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"From the One Light, the entire universe
welled up. So who is good, and who is bad?"
 Bhagat
Kabir Ji was a revolutionary saint-poet of the Bhakti Movement. He emphasized
the equality and fraternity of all mankind. Once Bhagat Kabir Ji was going
to sell cloth he had made himself. He met some Sadhus (a renunciate spiritual
devotee) on the way whom he gave the entire cloth free of cost.
Saint Kabir Das (kabir, Arabic for "great", dasa, Sanskrit for
"slave" or "servant"), is widely acknowledged as one
of the great personality of the Bhakti movement in North India. He was
as is widely acknowledged born in Year 1398 A.D.(71 years before Guru
Nanak). Kabirpanthis (followers of Kabir) say that he lived upto the age
of 120 years and give date of his death as 1518, but relying on the research
of Hazari Prasad Trivedi, a British Scholar Charlotte Vaudenville is inclined
to lend credence to these dates and has proven that 1448 is probably the
correct date of Saint Kabir's demise.
He is one of the medieval Indian saints of Bhakti and Sufi movement
whose compositions figure in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. From
among all of them, Kabir's contribution is the largest, 227 Padas in 17
ragas and 237 shlokas. Under each raga or musical mode marking a section
of the Holy Book, Kabir's hymns appear at the head of Bhagat Bani, a generic
name for the works of contributors other than the Gurus. The presence
of a substantial amount of Kabir's verse in the Sikh Scripture and chronologically
he being the predecessor of Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith, led
some Western scholars to describe him as the forerunner of Sikhism. Some
have even called him the preceptor of Guru Nanak There is, however, ample
evidence to prove that Guru Nanak and Kabir had ever met their periods
of time in fact do not coincide. Kabir's compositions do figure in what
are known as Goindval Pothis, anthologies of the hymns of the Gurus along
with those of some of the Bhaktas prepared in the time of Guru AmarDas,
Nanak III. They were inclucled in the Guru Granth Sahib as well But this
happened much later when Guru Arjan, fifth in spiritual line from the
Founder, compiled the Holy Book Besides his own works and those of his
four predecessors, he entered in it hymns of some saints and mystics,
both Hindu and Muslim, Kabir was one of them.
Kabir lived in the fifteenth Century after Christ, which was a time of
great political upheaval in India. As is true of many contemporary religious
teachers, very little reliable information concerning Kabir's life is
available, though there is no dearth of legend gathering around him. Kabir's
life was centred around Kashi, also called Banaras (Varanasi) Legend has
it that he was actually the son of a Brahmin widow who abandoned him and
that he was found by a Muslim weaver named Niru, who adopted the boy and
taught him the weaver's trade. It is not clear whether he ever married,
but tradition gives him a wife named Loi and two children. His caste was
that of Julaha and from his sayings his caste's heriditary occupation
of weaving. On the basis of modern research, it seems probable that Kabir
belonged to a family of non-celibate yogis converted, not long before
and to a considerable degree superficially to Islam. From the writings
of Kabir it seems that his knowledge of Islam was slight, rather in his
poetical utterances (Bani) a wealth of Hathayoga terminology and a thought
structure which bears obvious resemblance to Nath Yogis. Nath Yogis in
addition to the yogic conception that all truth is experimental, i.e.
to be realized within the body with the aid of psycho-physical practices,
concentration, control of breathing and thus making the body incorruptible
and the yogis immortal. 
Bhakti movement was started by hindu saints while Sufi mysticism by Muslim
saints in medieval India (1200-1700). Kabir immensely contributed to the
Bhakti Movement and is considered a pioneer of Bhakti along with Ravidas,
Farid, and Namdev. His concept of love as a path of suffering may possibly
indicate, in some measure, a debt to the Sufis. These and other elements
from Nath tradition, bhakti and sufism, kabir combined with his own mystical
nature and produced synthesis which is the distinctive religion of Kabir.
Tradition tells us that Swami Ramanand was his Guru (a teacher).
