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KABIR
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KABIR , the most notable of the Vaishnava reformers of See also:religion in See also:northern See also:India, who flourished during the first See also:half of the 15th See also:century. He is counted as one of the twelve disciples of Ramanand, the See also:great preacher in the See also:north (about A.D. 1400) of the See also:doctrine of bhakti addressed to Rama, which originated with Ramanuja (12th century) in See also:southern India. He himself also mentions among his spiritual forerunners Jaideo and Namdeo (or Nama) the earliest See also:Marathi poet (both about 1250). See also:Legend relates that Kabir was the son of a See also:Brahman widow, by whom he was exposed, and was found on a See also:lotus in Lahar Talk), a See also:pond near See also:Benares, by a Musalman See also:weaver named `All (or
Nuri), who with his wife Nima adopted him and brought him there is My See also:abode."3 The distinctions of See also:creeds are declared to be of no importance in the presence of See also:God: " The See also:city of Hara' is to the See also:east, that of 'See also:Ali 5 is to the See also:west; but explore your own See also:heart, for there are both Rama and Karim;" 8 " Behold but One in all things: it is the second that leads you astray. Every See also:man and woman that has ever been See also:born is of the same nature as yourself. He, whose is the See also:world, and whose are the See also:children of 'Ali and Rama, He is my Guru, He is my Pir." He proclaims the universal brotherhood of man, and the See also:duty of kindness to all living creatures. See also:Life is the See also:gift of God, and must not be violated; the shedding of See also:blood, whether of man or animals, is a heinous See also:crime. The followers of Kabir do not observe See also:celibacy, and live quiet unostentatious lives; See also: It is conjectured that the doctrine of Ramanand, which came from southern India, has been influenced by the See also:Christian settlements in that region, which go back to very See also:early times. It is also possible that Suflism, the pietistic (as distinguished from the theosophic) forth of which seems to owe much to eastern See also:Christianity, has contributed some See also:echo of the Gospel to Kabir's teaching. A third (but scarcely probable) See also:hypothesis is that the sect has borrowed both See also:maxims and ritual, See also:long after Kabir's own See also:time, from the teaching of the See also:Roman See also:Catholic missionaries, who were established at See also:Agra from the reign of See also:Akbar (r556–1605) onwards. up in their See also:craft as a Musalman. He lived most of his life at Benares, and afterwards removed to Maghar (or Magahar), in the See also:present See also:district of See also:Basti, where he is said to have died in 1449. There appears to be no See also:reason to doubt that he was originally a Musalman and a weaver; his own name and that of his son Kamal are See also:Mahommedan, not See also:Hindu. His See also:adhesion to the doctrine of Ramanand is not a solitary instance of the religious See also:syncretism which prevailed at this time in northern India. The religion of the earlier See also:Sikh Gurus, which was largely based upon his teaching, also aimed at the See also:fusion of Hinduism and Islam; and the example of Malik Muhammad,' the author of the Padmawat, who lived a century later than Kabir, shows that the relations between the two creeds were in some cases extremely intimate. It is related that at Kabir's See also:death the See also:Hindus and Musalmans each claimed him as an adherent of their faith, and that when his funeral issued forth from his See also:house at Maghar the contention was only assuaged by the See also:appearance of Kabir himself, who bade them look under the See also:cloth which covered the See also:corpse, and immediately vanished. On raising the cloth they found nothing but a heap of See also:flowers. This was divided between the See also:rival faiths, half being buried by the Musalmans and the other half burned by the Hindus' Kabir's fame as a preacher of bhakti, or enthusiastic devotion to a See also:personal God, whom he preferred to See also:call by the Hindu names of Rama and Hari, is greater than that of any other of the Vaishnava spiritual leaders. His fervent conviction of the truth and See also:power of his doctrine, and the homely and searching expression given to it in his utterances, in the See also:tongue of the See also:people and not in a learned See also:language remote from their understanding, won for him multitudes of adherents; and his sect, the Kabirpanthis, is still one of the most numerous in northern India, its See also:numbers exceeding a million. Its headquarters are the Kabir Chaura at Benares, where are preserved the See also:works attributed to Kabir (called the See also:Granth), the greater See also:part of which, however, were written by his immediate disciples and their followers in his name. Those works which seem to have the best claim to be considered his own compositions are the Sakhis, or stanzas, some 5000 in number, which have a very wide currency even among those who do not formally belong to the sect, and the Shabdawali, consisting of a thousand " words " (shabd), or See also:short doctrinal expositions. Perhaps some of the Rekhtas, or odes (too in number), and of the Ramainis—brief mystical poems in very obscure language—may also be from his See also:hand. Of these different forms specimens will be found translated in See also:Professor H. H. Wilson's See also:Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus, i. 79-9o. Besides the followers who call them-selves by Kabir's name, there may be reckoned to him many other religious sects which See also:bear that of some intermediate guru or See also:master, but substantially concur with Kabir in doctrine and practice. Such, for instance, are the Nanakshahis in the See also:United Provinces, the Central Provinces, and Bombay, and the Dadu-pant his, numerous in See also:Rajputana (Wilson, loc. cit. pp. 103 sqq.) ; the Sikhs, numbering two and a half millions in the Panjab, are also his spiritual descendants, and their Granth or Scripture is largely stocked with texts See also:drawn from his works. . Kabir taught the life of bhakti (faith, or personal love and devotion), the See also:object of which is a personal God, and not a philosophical See also:abstraction or an impersonal quality-less, all-pervading spiritual substance (as in the Vedanta of Sankaracharya). His utterances do not, like those of Tulsi Das, dwell upon the incidents of the human life of Rama, whom he takes as his type of the Supreme; nevertheless, it is the essence of his creed that God became incarnate to bring salvation to His children, mankind, and that the human mind of this incarnation still subsists in the Divine See also:Person. He proclaims the unity of the Godhead, the vanity of idols, the powerlessness of bra/mans or mullas to See also:guide or help, and the divine origin of the human soul, divinae particula aurae. All evil in the world is ascribed to See also:Maya, illusion or false-See also:hood, and truth in thought, word and See also:deed is enjoined as the See also:chief duty of man: " No See also:act of devotion can equal truth; no crime is so heinous as falsehood; in the heart where truth abides ' See See also:article See also:HINDOSTANI LITERATURE. 2 An exactly similar See also:tale is told of Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs, who died in 1538. No See also:critical edition of the writings current under the name of Kabir has yet been published, though collections of his sayings (chiefly the Sdkhis) are constantly appearing from See also:Indian presses. The reader is referred, for a See also:summary See also:account of his life and doctrine, to H. H. Wilson's Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus (Works, i. 68 sqq.). Dr E. Trumpp's edition of the Adi 3ranth (Introduction, pp. xcvii. sqq.) may also be consulted. See also:Recent publications dealing with the subject are the Rev. G. H. See also:Westcott's Kabir and the Kabir Panth (See also:Cawnpore, 1908), and Mr. M. A. Macauliffe's The Sikh Religion (See also:Oxford, 1909), Vi. 122-316. (C. J. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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