Kabir – saint, sinner, iconoclast
THERE are few individuals in history who have been revered and hated equally during their lifetime and who enjoyed unequivocal love and boundless followership after that. Kabir, the Indian mystic, saint, poet, iconoclast, realist and liberal, was one of them.
This year marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Kabir, popularly known as “Saint Kabir”. Kabir is believed to have been born in the year 1440 in the spiritual Indian city of Banaras. There are many theories about his birth.
One legend has it that his unwed upper caste Hindu mother fell pregnant when she visited a Hindu shrine. Being unwed, she had no option but to abandon her son, who was adopted by a Muslim weaver. Thus began the life of the person who transcended religious boundaries, both in his love as well as criticism of the time-abused practices in both Hinduism and Islam.
Those were also the times when India was undergoing silent revolution in the “Bhakti” and “Sufi” movements. Both the socio-religious trends were important landmarks in the cultural history of medieval India and were aimed at reforms in society as well as the two prominent religions of the time, namely Hinduism and Islam.
The twin movements gave birth to many rites and rituals associated with the worship of God by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of the Indian subcontinent.
For example, Kirtan at a Hindu temple, Qawaali at a Dargah, and the singing of Gurbani at a Gurdwara. And these are not exclusive to followers of a particular religion only. It is a common sight to have followers of different religions partaking of such congregations in scores of cities, towns and villages in India.
Though Kabir was a disciple of the Hindu ascetic Ramananda, who preached love and devotion to Lord Rama and that God resides inside every being, he drew his poetry on the tenets of both Hinduism and Islam; and he was equally critical of the two.
Kabir communicated through songs as well as “dohas” (rhymed couplets). Some of his verses also find mention in “Guru Granth Sahib”, the sacred scripture of Sikhs. Such is his appeal, Kabir is considered both a Bhakti and a Sufi saint.
Therefore when he died he was claimed by both Hindus and Muslims; a dispute broke out among his followers on the method of his last rites – cremation, as per Hindu practice, or burial, as per Islamic.
Kabir’s syncretic and realist preachings jolted the contemporary social and religious order.
His poems were in vernacular Hindi and drew upon local dialects and therefore enjoyed immense popularity because of their applicability and relevance for all. The realist saint was brutal in his iconoclastic bashing of some aspects of society, culture and religion, using simple words to strike at the base of commonly held and accepted practices.
He was against rote reading of scriptures. “No one becomes a Pandit (scholar) by reading countless books; only the one who understands love is the real scholar,” said Kabir.
But Kabir’s popularity goes far beyond his role of religious reformer. Kabir was a man of many seasons and occasions.
His verses cover a broad range of topics, including code of conduct, need for a sustainable living, need to control one’s emotions and utterances and respect for teachers, etc.
For Kabir, harmonious interpersonal relationships were important and occupied pride of place in his code of conduct for the society.
Stressing the need to choose one’s words carefully, Kabir said: “Avoid ego and anger while you speak. One’s words should give joy to both self and the listeners.”
In one of his most popular couplets, Kabir asks people to be good to others.
“When you came into this world everyone laughed while you cried. Don’t do such work during your life that they laugh when you are gone.”
On sustainable living, Kabir says: “O God! Give me only so much that could sustain my clan. Neither should I suffer from hunger (for anything), nor should the visitor go unsatisfied.”
Could this be more relevant than today when the demands of humankind have stressed Earth in innumerable ways?
In another couplet, Kabir asks people “not to be proud and vain, gloating in one’s high status. Tomorrow, you will be lying beneath the ground with grass growing on top”.
Kabir even now comes to the rescue of doting parents in India who wish to remind their children of the evils of procrastination. Every child in the northern part of India has been subjected to “Kaal Kare So Aaj Kar, Aaj Kare So Ab, Pal Mein Pralaya Hoyegi, Bahuri Karoge Kab”, meaning “What you wish to do tomorrow must be done today because there is no certainty of time and no going back if the moment is lost”.
Going with the two popular movements of the time – Bhakti and Sufi – which stressed the importance and role played by teachers (Gurus), Kabir was unabashedly worshipful of them.
Kabir resolves the dilemma of who to choose between God and Guru in one of his verses. “Both God and Guru are standing in front of me, whose feet should I touch? It’s your Guru, told me God.”
It implies that when faced with one’s teacher and God, blessings of the teacher should be sought first since it’s the teacher who guided one to the path of God.
He further stresses the role of the teacher in one’s life through another of his verses. “One, who doesn’t follow teachings of one’s teacher is blind. If God abandoned us, teacher will show the true path; if teacher abandoned us, there is nowhere to go.
Messages conveyed through Kabir’s thoughts were deep and sublime, but the beauty lied in the delivery where complex precepts were explained in a way that they were easy to understand and could have been easily related to by everybody. Sample this. “Why do you trample over me?” enquires the clay of the potter. “A day will come when you will lie trampled within me.”
Kabir was also a votary of introspections and stressed the futility of finding fault in others.
His favourite style of delivery was in first person where he would be speaking to himself.
In one such dialogue with the self, he says: “I tried searching for crooked people all around and I could not find any. But when I looked within myself, I realised that there was none more crooked than me.”
Kabir’s message lives on in today’s world through his verses and couplets. Ever relevant and still applicable to this day, Kabir’s philosophy of live and let live is a source of many a solution to the problems of our times.
“Kabira khara baajar me, mange sabki khair
“Na kahu se dosti, na kahu se bair”
“Kabir stands in the marketplace, praying for everyone’s well-being
“Looking neither for a friend, nor for an enemy.”
Shukla is Consul-general of India in Cape Town