Kabir Jayanti reminded me those schooling days of mine in Assam, a
province of India. When, I read a poem of Kabir Das as it was included in my
curriculum of compulsory Hindi subject, a chapter dedicated to Kabir Das with the
title of “Kabir Ke Dohe”. In those days,
poems were not interesting topic for me, with the growth of my age I have
realized that I was lucky enough to know little bit of Kabir even in my
childhood. Now, belatedly I am realizing that Kabir Das was pearl of Poetry, poet
among the poets. Apart from my childhood experience of Kabir, my beloved master
Osho added more interest toward Kabir through his discourses and bhajan which
played during spiritual gathering. My love
to Kabir urges me to visit Magahar where his Samadhi is located near from
Gorakhpur railway station and Kabir Chauraha in the forest of Amarkantak where
Kabir stayed and sang his poetry during his tour. Kabir Das is very popular among
Nepalese too; there are many ashrams around Kathmandu city where Kabir
followers are practicing his teaching. To dedicate my love to Kabir Das, I have
done little bit research and heard discourses of Kabir given by Osho as he is very important figure in
spiritual world.
There
are plenty of legends associated with his the birth and death of Kabir Das; some people says
that, he was born in a Muslim weaver family, while others say that he was born
to a Brahmin widow. It is quite difficult to say much more about his life with
certainty. It is understandable believe that the mystical poet and great Saint
Kabir Das was born in the year 1440 and died in the year 1518. The message about his life and work that has
come down from his own time has been embellished by oral tradition and
manipulated by religious groups with their own agenda, to a point where it is
impossible to establish even such basic facts as the places and dates of Kabir
Das birth and death. The popular story is that his mother was said to be a
virgin widow who conceived through a blessing given by the great teacher of
South India, Ramananda, on a visit to the spiritual quest. Ramanand, while
blessing her, offered her the usual wish that she might conceive a son, not
knowing her state of widowhood. After the birth of Kabir, his mother abandoned
him in the corner of the bridge near the pond because of social fear and
hypocrisy of then Brahmin family. The small baby boy was found and adopted by a
Muslim weaver family.
His
early upbringing is much clearer. Kabir was raised among a Muslim
community of weaver. He lived most of his life in Banaras and he was a
weaver by profession, one of a low ranked caste that had become largely Muslim
in Kabir time. He was never formally
educated and was almost completely illiterate. From his childhood, Kabir
was deeply devoted to God and he felt attracted towards the Bhakti philosophy
of Hindu saint Ramananda. Being Muslim, Kabir hoped to become a disciple of the
Hindu mystic Ramananda. In the beginning Ramanada was not agreeing to accept
Kabir as his disciple because of Kabir’s caste and religion as Muslim, realizing
that his chances were slim, He lay down on the steps of the bathing ghat where
Ramananda was in the habit of going down for his predawn ritual. In the dark he
stepped on the young boy and aghast that he had trampled underfoot a human
being and he uttered the divine name, "Rama! Rama!" for his mistake,
after that Ramananda accept him as his disciple. His guru has given him the
name of Lord Rama as a guru mantra which he mentions in his own way. Ramananda's
Hindu attendants as well as local Muslim observers were outraged, but Kabir
continued to claim discipleship with the Ramananda, and the great saint was
impressed with his persistence.
Kabir
Das is often depicted in modern times as a harmonizer of Hindu and Muslim
belief and practice. Kabir was influenced by the Hindu religious thoughts but
side by side, he learnt much of Islam. He felt greatly attracted towards the
Sufis. He found the substance of both the religions dearest to his heart. Kabir strove for the one truth. He described
himself as the son of both Ram and Allah. It represented a synthesis of Hindu
and Muslim concepts. From Hinduism he accepts the concept of reincarnation and
the law of Karma and from Islam he takes the affirmation of the single god and
the rejection of caste system and idolatry. Not only did Kabir influence the
Muslims and Hindus but he is one of the major inspirations behind Sikhism as
well. The basic religious principles he espoused were simple, according to him,
all life is interplay of two spiritual principles. One is the personal soul and
the other is God. It was Kabir's view that salvation is the process of bringing
into union these two divine principles.
Kabir was bold preacher. He criticized the
outer modes of religions. His satires were aimed at the orthodox Maulavis and
Pundits. He asked who the Lord of Earth is if Allah stays inside Mosque. Who is
looking after the world if Rama is inside the image? To Kabir Rama does not
exist in the east and Allah in the west. They, as one, are inside the human
heart. Human being’s duty is to surrender to the will of God. Muslims place him
in Sufi lineages, and for Hindus he becomes a Vaishnava. Kabir believed in the
sameness of Hinduism and Islam as far as the love of God was concerned. To him,
the true love of God could be achieved only through devotion or Bhakti. This
devotion should come from within the heart, not from external shows. He
criticized the formalities of all religions, worships or prayer in temples or
mosques was meaningless without true devotion. By emotional Bhakti, man could
come nearer to God. Kabir said with courage: “if by worshiping stones one can
find God, I shall worship as mountain: better than these stones (idols) are
stones of the flour mill with which men grind their corn.”
Kabir's
poetry is best known in the west through Rabindranath Tagore's translation,
published in 1915; all quotations in this essay are taken from that
translation. The authenticity of the 100 "Songs of Kabir" contained
in that volume which has been questioned, but there is no such thing as an
authentic body of Kabir's words, apart from Tagor, Osho the mystic of twenty first century has contributed immensely to resurrect Kabir once again through his discourses and book around the world. Kabir is
ranks among the world's greatest poets. Kabir played the role of a teacher and
social reformer by the medium of his poetry, which mainly consisted of the two
line verses called Dohas. He composed devotionals Bhajans, known as the Kabir
Doha. His songs touched heart and roused emotion. Kabir, being illiterate,
expressed his poems orally in vernacular Hindi, borrowing from
various dialects including Avadhi, Braj, and Bhojpuri. His messages were mainly based on the concept of
reincarnation and karma. His orally transmitted message includes Bijak,
Sakhi Granth, Kabir Granthawali and Anurag Sagar. Kabir's philosophy about life
was very clear-cut. He believed in living life in a very simplistic manner.
The
story says that Kabir Das has chosen his place of death, Magahar which is
located about 30 km away from Gorakhpur railway station in order to remove the
myth from the people’s mind that one who takes his last breaths and die in the
region of Magahar would never get place in heaven as well as take birth of
donkey in the next life, Kabir Das died in Magahar instead of Kashi just
because of breaking the myths and superstitions of people. It is believe that
those who die in Kashi go to the heaven directly that is why Hindu people go to
the Kashi during their last time and wait for death in order to attain the
salvation but Kabir died out of Kashi to demolish the established myth.
Dozens
of legends that surround his life and death, It is said that Hindus and Muslims
wrangled over his dead body, with the Hindus wanting to cremate it according to
custom, while Muslims argued that he should be buried. In the midst of the
argument, Kabir appeared in the air and told the disputants to pull back the
cloth that covered him. They did so, and found a pile of flower petals. The
petals were divided, with the Muslims burying their half and the Hindus burning
theirs. Half of these were burnt after the Hindu custom at a spot now known as
Kabir Chaura in Benares, and the rest were buried at Maghar, which became the
headquarters of the Mohammedan portion of the sect that still follows Kabir. Kabir
attracted countless Hindus and Muslims. By the time of his death, he was
renowned as a great saint. Kabir was the foremost champion of Hindu-Muslim
unity. The members of Kabir followers are known as the Kabir Panthis, a
religious community that recognizes him as its founder who had extended all
over the over north, central India and some part of Nepal.
By Giri Bahadur Sunar
