KABIR

Kabir was a 15th century Indian mystic poet and saint whose writings influenced the Bhakti
movement. It is said that Kabir was born in 1455 and died in 1575. He was a disciple of Swami
Ramanand who was a renowned Vaishnavite. Kabir is widely accepted to have been brought up
in a family of Muslim weavers in Varanasi.

Since a very young age, Kabir realised the fact that all religious dogma, principles, and cult are
counterproductive and it ultimately leads to fanaticism in the society. This blinds the perspectives
of humanity to see the truth. As a result, many of his poems and couplets discard the religious
claims and beliefs that are without any rational thinking.

He always maintained that God does not live at a holy shrine or a temple but lives within a
human being. He wrote that-

“How funny!
In the mist of water, a fish thirsts for water,
The thing lies at home, but searching for it,
In the woods they roam, they roam,
Without self knowledge, the world is false,
Be it Mathura or Kashi.”

The above poem clearly reveals that it is ironic that the people cannot notice god living within
their own selves and are oblivious (unknown) of their own inner selves and instead keep
thronging to Kashi (Hindu) or Kaba (Mecca- Muslim). Therefore, it is futile to seek God outside.

Kabir is known for being critical of both Hinduism and Islam, stating that the followers of both
religions have been misguided by the Vedas and the Quran. He questioned their meaningless
rituals of the sacred thread and circumcision respectively. During his lifetime he was threatened
by both extremist Hindus and Muslims for his views.
According to Kabir, it is important for the people to know the truth and truth can be known by all
persons who consider every other creature on the earth as one’s own self. Therefore it is
important to get rid of the human ego. The legacy of Kabir continues till today and is commonly
known as Kabir Panth or the path of Kabir. Its members are known as Kabirpanthis.

It is generally assumed that he was illiterate and he famously said -

“I don’t touch ink or paper,

This hand never grasped a pen.
The greatness of four ages Kabir tells with his mouth alone.”

The chief source for the understanding of the readers about Kabir is his poetry. It appears that
he’s speaking directly and aggressively about his teachings to his listeners and readers. Almost
all of his poems have some form of direct address.

“Hey seeker! Listen, brother! Tell me pandit! Fool, you have missed it!”

His poems & teachings are replete with questions assaults, paradoxes and he confronts the
readers and listeners in order to set off/enlighten a spark of consciousness in the people who are
syncing in the river of time and ocean of delusion. (This thought is not very small, but that
thought has taken a centre stage in your life. )

According to Kabir, knowledge of Upanishads and any other religious scriptures is useless unless
each person treats the other person with dignity.

“Pandit, look in your heart for knowledge,

not in your scriptures and commentaries.”

The pandit is crippled if he follows this form of knowledge (believing in the scriptures) and as a
result he won’t be a pandit anymore. He directly questioned the Brahmins: “Tell me where
untouchability came from, since you believe in it?” He concluded that untouchability is a human
invention.
In response to this, Kabir concludes that, all bodies are made of the same essential substances.
Each body is sealed within another body during its formation. So there is no point that a person
can be assumed to be defiled before birth. With this, Kabir proved a radical equality of all
people.

The essence of Kabir’s effort as a teacher may be stated plainly. He wanted to make people
honest, and only then they would realise the real truth. He was a practical man. And he exposed
falsehood, deceptive nature and human delusions in a blunt manner. He famously wrote:

“Moving from truth to truth, what/who can destroy you.”

Kabir satirises the Ram-Chanters, in the same manner as that with the hypocrites and fools:

“Ram ram they cry,

Till there is a callous on their tongue.
If saying ram gave liberation,
saying candy made your mouth sweet,
saying fire burned your feet,
saying water quenched your thirst,
saying food will vanish your hunger,
the whole world will be free.”

Kabir was thus, a radical reformer, and he wished to reform the society fully.

Kabir on ‘ Hinduism’

The idea that Kabir criticises Hinduism from the inside out and not Islam cannot be justified. It is
true that Kabir could neither read the Sanskrit Vedas nor the holy Quran. But he had a strong
knowledge about both the religions. He has written stories on Adam & Hawa & is familiar with
the rituals of Islam. He placed the pandit and the Qazi as representatives of religious traditions
that were ultimately fraudulent. Because, they compel/force the people to internalise immorality,
inhuman treatment of other people, caste divisions, and demonstrate the superiority of wealth
and power.

