QAVI KABIR DAS

[swamidada]

KABIR DAS

Kabir Das was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib. His early life was in a Muslim family, but he was strongly influenced by his teacher, the Hindu bhakti leader Ramananda. He was born in 1398, Varanasi, India and died in 1518, Maghar, India.

Kabir Das was a great saint of India. His writings inspired everyone in India. He is respected by Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities. He spent his early life in a Muslim family. It is said that he was brought up by a Johaalas couple.

He spread the simplest message of love and fraternity among all. Presence of a one God was the central point of his teachings. God is unlimited, endless, pure, omniscient and omnipotent. He was a sharp critic of Hindu and Muslim religious customs and preached brotherhood and wisdom of character and conduct. He was against Caste System and Idol Worship

Kabir Das wrote small poems called 'Dohas' in either Sanskrit or simple Hindi. Though these dohas, he condemned the caste system and other discrepancies that existed in the society. He was also opposed to untouchability and animal sacrifice or meat-eating, for that matter. He opposed all this through his impressive poetic skills as a poet would do.

Kabir was also of the view that idol worship is a useless practice ordained by people. In fact, he was of the opinion that it would be much useful to contemplate one’s conduct and character than to visit temples and worship idols.

He was also the first poet in the history of the Indian subcontinent who out rightly rejected the caste system as prescribed in Vedas.

Kabir's poems were in vernacular Hindi, borrowing from various dialects including Braj. They cover various aspects of life and call for a loving devotion for God. Kabir composed his verses with simple Hindi words. Most of his work were concerned with devotion, mysticism and discipline.

In one of his poem he narrated translated by Tagore;
Where spring, the lord of seasons reigneth, there the unstruck music sounds of itself,
There the streams of light flow in all directions, few are the men who can cross to that shore!
There, where millions of Krishnas stand with hands folded,
Where millions of Vishnus bow their heads, where millions of Brahmas are reading the Vedas,
Where millions of Shivas are lost in contemplation, where millions of Indras dwell in the sky,
Where the demi-gods and the munis are unnumbered, where millions of Saraswatis, goddess of music play the vina,
There is my Lord self-revealed, and the scent of sandal and flowers dwells in those deeps.
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore

Many scholars interpret Kabir's philosophy to be questioning the need for religion, rather than attempting to propose either Hindu-Muslim unity or an independent synthesis of a new religious tradition. Kabir rejected the hypocrisy and misguided rituals evident in various religious practices of his day, including those in Islam and Hinduism.

He said;
Saints I've seen both ways.
Hindus and Muslims don't want discipline, they want tasty food.
The Hindu keeps the eleventh-day fast, eating chestnuts and milk.
He curbs his grain but not his brain, and breaks his fast with meat.
The Turk [Muslim] prays daily, fasts once a year, and crows "God!, God!" like a cock.
What heaven is reserved for people who kill chickens in the dark?
Instead of kindness and compassion, they've cast out all desire.
One kills with a chop, one lets the blood drop, in both houses burns the same fire.
Turks and Hindus have one way, the guru's made it clear.
Don't say Ram, don't say Khuda [Allah], so says Kabir.

Translated by Linda Hess and Shukdeo Singh

In Bijak, Kabir mocks the practice of praying to avatars such as Buddha of Buddhism, by asserting "don't call the master Buddha, he didn't put down devils". Kabir urged people to look within and consider all human beings as manifestation of God's living forms:

If God be within the mosque, then to whom does this world belong?
If Ram be within the image which you find upon your pilgrimage,
Then who is there to know what happens without?
Hari is in the East, Allah is in the West.
Look within your heart, for there you will find both Karim and Ram;
All the men and women of the world are His living forms.
Kabir is the child of Allah and of Ram: He is my Guru, He is my Pir.

Translated by Rabindranath Tagore

Legacy;
Kabir literature legacy was championed by two of his disciples, Bhāgodās and Dharmadās. Songs of Kabir were collected by Kshitimohan Sen from mendicants across India, these were then translated to English by Rabindranath Tagore.

New English translations of Songs of Kabir is done by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. August Kleinzahler writes about this: "It is Mehrotra who has succeeded in capturing the ferocity and improvisational energy of Kabir’s poetry".

Kabir's legacy continues to be carried forward by the Kabir panth ("Path of Kabir"), a religious community that recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. This community was founded centuries after Kabir died, in various parts of India, over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its members, known as Kabir panthis, are estimated to be around 9.6 million. They are spread over north and central India, as well as dispersed with the Indian diaspora across the world.

