Kabir - Part I

Monday, August 2, 2010, 11:46

Kabirdas (A.D. 1398-1518) was perhaps the greatest saint of northern India during the 15th century. A rebel against all that was nonspiritual in religion, Kabir — rightly called the Luther of India — helped to reform both Hinduism and Islam. Like a true messiah, he spoke of God with authority. He taught the common people in their own mother tongue, Hindi.

Kabir spoke of the 'living God' in every man and woman which has been the perennial message of India to the world. As a result, a powerful socio-religious awakening soon followed under spiritual stalwarts like Shankar Dev of Assam, Guru Nanak of Punjab, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of Bengal, and Dadu and Tulsidas, to mention only a few. Even today we can notice Kabir's influence in the far South also where his saintly life is sung in 'Harikatha', attracting huge audiences.

The period from 5th to 18th century A.D. in India reveals the development of a special religious atmosphere. During the 6th century some grotesque aberrations of Tantra entered into the Vedic religion. For example, during Raja Bhoja's time, a philosophy called 'Neelapari Darshan' advocating 'triratna' of wine, woman and meat was widely preached. However, the common man in the North was more drawn to the simple religion of Pancharatra Vaishnavism and of Panchadevata worship.

The religion preached by several saints of the 8th-9th century had many things in common, such as opposition to rituals and external observances, insistence on purity of mind, and necessity of 'Self-realization' [by which they meant the self (jivatman) becoming one with the Supreme Self (paramatman)]. These saints were later called the 'Nirguna Worshippers', of whom Kabir is said to be the forerunner, the Adi-sant.

It is interesting to note that the Nirguna worship in the North developed as a product of the Alwar Vaishnavism of the South, and the Yoga and Jnana cult of the Nathyogis of the North. A Nath Yogi, Gorakhnath, was the first to accept Ratan Haji, a Muslim, as his disciple. This movement advanced under Swami Ramananda, disciple of Swami Raghavananda. The latter belonged to the fourth generation of successors to Ramanuja.

Ramananda was a religious revolutionary of the time, for he accepted even women and those of lower classes as his disciples. He reconverted some Muslims and for this he suffered ex-communication by his own Guru. It was left to Kabir to promote this movement for Hindu-Islam harmony further and this he did with eminent success.

The Vedantic teaching of the one Atman pervading all creation means that all men are equal spiritually. Kabir took this up and, compounding it with the Islamic ideals of monotheism and the brotherhood of man, evolved a path or a sect which broke all barriers of caste, sex and religion, and propagated the unity of man and the harmony of Hinduism and Islam.

Emperor' Sikandar Lodi was on the throne of Delhi. He was an oppressor. Mass massacres of Hindus were common. Discrimination against Hindus for appointments to high posts, heavy taxation of Hindu tradesmen, religious persecution of the Hindus as a whole, vitiated the whole national fabric. The clash of the two faiths, Hinduism and Islam, gave birth to a soul-searching by the Hindu religious leaders who were evolving new attitudes towards their Mother-faith.

The spread of Sufism, both Chishtia and Suhrawardiya sects, gave a clue that Hinduism could assimilate Islam in the Sufi form. The teachings of Basaveswara (Karnataka), Namdev and Tukaram (Maharashtra) and Raghavananda and Ramananda of north India were attempts in the same direction. Thus the social and religious atmosphere was ripe for the advent of a messenger like Kabir, who was at once bold, revolutionary and spiritually illumined, and whose heart felt for the sufferings of the common masses.

To be continued To be continued