystic while being a householder and a tradesman.
about his death; When he died, his Hindu and Muslim Kabir's greatest work is the Bijak, an idea of the followers started fighting about the last rites. When they fundamental one. This collection of poems clarifies lifted the cloth covering his body, they found flowers Kabir's universal view of spirituality. Though his instead. The Muslim followers buried their half and the vocabulary is replete with Hindu spiritual concepts like Hindu cremated their half. In Maghar, his tomb and Brahman, karma and reincarnation, he strongly samadhi still stand side by side. condemned dogmas in both Islam as well as Hinduism.
O servant where dost thou seek me? His Hindi was simple, straightforward and accessible
O servant, where dost thou seek Me? to the oppressed classes who were amongst his
Lo!I am beside thee. greatest followers. He was never formally educated and
I am neither in temple nor in mosque: was almost completely illiterate. According to legend,
I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash: the only word that he ever learned how to write was "Rama".
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies,
nor in Yoga and renunciation. Kabir through his couplets not only reformed the
If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: mindset of common villagers and low caste people but
thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time. gave them self-confidence to question Brahmins. Kabir
Kabir says, believes in self-surrender and God's bhakti. He suggests inward worship and remembrance of God.
O Sadhu ! God is the breath of all breath.' For him, true worship is only inwards.
RESHMA JAIN
The Narrators Kabir composed no systematic treatise, rather his work consists of many short didactic poems, often expressed
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