There are two temples dedicated to Kabir located in Benares. One of them is maintained by Hindus, while the other by Muslims. Both the temples practice similar forms of worship where his songs are sung daily. Other rituals of aarti and distributing prasad are similar to other Hindu temples. The followers of Kabir are vegetarians and abstain from alcohol.

[swamidada]

KABIR - The Enlightened Weaver

The mystic poet Kabir has been an inspiration for seekers over centuries. Sadhguru explains how by debating on his religion, we miss out on his wisdom.
Sadhguru wisdom article on kabir the enlightened weaver
Jun 17, 2019

"Maatti Kahe Kumhaar Ko – A Poem by Kabir"

Maatti kahe kumhaar ko, tu kya roondhe mohe
[The clay says to the potter, who are you to knead me?]

Ek din aisa aayega, main rundhoongi tohe
[There will come a day, when I will knead you]

Aaye hain so jayenge, raaja rank fakir
[Everyone who is born will die some day, be it a king or a poor man]

Ek sinhaasan chadh chale, ek bandhe zanjir
[One sits on a throne, another is a prisoner]

Missing the Truth of Kabir

Sadhguru: Today is Kabir’s Jayanti. Kabir was a weaver by profession - a great mystic poet who still lives through his various poems. The poetry that he wrote or sang is just a small portion of his life. Most of the time he worked as a weaver. Since only the poetry is here, people think that is all he did. No, his life was an engagement in weaving, not in poetry. The cloth doesn’t live, but here and there, a poem or a verse still lives. I don't know how many have been lost, but what is left is still incredible.
Though such a fantastic human being, we don't know much about him except his poetry. Obviously he was a man of profound experience, there is no question. But his entire life till the point of his death and even beyond, what mattered to people was not mysticism, his wisdom, or the new vision of clarity that he wanted to bring. It was all about whether he was a Hindu or a Muslim. This was the main question. Just in case you don't know, I'm bringing some very vital information to you: nobody is born as a Hindu or a Muslim or whatever other nonsense. Nor does anybody die as a Hindu, or a Muslim or anything else. But when we are here, there's a big social drama going on.

Everything that you made up - your ideas of who you are, what religion you belong to, what is yours, what is not yours – is untruth. Truth is just there; you don't have to do anything about it. It is in the lap of this truth that all of us exist. Truth does not mean what you utter; truth means the fundamental laws which makes this life and everything happen. The choice is only either you are in tune with it or you are not in tune with it. You don't have to invent truth. You don't have to study truth. You don't have to bring it down from heaven.

If a tree is growing up and blossoming, obviously all the necessary ingredients to support life is here - that is why it is on. If you are here, it means everything that is necessary for this life to happen is here. Otherwise you wouldn't be here. The question is are you in tune with these forces or are you against it?

“Oh, why would I be against the forces of life?” Well, the moment you believe you are something that you are not, you are against it. You may think you are being religious, but all that is happening is you are just screwed up; you are creating a psychological drama and completely screening up the existential drama. You are completely missing the Creator's creation, because your own silly creation is keeping you busy in your head.

Enlightenment – A Celebration of Ignorance

You will move towards truth only when you realize “I do not know”. If you think you know, you will start moving towards untruth - because “I know” is only a thought; “I do not know” is a fact, it is reality. The sooner you get it, the better it is. The greatest realization in your life is you do not know. “I do not know” is a tremendous possibility. Only when you see “I do not know”, the longing and seeking to know and the possibility of knowing become a reality.

In this culture we always identified with ignorance because our knowledge is minuscule - no matter how much we know - but our ignorance is boundless. So if you identify with your ignorance, you become boundless in some sense, because whatever you identify will be your quality. In a way, enlightenment is a celebration of ignorance, a blissful ignorance. You are not cluttered with knowledge, so you see everything just the way it is, that's all. If you are cluttered with knowledge, you do not see anything the way it is; you are prejudiced about everything.

