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Kabir Biography & Facts

Kabir (1398–1518 CE): 14–15  was a well-known Indian mystic poet and saint. His verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das, and Kabir Sagar of Dharamdas. Today, Kabir is an important figure in Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam, especially in Sufism. Born in the city of Varanasi in what is now Uttar Pradesh, he is known for being critical of both organized religion and religions. He questioned what he regarded to be the meaningless and unethical practices of all religions, primarily what he considered to be the wrong practices in the Hindu and Muslim religions. During his lifetime, he was threatened by both Hindus and Muslims for his views. When he died, several Hindus and the Muslims he had inspired claimed him as theirs. Kabir suggested that "truth" is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, considered everything, living and non living, as divine, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world. To know the truth, suggested Kabir, drop the "I", or the ego. Kabir's legacy survives and continues through the Kabir panth ("Path of Kabir"), a religious community that recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. Its members are known as Kabir panthis. Early life and background The years of Kabir's birth and death are uncertain. Some historians favor 1398–1448 as the period Kabir lived, while others favor 1440–1518. Generally, Kabir is believed to have been born in 1398 (Samvat 1455),: 14–15  on the full moon day of Jyeshtha month (according to the historical Hindu calendar Vikram Samvat) at the time of Brahmamuharta. There is a considerable scholarly debate on the circumstances surrounding Kabir's birth. Many followers of Kabir believe that he came from Satloka by assuming the body of light, and incarnated on a lotus flower and claim that the rishi Ashtanand was the direct witness of this incident, who himself appeared on a lotus flower in the Lahartara Pond. A few accounts mention that Kabir in the form of a child was found at Lahartara Lake by a Muslim weaver called Niru and his wife Nima who raised him as his parents. Kabir is believed to have become one of the many disciples of the Bhakti poet-saint Swami Ramananda in Varanasi, known for devotional Vaishnavism with a strong bent to monist Advaita philosophy teaching that God was inside every person and everything. Early texts about his life place him with Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism as well as the Sufi tradition of Islam. According to Irfan Habib, the two manuscript versions of the Persian text Dabestan-e Mazaheb are the earliest known texts with biographical information about Kabir. The Dabestan-e-Mazaheb states Kabir is a "Bairagi" (Vaishnava yogi) and states he is a disciple of Ramanand (the text refers to him repeatedly as "Gang"). Kabir's family is believed to have lived in the locality of Kabir Chaura in Varanasi (Banaras). Kabīr maṭha (कबीरमठ), a maṭha located in the back alleys of Kabir Chaura, celebrates his life and times. Accompanying the property is a house named Nīrūṭīlā (नीरू टीला) which houses Niru and Nima graves. Poetry Kabir's poems were in Sadhukkadi, borrowing from various dialects including Khadi boli, Braj, Bhojpuri, and Awadhi. Kabir also wrote in pure Bhojpuri, for instance his poems like mor hīrā herāïl bā kichaṛe me is written in pure Bhojpuri. They cover various aspects of life and call for a loving devotion for God. Kabir composed his verses with simple words. Most of his work was concerned with devotion, mysticism and discipline. Kabir and his followers named his verbally composed poems of wisdom as "bāņīs" (utterances). These include songs and couplets, called variously dohe, śalokā (Sanskrit: ślokā), or sākhī (Sanskrit: sākṣī). The latter term means "witness", implying the poems to be evidence of the Truth. Literary works with compositions attributed to Kabir include Kabir Bijak, Kabir Parachai, Sakhi Granth, Adi Granth (Sikh), and Kabir Granthawali (Rajasthan). However, except for Adi Granth, significantly different versions of these texts exist and it is unclear which one is more original; for example, Kabir Bijak exists in two major recensions. The most in depth scholarly analysis of various versions and translations are credited to Charlotte Vaudeville, the 20th century French scholar on Kabir. There are 82 works attributed to Kabir as mentioned in Kabir and the Kabir panth by Westcott. Shyamsundar Das himself brought to light two marked manuscripts which he published in 1928. One of these manuscripts carried the date 1504 and the other 1824. Kabir's poems were verbally composed in the 15th century and transmitted viva voce through the 17th century. Kabir Bijak was compiled and written down for the first time in the 17th century. Scholars state that this form of transmission, over geography and across generations bred change, interpolation and corruption of the poems. Furthermore, whole songs were creatively fabricated and new couplets inserted by unknown authors and attributed to Kabir, not because of dishonesty but out of respect for him and the creative exuberance of anonymous oral tradition found in Indian literary works. Scholars have sought to establish poetry that truly came from Kabir and its historicity value. Authenticity Kabir's poems can be found in a wide variety of publications and websites, but the discussion of authenticity is ongoing. It seems certain that minor changes will have occurred through the centuries and it is also possible that poems written by others have been attributed to Kabir. Rabindranath Tagore's English translation and compilation, Songs of Kabir, was first published in 1915 and has been a classic reprinted and circulated particularly in the West. One critic (V.C. Mishra) has gone so far as to suggest that only six of its hundred poems are authentic and also raises the question of whether the translator projected theological perspectives of the early 20th century onto Kabir. The same essay adds that the presumed unauthentic poems nevertheless belong to the Bhakti movement in medieval India and may have been composed by admirers of Kabir who lived later. Philosophy According to Linda Hess, "Some modern commentators have tried to present Kabir as a synthesizer of Hinduism and Islam; but the picture is a false one. While drawing on various traditions as he saw fit, Kabir emphatically declared his independence from both the major religions of his countrymen, vigorously attacked what he considered the follies of these religions, and tried to kindle the fire of a similar autonomy and courage in those who claimed to be his disciples. He adopted their terminology and concepts, but vigorously criticized them both. He questioned the need for any holy book, as stated in Kabir Granthavali as follows: Many scholars interpret Kabir's philosophy to be questioning the need for religion, rather than attempting to propose either Hindu–Muslim un.... Discover the Kabir popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Kabir books.