Therefore he rejected both religions and their chauvinism and, in turn, the orthodox trends of
Islam and Brahmanism rejected and ignored him. He remained popular among the masses. Only
since independence he began to be decisively identified as a religious reformer, representing a
mix of Sufi-Bhakti traditions.

Kabir refused to acknowledge the caste division nor did he recognise the four-fold division of
life prescribed for the Hindus. He strongly held that religion (Dharma) without devotion or
Bhakti was no religion at all (Adharma). Therefore, asceticism, fasting, and giving of alms are of
no value.

Kabir is famous for his solitariness, fearlessness, and iconoclasm. He urged and dared everyone
to be strong and self reliant and never adopt a stance that would reveal the individual's weakness
of character. The emphasis on individualism is seen in his refusal of the collective authority of
both the major traditions, i.e. Islam and Brahmanic Hinduism. He highlighted the inability of the
religious traditions 'to create a path to God' because God, for instance Rama himself often used
in songs is a human creation. He questions – which is greater, Ram or the mind that knows him?

Kabir was against the use of the forceful language of divine authority to address the earthly sins
and inequalities. He said that the book reading by the Muslim Qazis and the pride of the
Brahmins and all priestly ritualism must be denounced. He said –

“You wash your body if you touch another,

Tell me who could be lower than you.”

Kabir was against all forms of untouchability and asserted that the only form of pollution is the
Brahmin's standpoint that differentiates one human from the other. He said:

“Pandit, look in your heart to know,

Tell me how was untouchability born?
 Untouchability is what you made so,
We eat by touching, we wash by touching.
Only he is untouched who has no link with maya.”

Kabir’s ideas of fierce opposition to caste inequalities is demonstrated in the following verse:

“A donkey is better than a Brahmin,

Who earns his grass by labour.
A dog is better than a stone god,
Who protects the house.
A rooster is better than a Mullah,
To tell us that the night is past.”

The anti-caste attitude of Kabir and demand of justice for all is clarified by the following verse:

“Water never stays on height, it stays on lower ground.

The lowly drinks it to the fill, on height their thirst abounds.”

As a moralist, Kabir warned of the little time left for people to retract from their sinful lives and
instead adopt a life of righteousness. He defined a righteous life in terms of behaviour, love of
God and other humans, and the rejection of wealth and status. He wrote:

“Kabir calls out, write two things down,

Worship God and feed the hungry.”

He also spread the message of love. He said,

“The world died of reading books (tomes), no one turned out wise,
From the single word of love, wisdom will arise.”

Kabir maintained that the divine is found inside the individual and not in any place. He was
sarcastic about the way in which the Brahmins madly held on to the Upanishads and concluded
that “if you can’t see what is before your eyes, you are as good as blind”.
Kabir emphasised upon the need to respect one’s mother, father, and teacher, and only through
this can one experience the highest form of pilgrimage. He wanted people to realise that any kind
of dogma, religious principles and cult are counterproductive to the development of the people.
He said that rational thinking is extremely important and urged the people to discard baseless
creeds.

Unlike any other saint of his time, Kabir never encouraged blind following of his sermons rather
he encouraged people to examine and re-examine everything in the light of full consciousness. In
essence, Kabir was a great social reformer who always put the welfare of the humanity in the
first place and sought to eradicate whatever evil he saw in the society. He never minced his
words when he revealed the vices like religious superstitions, caste discrimination, idol worship,
and hypocrisy. Kabir made it a point to see the futility of religious practices. He said,

“Pandit do some research and let me know,

Money, religion, pleasure, salvation,
Which way do they stay?
If Gopal is everywhere, where is hell?”

Kabir wanted people to realise that the concept of heaven and hell are for the ignorant because
they do not know the heart of God who is at all places and in all directions – North, South, East,
and West. Kabir advocated equality of all people and rejected untouchability. His style of
teaching created a form of intimacy with the listener who either became his followers or scorned
at him.

He was a legend. After his death, his Hindu and Muslim followers fought with each other, each
side demanding to take charge of the body. However, it is said that after someone removed the
cover, it was discovered that a heap of flowers had replaced the corpse. The two religious groups
then divided the flowers and each went away to either bury or cremate it according to their
rituals.