So Kabir was an enlightened weaver, a mystic. Mysticism should not be with one individual from somewhere in the past, from a few poems that you read. Mysticism means every day you are stepping into a new sphere of life. Something new, that you did not know, has come into your experience today. Mysticism does not mean an accumulated amount of knowledge; mysticism means an exploration. If you believe, you will not explore anything. You can genuinely explore only when you know that you do not know.

https://isha.sadhguru.org/us/en/wisdom/ ... 0KCQiA5vb-

[swamidada]

Chalti Chakki Dekh Kar, Diya Kabira Roye
Dui Paatan Ke Beech Mein,Sabit Bacha Na Koye

Looking at the grinding stones, Kabir laments
In the duel of wheels, nothing stays intact.
**
Bura Jo Dekhan Main Chala, Bura Naa Milya Koye
Jo Munn Khoja Apnaa, To Mujhse Bura Naa Koye

I searched for the crooked man, met not a single one
Then searched myself, "I" found the crooked one
**
Kaal Kare So Aaj Kar, Aaj Kare So Ab
Pal Mein Pralaya Hoyegi, Bahuri Karoge Kub

Tomorrow's work do today, today's work now
if the moment is lost, the work be done how
**
Aisee Vani Boliye, Mun Ka Aapa Khoye
Apna Tan Sheetal Kare, Auran Ko Sukh Hoye

Speak such words, sans ego's ploy
Body remains composed, giving the listener joy
**
Dheere Dheere Re Mana, Dheere Sub Kutch Hoye
Mali Seenche So Ghara, Ritu Aaye Phal Hoye

Slowly slowly O mind, everything in own pace happens
The gardiner may water with a hundred buckets, fruit arrives only in its season
**
Sayeen Itna Deejiye, Ja Mein Kutumb Samaye
Main Bhi Bhookha Na Rahun, Sadhu Na Bhookha Jaye

Give so much, O God, suffice to envelop my clan
I should not suffer cravings, nor the visitor go unfed
**
Bada Hua To Kya Hua, Jaise Ped Khajoor
Panthi Ko Chaya Nahin, Phal Laage Atidoor

In vain is the eminence, just like a date tree
No shade for travelers, fruit is hard to reach
**
Jaise Til Mein Tel Hai, Jyon Chakmak Mein Aag
Tera Sayeen Tujh Mein Hai, Tu Jaag Sake To Jaag

Just as seed contains the oil, fire's in flint stone
Your temple seats the Divine, realize if you can
**
Kabira Khara Bazaar Mein, Mange Sabki Khair
Na Kahu Se Dosti, Na Kahu Se Bair

Kabira in the market place, wishes welfare of all
Neither friendship nor enmity with anyone at all
**
Pothi Padh Padh Kar Jag Mua, Pandit Bhayo Na Koye
Dhai Aakhar Prem Ke, Jo Padhe so Pandit Hoye

Reading books where everyone died, none became anymore wise
One who reads the word of Love, only becomes wise
**
Dukh Mein Simran Sab Kare, Sukh Mein Kare Na Koye
Jo Sukh Mein Simran Kare, Tau Dukh Kahe Ko Hoye

In anguish everyone prays to Him, in joy does none
To One who prays in happiness, how sorrow can come

[swamidada]

“Are you looking for me?
I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas,
not in Indian shrine rooms,
nor in synagogues,
nor in cathedrals:
not in masses,
nor kirtans,
not in legs winding around your own neck,
nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me,
you will see me instantly —
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.”

Kabir Das

[swamidada]

Mystical Saint-Poet Sant Kabir (1440 to 1518)
His Unique Life and Works

By Subhamoy Das
Updated March 08, 2019

The saint-poet Kabir is one of the most interesting personalities in the history of Indian mysticism. Born near Benaras, or Varanasi, of Muslim parents in 1440, in early life he became a disciple of the celebrated 15th-century Hindu ascetic Ramananda, a great religious reformer and founder of a sect to which millions of Hindus still belong.

Kabir's Early Life in Varanasi
Kabir's story is surrounded by contradictory legends that emanate from both Hindu and Islamic sources, which claim him by turns as a Sufi and a Hindu saint. Undoubtedly, his name is of Islamic ancestry, and he is said to be the actual or adopted child of a Muslim weaver of Varanasi, the city in which the chief events of his life took place.

How Kabir Became a Disciple of Ramananda
The boy Kabir, in whom the religious passion was innate, saw in Ramananda his destined teacher; but knew the chances were slight that a Hindu guru would accept a Muslim as a disciple. He, therefore, hid on the steps of the Ganges River, where Ramananda came to bathe often; with the result that the master, coming down to the water, trod upon his body unexpectedly, and exclaimed in his astonishment, "Ram! Ram!"—the name of the incarnation under which he worshiped God. Kabir then declared that he had received the mantra of initiation from Ramananda's lips, which admitted him to discipleship. In spite of the protests of orthodox Brahmins and Muslims, both equally annoyed by this contempt of theological landmarks, he persisted in his claim.