In fifteenth century, Benaras was the seat of Brahmin orthodoxy and their
learning center. Brahmins had strong hold on all the spheres of life in
this city. Thus Kabir belonging to a low caste of Julaha had to go through
immense tough time of preaching his idealogy. Kabir and his followers
would gather at one place in the city and meditate. Brahmins ridiculed
him for preaching to prostitutes and other low castes. Kabir satirically
denounced Brahmins and thus won hearts of people around him. There is
no doubt that single most famous important person from the city of Benaras
today is none other than Saint Kabir.
Kabir through his couplets not only reformed the mindset of common villagers
and low caste people but give them self confidence to question Brahmins.
It was 100 years after him that Tulsidas broke the hegemony of Brahmins
by writing Ram Charitra Manas, a poem of Ramayana at Benaras which went
against the tradition of Brahmins. Kabir was in fact first person to go
against Brahmins and be so successfull. Benaras was devasted by an attack
by a Muslim invader Tamur Lang or "Tamur the lame" during his
time. Kabir also denounced mullahs and their rituals of bowing towards
kaba five times a day. Because of open condemnation of established and
popular religoins, Kabir became an object of the wrath of both Hindus
and Muslims in and around Benaras. Kabir travelled in and around Benaras
to preach his beliefs.
Kabir believed in sell-surrender and God's bhakti. The Kabirpanthis follow
a lite of singing the praises of God, prayers and a simple and pure life
of devotion. Kabir recommends ceaseless singing of God's praises. He virtually
suggests withdrawal from the world. He is against al1 ritualistic and
ascetic methods as means to salvation. It is true that Kabir refers to
some yogic terms in describing the meditational and mystic methods of
the yogis. But, there is no ground to suggest that he himself recommends
the yogic path. In fact, far from recommending yoga, he is quite strong
in condemning ascetic or yogic methods, and says that yogis, in their
meditations, become prey to maya. The point will, however be considered
further while comparing Radical bhakti with Nathism.
The moral tone is quite strong in Kabir's hymns. "Kabir deck thyself
with garments of love. Love them is given honour whose body and soul speak
the truth." "The ruby of goodness is greater than all thc mines
of rubies, all the wealth of three worlds resides in the goodness of heart.
When thc wealth of contentment is won, all other wealth is as dust."
"Where there is mercy, there is strength, where there is forgivenesss
there is He." "The man who is kind and practises righteousness,
who remains passive in the aftairs of the world, who considers creatures
of the world as his own self, he attains the immortal Being; the true
God is ever with him. Kabir suggests inward worship and remembrance of
God. For him, true worship is only inwards. Put on the rosary inward.
By counting beads, the world will be full of light. He clearly suggests
moral discrimination betwecn good and bad deeds. What can the helpless
road do, when the traveller does not walk understandingly. "What
can one do, if, with lamp in hand, one falls in the well." "Or
goes astray with open eyes. Discern ye now between good and evil."
It is not surprising that Kabir's satire was brought to bear not simply
on the vices and weaknesses of men but reached through and beyond them
to the very system themselves. It was the authority of Vedas and Quran
that more then the authority of Brahmin or Qazi which Kabir attacked.
He rebelled against the pretension of resolving by the means of books
or by way of authority, the mystery of human conditions and the problem
of liberation (Moksha). He spent his last 40 days living in a place where
it was believed that if you die you will born as a Donkey in next life.
Kabir is a firm advocate of ahimsa. His doctrine extends even to the
nondestruction of flowers. " The life of the living you strike dead
and you say your slaughter makes it dedicated. It is blood haunting you
and those who taught you." "They fast all day, and at night
they slaughter the cow; here murder, there devotion; how can this please
God? O' Kazi, by whose order doth thou use thy knife." "When
you declare the sacrifice of an animal as your religion, what else is
sin. If you regard yourself a saint, whom will you call a butcher ?"
"The goat eats grass and is skinned, what will happen to those who
eat (goat's) meat? "Do not kill poor jiva, murder will not be forgiven
even if you hear a million Puranas. Among the fifty commandments laid
down for the followers of Kabir, vegetarianism is one of them. For Kabir,
moral life involves adherence to ahimsa.
