Theos-Talk Archives (June 2012 Message tt00005)

The Way of Kabir (1440-1518 AD)


Born at Varanasi in a disputed lineage (ancestry) he was remarkable for his fusing the ideas of Sufism with those of Saint Ramanand's Vaishnavism. A mystic, he did not conceal his aversion for 'Organized Religion'. Through his teaching he attempted to awaken the human heart and consciousness to the state of Reality.

The warring groups of the country were never ready to learn in assimilation his findings; the Hindu disciples wanted to burn his corpse while those of the Muslim faith wanted to bury it. Legendarily, the corpse appeared as ' a bunch of flowers'. Such is the conditioning of the human mind. 

Seeing all manifestation as one from the unmanifest, this oneness becoming the root for mutual love -welfare of all humanity-, is what he proposed to be the ruling passion that must enliven the human heart, mind and daily action. When you see 'oneness' as a fact, you cannot but make it the love (devotion being the other term for it) for all. Devoted to the ideal of human perfection, Kabir gave out statements one after another that would seem hypothetical but yet practical.

Experiencing the presence of God could no longer be a mere contentment for 
him (contentment coming from deep content). He expressed it in literary compositions that would pave way for reflection and eventually make them real (going by the term 'realization'). This is the Way of the Mystics the world over. The poems of Kabir reveal the ideas that must fill each human heart, all the time reflected upon, remembered till the 'concept' becomes a 'fact' in all activities.