Ramananda's Influence on Kabir's Life and Works
Ramananda appears to have accepted Kabir, and though Muslim legends speak of the famous Sufi Pir, Takki of Jhansi, as Kabir's master in later life, the Hindu saint is the only human teacher to whom he acknowledges indebtedness in his songs. Ramananda, Kabir's guru, was a man of wide religious culture who dreamed of reconciling this intense and personal Mohammedan mysticism with the traditional theology of Brahmanism and even Christian faith. It is one of the outstanding characteristics of Kabir's genius that he was able to fuse these thoughts into one in his poems.

Was Kabir a Hindu or a Muslim?
Hindus called him Kabir Das, but it is impossible to say whether Kabir was Brahmin or Sufi, Vedantist or Vaishnavite. He is, as he says himself, "at once the child of Allah and of Ram." Kabir was a hater of religious exclusivism and sought above all things to initiate human beings into liberty as the children of God. Kabir remained the disciple of Ramananda for years, joining in the theological and philosophical arguments which his master held with all the great Mullahs and Brahmins of his day. Thus, he became acquainted with both Hindu and Sufi philosophy.

Kabir's Songs Are His Greatest Teachings
It is by his wonderful songs, the spontaneous expressions of his vision and his love, and not by the didactic teachings associated with his name, that Kabir makes his immortal appeal to the heart. In these poems, a wide range of mystical emotion is brought into play—expressed in homely metaphors and religious symbols drawn without distinction from Hindu and Islamic beliefs.

Kabir Lived a Simple Life
Kabir may or may not have submitted to the traditional education of the Hindu or the Sufi contemplative and never adopted the life of an ascetic. Side-by-side with his interior life of adoration and its artistic expression in music and words, he lived the sane and diligent life of a craftsman. Kabir was a weaver, a simple and unlettered man who earned his living at the loom. Like Paul the tentmaker, Boehme the cobbler, Bunyan the tinker, and Tersteegen the ribbon-maker, Kabir knew how to combine vision and industry. And it was from out of the heart of the common life of a married man and the father of a family that he sang his rapturous lyrics of divine love.

Kabir's Mystical Poetry Was Rooted in Life and Reality
Kabir's works corroborate the traditional story of his life. Again and again, he extols the life of home and the value and reality of diurnal existence with its opportunities for love and renunciation. The "simple union" with Divine Reality was independent both of ritual and of bodily austerities; the God whom he proclaimed was "neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash." Those who sought Him needed not to go far; for He awaited discovery everywhere, more accessible to "the washerwoman and the carpenter" than to the self-righteous holy man. Therefore, the whole apparatus of piety, Hindu and Muslim alike—the temple and mosque, idol and holy water, scriptures and priests—were denounced by this clear-sighted poet as mere substitutes for reality. As he said, "The Purana and the Koran are mere words."

The Last Days of Kabir's Life
Kabir's Varanasi was the very center of Hindu priestly influence, which made him subject to considerable persecution. There is a well-known legend about a beautiful courtesan who was sent by Brahmins to tempt Kabir's virtue. Another tale talks of Kabir being brought before the Emperor Sikandar Lodi and charged with claiming the possession of divine powers. He was banished from Varanasi in 1495 when he was nearly 60 years old. Thereafter, he moved about throughout northern India with his disciples; continuing in exile the life of an apostle and a poet of love. Kabir died at Maghar near Gorakhpur in 1518.

The Legend of Kabir's Last Rites
A beautiful legend tells us that after Kabir's death, his Muslim and Hindu disciples disputed the possession of his body—which the Muslims wished to bury; the Hindus, to burn. As they argued together, Kabir appeared before them and told them to lift the shroud and look at that which lay beneath. They did so, and found in place of the corpse a heap of flowers, half of which were buried by the Muslims at Maghar and half carried by the Hindus to the holy city of Varanasi to be burned—a fitting conclusion to a life which had made fragrant the most beautiful doctrines of two great creeds.

https://www.learnreligions.com/guru-sant-kabir-1770345

[swamidada]

