The Great Poet, Kabir Das

                                                                                    

                                                        

                                                                                                          

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