TEACHINGS OF KABIRDAS

 

Kabir was a 15^th century Indian mystic poet and saint whose writings influenced the Bhakti movement. He was disciple of Swami Ramananda, and was raised by a Muslim weaver. At a very young age, Kabir realised that the religious dogma and principles, blinds the humanity to see the truth and it ultimately leads to fanaticism. Kabir’s poetry is a reflection of his philosophy about life. His writings focused upon the concept of reincarnation and karma. He believed in living life in a very simplistic manner and he had a strong faith in the concept of oneness of god. He advocated the notion of “KOI BOLE RAM RAM , KOI KHUDAI,” and the basic principle behind this message was that, whether you chant the name of Hindu god or Muslim god, the fact is that there is only one god who is the creater of thos beautiful world.

He always said that god does not live at the holy shrine or in temples but lives within every human and in accordance to this he wrote-

“How funny! In the mindset 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 clerarly reveals that it is ironic that the people cannot notice god living within their own inner selves and are oblivious of their own inner selves and instead keep thronging to Kashi or Kaba. Therefore, it is futile or useless to seek god outside or in temples.

Kabir’s philosophical tenets were extremely simple. He was known as the guiding spirit of the Bhakti movement. The following are the key teachings and philosophies of Kabir:

·           ‘Love’ was the Kabir’s principle tenet. He emphasized that love was the only medium which could bind the entire human kind in a unbreakable bond of fraternity.

·           According to him true dedication is way to realize the one own-self and hence the supreme power called ‘God’. In his opinion God alone was Ram, Rahim, Govind, Allah, Khuda, Hari etc. Hence god was all powerful and he could only be worshipped through love and devotion. Kabir preached monotheism.

·           In Kabir’s dictum ‘the teacher or Guru’ has been accorded the prime position and the teacher was the incarnation of god.

·           The only way to attain god was the path of ‘Bhakti’ and intense devotion would surely lead to the ultimate attainment of god. Kabir took good things from all religions while filtered out orthodox practices and meaningless rituals.

·           ‘Soul’ according to him was life, breath and knowledge. It was a part of the ultimate knowledge. The soul was itself was the creation and it also was the creator.

·           Kabir asserted the impermanence of all things in the world. All living and non living things like insects, animals, trees, rivers, mountains and human beings are only temporary and all would cease to exist some day.

·           Liberation or salvation was another contention of Kabir. Liberation according to him was a state of fearlessness and it implied the freedom from life and death.

The essence of Kabir’s effort as a teacher maybe stated plainly, he wanted to make people honest and only then they could realise the complete 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 can destroy you?”

Kabir is known for being critical of both Hinduism and Islam stating that followers of both religious have misguided by Vedas and the Quran. He questioned the meaningless rituals of the sacred thread [Hindu] and the rituals in Islam, and said that it doesn’t bring any human closer to god. It is all about spiritualism and believe in one own heart.  The idea that Kabir knew Hinduism from inside out and not Islam cannot be justified. It is true that Kabir could neither read the scriptures of Vedas nor the Holy Quran. But he had a strong knowledge about both the religion. Therefore, he rejected both the religions and their chauvinism, in return, the orthodox trends of Islam and Brahmins rejected and ignored him. He still remains popular among the masses.

He was against untouchability and asserted that the only form of pollution is Brahmin’s standpoint which differentiate one human with the other. He said,

Pandit, look in your heart to know,

Tell me how untouchability was born.

Untouchability is what you made so,

We eat by touching, we wash by touching.

Kabir says that only he is untouched, who has no link with Maya [earthly material world]. He emphasized the need to respect one’s mother, father and teacher, and only through this can one experience highest form of pilgrimage. In essence Ksbir 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 reveals the vices, religious superstition, caste discrimination, idol worship and hypocrisy. His style of preaching created a form of intimacy with the listeners who either became his followers or scorned at him. After his death, Hindus and Muslims follower fought with each other, demanding the change of body. However, it is said that after someone removed the cover it was discovered that a heap of flowers has replaced the corpse.

-Shakshi Baliyan