I won’t come
BY KABIR
TRANSLATED FROM THE HINDI BY ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA
I won’t come
I won’t go
I won’t live
I won’t die

I’ll keep uttering
The name
And lose myself
In it

I’m bowl
And I’m platter
I’m man
And I’m woman

I’m grapefruit
And I’m sweet lime
I’m Hindu
And I’m Muslim

I’m fish
And I’m net
I’m fisherman
And I’m time

I’m nothing
Says Kabir
I’m not among the living
Or the dead

[swamidada]

Where do you search me

Moko Kahan Dhundhere Bande
Mein To Tere Paas Mein
Na Teerath Mein, Na Moorat Mein
Na Ekant Niwas Mein
Na Mandir Mein, Na Masjid Mein
Na Kabe Kailas Mein
Mein To Tere Paas Mein Bande
Mein To Tere Paas Mein
Na Mein Jap Mein, Na Mein Tap Mein
Na Mein Barat Upaas Mein
Na Mein Kiriya Karm Mein Rehta
Nahin Jog Sanyas Mein
Nahin Pran Mein Nahin Pind Mein
Na Brahmand Akas Mein
Na Mein Prakuti Prawar Gufa Mein
Nahin Swasan Ki Swans Mein
Khoji Hoye Turat Mil Jaoon
Ik Pal Ki Talas Mein
Kahet Kabir Suno Bhai Sadho
Mein To Hun Viswas Mein


English Translation:

Where do you search me?
I am with you
Not in pilgrimage, nor in icons
Neither in solitudes
Not in temples, nor in mosques
Neither in Kaba nor in Kailash
I am with you O man
I am with you
Not in prayers, nor in meditation
Neither in fasting
Not in yogic exercises
Neither in renunciation
Neither in the vital force nor in the body
Not even in the ethereal space
Neither in the womb of Nature
Not in the breath of the breath
Seek earnestly and discover
In but a moment of search
Says Kabir, Listen with care
Where your faith is, I am there

[swamidada]

He Himself is the tree, the seed, and the germ.
He Himself is the flower, the fruit, and the shade.
He Himself is the sun, the light, and the lighted.
He Himself is Brahma, creature, and Maya.
He Himself is the manifold form, the infinite space;
He is the breath, the word, and the meaning.
He Himself is the limit and the limitless:
And beyond both the limited and the limitless is He, the Pure Being.
He is the Immanent Mind in Brahma and in the creature.

The Supreme Soul is seen within the soul,
The Point is seen within the Supreme Soul,
And within the Point, the reflection is seen again.
Kabîr is blest because he has this supreme vision!

[swamidada]

Abode Of The Beloved
Sakhiya Wah Ghar Sabse Nyara,
Jaha Puran Purush Humara
Jaha Nahi Sukh Dukh
Sanch Jhuth Nahi
Pap Na Pun Pasara
Nahin Din Reyn Chand Nahi Suraj,
Bina Jyoti Ujyara

Nahin Tahan Gyan Dhyan
Nahin Jap Tap
Ved Kiteb Na Bani
Karni Dharni Rehni Gehni,
Yeh Sub Jahan Hirani

Ghar Nahin Aghar Na Bahar Bhitar,
Pind Brahmand Kachu Nahin
Panch Tatva Gun Tin Nahin Tahan,
Sakhi Shabd Na Tahin

Mul Na Phul Beli Nahin Bija,
Bina Braksh Phal Sohe,
Oham Soham Ardh Urdh Nahin,
Swasa Lekhan Kou Hai

Jahan Purush Tahwan Kachu Nahin,
Kahe Kabir Hum Jana
Humri Sain Lakhe Jo Koi,
Pawe Pad Nirvana


English Translation

Oh Companion That Abode Is Unmatched,
Where My Complete Beloved Is.

In that Place There Is No Happiness or Unhappiness,
No Truth or Untruth
Neither Sin Nor Virtue.
There Is No Day or Night, No Moon or Sun,
There Is Radiance Without Light.

There Is No Knowledge or Meditation
No Repetition of Mantra or Austerities,
Neither Speech Coming From Vedas or Books.
Doing, Not-Doing, Holding, Leaving
All These Are All Lost Too In This Place.

No Home, No Homeless, Neither Outside or Inside,
Micro and Macrocosm Are Non-Existent.
Five Elemental Constituents and the Trinity Are Both Not There
Witnessing Un-struck Shabad Sound is Also Not There.