In common with all monastic, ascetic or otherworldly sects, Kabir does
not think well of women. Ihere is almost a tirade against them in the
hymns of Kabir. Woman is characterised as "a black cobra', thc pit
of hell and the refuse of the world." She is considered to be a hurdle
in the path of thc spiritual progress of man. He spoke, "woman ruins
everything when she comes near a man; Devotion, salvation and divine knowledge
no longer enter his soul." His views, about woman are also evident
from all his vehement attacks against maya. Almost everywhere he links
maya to a woman who is out to entice and entrap man, and destroy his spiritual
life. Such views about woman from a married person arc, indeed, quite
uncommon. The cosmological views of Kabir give a clear clue to his worldview.
He finds Niranjana to be the creator of the world; maya or woman. And
this woman stands between man and god. She is there to entice him away
from Him.
Kabir composed no systematic treatise, rather his work consists of many
short didactic poems, often expressed in terse vigorous language in the
form of Padas, Dohas, and Ramainis (forms of poetry in Indian languages).
Besides his work recorded in 1604 A.D. in Guru Granth Sahib by Guru Arjan
Dev, Nanak V, and preserved inviolate since, two other collections exist
- Kabir Granthavali, and Bijak. In his poems, he was quick to tell the
illustrations of moral and spiritual truth in the incidents of everyday
life , and many of his similes and metaphors are very striking.
Bhagat Kabir ji is ranked 5th as regards the volume of Bani contributed
to SGGS ji, and from the 15 bhagats, he contributed the maximum number
of hymns. His total contribution is 541 hymns set to 18 different musical
measures (Ragas). Kabir has been accepted as the most revolutionary of
all the saints of the Bhagati movement. He was the prominent disciple
of Ramanand, and din't hesitate to strike blows at futile religious observances
& formalism. Ramanand once advised him to get up early in the morning
& remember the Lord. This advice impressed him so much that he propogated
this throughout is life, awakening masses from their daily slumber of
ignorance and uniting them with the Lord.
The Brahmin lobby claim Kabir was born in Banaras to a Brahmin & was
later brought up by a weaver couple-Ali Neeru and Neema- of Uttar Pradesh,
who found the baby abandoned on the bank of Lahar Talan in the forest.
This story seems to have been conocted by Pandits who often generally
claim that scholars are born in their so-called high caste only. SGGS
ji does not support these claims. SGGS ji on Panna 67, 328, 970 and 1364
amply clarify and leave no doubt whatsoever whom Kabir was.
As he came of age, he was married to a God-fearing maiden named Loi.
She was the daughter of Neti, a noble-hearted weaver. Kabir and Loi had
one son; Kamala and one daughter; Kamali. Kabir was attracted to Hinduism
in his younger days. His couplets and slokas impress upon man to become
a good human being and treat all other as his equal. They are very effective
in leading a person on the path of righteousness. According to Kabir,
all human beings are Divine in essence. Thus, they are all equal. None
of them is either good or bad. The same Divine spirit is manifested in
all of them, and all that happens here is under His will.
Whoever dies, let him die such a death, that he does not have to die
again. ||1||
Besides loving devotion which is the main and dominant theme of Kabir's
Bani as included in SGGS ji, his aim was to free a man from the evil tendencies
of ego, deceit, etc. based as they are on superstitions and futility.
He criticises casteism, idolatary and empty ritualism. He had an undying
urge to transform a person into a being who is noble and pious spiritually,
socially and morally. To achieve his mission, Kabir openly denounced the
false superstitions, rituals and practtices, in all religions, that had
no relevance with the upliftment of human soul with the help of convincing
examples. In a hymn included at Aang 324 of SGGS ji, he ridicules the
idea that mundan (ritual shaving off a Hindu child's hair) can lead to
God-realisation. He says that had it been so, the sheep would have attained
liberation several times in its life, since it undergoes the same ritual
so often. Similiarly, he counteracts the Brahmin's boast of high caste.
If you are indeed a Brahmin, by thy birth from a Brahmin mother,
then why didn't you come by some other way? ||2||
With the help of another example, he refused to accept the superior status
of Brahmins:
How is it that you are a Brahmin, and I am of a low social status?