No Root or Flower, Neither Branch or Seed,
Without a Tree Fruits are Adorning,
Primordial Om Sound, Breath-Synchronized Soham,
This and That - All Are Absent, The Breath Too Unknown

Where the Beloved Is There is Utterly Nothing
Says Kabir I Have Come To Realize.
Whoever Sees My Indicative Sign
Will Accomplish the Goal of Liberation.

[swamidada]

The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it
The moon is within me, and so is the sun
The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me
But my deaf ears cannot hear it

So long as man clamours for the I and the Mine
his works are as naught
When all love of the I and the Mine is dead
Then the work of the Lord is done
For work has no other aim than the getting of knowledge
When that comes, then work is put away

The flower blooms for the fruit
When the fruit comes, the flower withers
The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself
It wanders in quest of grass

[swamidada]

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

In Islam the meaning of the Kabir is The Great. He was very spiritual person and became a great Sadhu. He got fame all over the world because of his influential traditions and culture.It is considered that he got all his spiritual training from his Guru named, Ramananda, in his early childhood.

There is no clue of the birth parent of the Kabir Das but it is considered that he was cared by a Muslim family. He was founded in Lehartara, a small town in Varanasi by the Niru and Nima (his care taker parents). His parents were extremely poor and uneducated but they very heartily adopted the little baby and trained him about their own business. He lived the balanced life of a simple house holder and a mystic.Kabir suggested that True God is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, considered all creatures on earth as his own self, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world. To know God, suggested Kabir, meditate with the mantra Rāma, Rāma.

Sant Kabir was prejudiced by the existing religious mood of that time like Hinduism, Tantrism as well as the personal devotionalism mixed with the imageless God of Islam. Kabir Das is the first Indian saint who has coordinated the Hinduism and Islam by giving a universal path which could be followed by both Hindus and Muslims. According to him every life has relationship with two spiritual principles (Jivatma and Paramatma). His view about the moksha that, it is the process of uniting these two divine principles.

His great writing Bijak has huge a collection of poems which makes clear the Kabir’s general view of the spirituality. Kabir’s Hindi was a dialect, simple like his philosophies. He simply followed the oneness in the God. He has always rejected the murti pujan in Hinduism and shown the clear confidence in bhakti and Sufi ideas.

He had composed the poems in a concise and simple style resonating the admire for factual guru. After being an illiterate he had written his poems in Hindi mixing with Avadhi, Braj, and Bhojpuri. He was insulted by some people but he never attended.

Legacy

All the poems and songs credited to the Sant Kabir are existing in the several languages. Kabir and his followers are named according to his poetic response such as banis and utterances. The poems are called variously as dohe, saloka and sakhi. Sakhi means to be memorizes and to remind the highest Truth. The memorizing, performing, and pondering over these utterances comprises for the Kabir and all his followers a way to the spiritual awakening.

The books written by the Kabir Das are generally the collections of dohas and songs. The total works are seventy two including some of the important and well known works are Rekhtas, Kabir Bijak, the Suknidhan, Mangal, Vasant, Sabdas, Sakhis and Holy Agams.

The writing style and language of the Kabir Das is very simple and beautiful. He had written his dohas very boldly and naturally which are full of meanings and significance. He wrote from the depth of his heart. He has compressed the sense of whole world in his simple dohas and couplet. His sayings are beyond compare and inspiring.

[swamidada]

Brother, I’ve seen some
BY KABIR
TRANSLATED FROM THE HINDI BY ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA

Brother, I’ve seen some
Astonishing sights:
A lion keeping watch
Over pasturing cows;
A mother delivered
After her son was;
A guru prostrated
Before his disciple;
Fish spawning
On treetops;
A cat carrying away
A dog;
A gunny-sack
Driving a bullock-cart;
A buffalo going out to graze,
Sitting on a horse;
A tree with its branches in the earth,
Its roots in the sky;
A tree with flowering roots.

This verse, says Kabir,
Is your key to the universe.
If you can figure it out.

[swamidada]

How do you
BY KABIR
TRANSLATED FROM THE HINDI BY ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA

How do you,
Asks the chief of police,
Patrol a city
Where the butcher shops
Are guarded by vultures;
Where bulls get pregnant,
Cows are barren,
And calves give milk
Three times a day;
Where mice are boatmen
And tomcats the boats
They row;
Where frogs keep snakes
As watchdogs,
And jackals
Go after lions?

Does anyone know
What I’m talking about?
Says Kabir.

Translator’s Notes: “How do you” by Kabir
BY ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA
About Kabir, the facts are few, the legends many. He was born in Benares (now Varanasi) and lived in the fifteenth century, though opinion is divided whether it was in the first or the second half. From his poems we learn that he was a julaha, or weaver, his family perhaps having recently converted to Islam to escape its low status in the Hindu caste system. In several poems, Kabir speaks out against caste, as he does also, with as much vehemence, against Muslim practices:

If you say you’re a Brahmin
Born of a mother who’s a Brahmin,
Was there a special canal
Through which you were born?

And if you say you’re a Turk
And your mother’s a Turk,
Why weren’t you circumcised
Before birth?

Kabir’s Muslim birth was something not liked by his Hindu followers, who, beginning around 1600, concocted legends to gloss over this uncomfortable fact. In one of them, he was a foundling, born to a Brahmin widow and raised in a Muslim household. Similarly, there are stories about his death. In the best-known one, after he died both Hindus and Muslims laid claim to his body. A quarrel broke out but when they lifted the shroud they saw instead of the corpse a heap of flowers. The two communities divided the flowers and performed Kabir’s last rites, each according to its custom.

Kabir belonged to the popular devotional movement called bhakti, whose focus is on inward love for the One Deity, in opposition to religious orthodoxies and social hierarchies. Kabir called his god Rama or Hari, who is not to be confused with the Hindu god Rama of the Ramayana.

Many of the bhakti poets came from the bottom of the Hindu caste ladder. Among them you find a cobbler, a tailor, a barber, a boatman, a weaver. One, Janabai (see epigraph to “Chewing slowly”), was a maidservant. They wrote in the vernaculars (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati) rather than in Sanskrit, the language of the gods and the preserve of Brahmins. Occasionally, eschewing his abrupt debunking manner, Kabir speaks in riddles. These enigmatic poems (see “Brother I’ve seen some” and “How do you”) are called ulatbamsi or “poems in upside-down language,” in which the intention seems to be to force the reader (or listener) into new ways of thinking and seeing. They each end in a revelation, though exactly what has been revealed is open to question.

The Kabir songs have come down to us in essentially three groups of texts. They are the Bijak or “eastern” tradition, the Rajasthani or “western” tradition, and the Punjabi tradition centered around the Adi Granth, the sacred book of the Sikhs. Kabir may never have traveled outside Benares, but his songs certainly did. To further complicate matters, the Rajasthani manuscripts come in different recensions, so the same song can appear in more than one version. As it passed from singer to singer, the song kept changing, as is the case with blues.

Outside the work done by or commissioned by colonial administrators, some of the earliest English translations of Kabir were made by Ezra Pound. They were based on literal versions supplied by one of Rabindranath Tagore’s young Bengali friends, Kali Mohan Ghose, and published in the Modern Review (Calcutta) in June 1913. The following year Tagore brought out his own One Hundred Poems of Kabir, which became the basis of several European- and Asian- language translations of Kabir as well as of Robert Bly’s reworkings. Both Ghose’s literal version and Tagore’s translation were made from Kshiti Mohan Sen’s Kabir compilation of 1910-11. It gave the Hindi originals along with their Bengali paraphrase. In 1945, in one of the Pisan cantos, Pound recalled his London years: “Thus saith Kabir: ‘Politically’ said Rabindranath.”

Subsequent scholarship has shown that of the 341 poems in Sen, only three are in the pre-1700 manuscripts. And even they are likely to have been composed by someone other than Kabir. An authentic Kabir poem, in the thousands attributed to him, may never be found, nor does it matter. If you catch the spirit, anyone can write an authentic Kabir poem. Innumerable anonymous poets have done so in the past and continue to do so even today, adding their voices to his. A researcher in Rajasthan in the nineties looking for Kabir songs in the oral tradition came across one that used a railway metaphor and English words like “engine,” “ticket,” and “line.” Asked how Kabir could have known these words, the singer replied that Kabir, being a seer, knew everything. In “To tonsured monks,” too, Kabir knows everything, including a Jamaican sect and the name of a London publishing house. — akm

Originally Published: March 1st, 2011
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is the author of eight collections of poetry, three books of translations, and two books of essays, in addition to being the editor of several books. He lives in Allahabad and Dehradun.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetry ... u-by-kabir