How is it that I am formed of blood, and you are made of milk? ||3||
Says Kabeer, one who contemplates God,
is said to be a Brahmin among us. ||4||7||
According to Bhagat Kabir, high family, high caste or high status are
of no consequences on the path to God-realisation, rather they become
hindrances. In a couplet, Kabir teaches mankind the vital message of reaching
God, with the example from everyday life:
From this simple, but vital example, we learn that God-realisation requires
3 constituents:
· Guru
· Discarding of egotistical beastlty temperament of an elephant
· Inculcating the humility of an ant
Bhagat Kabir has been equally straightforward while criticising some rtuals
of the Muslims. In a hymn he states; If a Muslim becomes deserving of
heaven because of the sunnat (circumcision): what about their women folk?
According to a reference in S.L. Sondhi's book, Sant Kabir, Kabir relates
an anecdote to make us aware of the purity of the water of the Ganges.
Considering the Brahmin's claim that the water of the Ganga washes off
all sins, Kabir hands over a bowl of such water to the Brahmins, but they
refuse on the excuse that the bowl had become impure through the touch
of a low caste man like Kabir. On this, Kabir satirises the Brahmins and
says that if the water of the Ganga fails to keep the bowl pure, how can
it purify our souls from all evils? The Brahmins have no answer to it.
Kabir ji was a dauntless mouthpiece of truth. His straight forwardness
and truthful frankness resulted in both the Hindu Pandits & Muslim
Quazis (priests of both religions) holding grudges against him. Consequently
at the time when Sikander Lodhi arrived in his town, Kabir had to suffer
many a humliation at his hands because of the instigations given to him
against Kabir, by the heads of both sects. But Kabir did not waiver, and
bore all tortures and humiliations with calmness, accepting all these
as His will. However, Kabir remained firm in his views. He has referred
to this incident in his hymn included in the Scripture under Gaund measure.
Many attempts were made to torture Kabir to the point of submisson, but
Kabir ji was headstrong and took these tortures as His will. Ultimately,
Sikander Lodhi was impressed by his personality, and out of respect to
his wisdom and old age, acquitted him. Referring to Kabir's love for the
Divine, deep faith and reverence for Him, Bhai Gurdas had said: "Brother!
There is no difference between Lord Rama & Kabir (who has a oneness
with Him, though his bodily vesture gives him a separate entity)".
The followers of Kabir have come to be known as Kabir panthis. They
have their principle centre at Kashi. Two of his disciples, Dharam Das
and Surat Gopal have completed his compositions under the title 'Kabir
Bijak'. However, 541 slokas of Kabir that find a place in SGGS ji are
considered important because of their genuineness. Since the entire text
of the Scripture has ever been inviolable, the text of Kabir's hymns therein
has also remained intact and unaltered.
Kabir ever strived to cultivate in mankind the feelings of love, compassion
and co-operation with others. Like many other great beings, he stressed
the importance of a householder's life because this teaches mankind to
live together and unites man intimately. Therefore, he has no hesitation
in submitting to the Lord the 'memorandum of demands' for a happy household
life. i
Giani Gian Singh, Sikh chronicler, writes that Kabir ji & Guru Nanak
Dev ji met in 1506AD in village Pusa; this may have occurred during the
latter years of his life, but there is no apparent proof for this.
The hymns composed by Kabir ji, even during the last years of his life
when he was well over 100 years old, reflect his revolutionary spirit.
According to him, the place where God's name is recited is pious, and
there is no other basis of piety. Before discarding his bodily vesture,
Kabir ji shifted his residence to Maghar. At the time, people believed
that he who dies at Maghar suffer hell, and those that die in Kashi, enter
heaven. Kabir ji braved this revolutionary and courageous deed to prove
he futility of such notions. Guru Amar Das ji has strongly supported Kabir
ji's stand in a hymn on Aang 491 of SGGS ji, making it clear that visiting
pilgrimages or breathing our last in any certain place carries no meaning
as God resides in the mind.
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