I D Soni
India is considered to be the land of saints and sages. For centuries many saints have taken birth on the sacred soil of India and have influenced the lives of countless number of people. It can truly be said that no other country has been blessed with so many saints. One such saint, was Sant Kabir. Infact, he is regarded by many as a spiritual giant among saints. Some even regard him as a manifestation of God himself.
Sant Kabir, appeared in the year 1398. Around that time, India was through a difficult period of her history. His arrival heralded a new era.
There are different accounts describing his birth. According to some of them we are told that, one day, a small child was found lying under a tree, sucking his thumb. His eyes shone brightly, and a beatific smile was on his face. Others say that a small child was found atop of lotus leaf in a lake in Banaras. Nobody really knowns where and how he was born. Some are even of the opinion that pillars of light descended from Heaven, touched the waters of the lake, and thus, the child was created.
There is only one common ground of agreement that, during his childhood he was brought up in a poor Muslim family. His father was a weaver Neru, and his mother was Lohi. Both father and mother were illiterate and poor and belonged to the underprivileged class. They were childless, and having discovered the abandoned baby, took him home and brought him up as their child.
A kazi-Muslim priest-was called for the naming ceremony. When the kazi opened the Holy Quran, the first word spotted by him was Kabir. The kazi closed his eyes, said his prayers and opened the Quran again. Again, his gaze fell on the Kabir word. Kabir is a name of God. How could a child coming from his lowly background, be named after God? The meaning of the word Kabir is the Almighty One, the highest One. The kazi thought that it was inappropriate for this child to be given this name. So he asked them to wait a while. Once again, he closed his eyes, offered a prayer and opened the Holy Quran Sharif. His eyes fell on the word Akbar. Now Akbar is also another name of God. Allah-O-Akar-Allah, the greatest of the Great. The kazi was bewildered. He felt that he could not, should not, give a child of a backward class, a name like Akbar.
In the meantime, the parents got impatient and did not want to wait anymore. They decided to name their child Kabir. Both of them loved Kabir dearly. Kabir’s shining eyes and pleasant face attracted all. As he grew in age, he would often sit in a silent corner. His mother would call out to him,” My child Kabir, lend me a helping hand with the household work.” His father would call him and say,” My son Kabir, I have woven the cloth, come, help me carry it to the market place to sell it.” Kabir was always lost in his own thoughts.
As a little child his heart was full of mercy and compassion. On the occasion of Bakri Id, as per custom, an animal is bought and sacrificed ritually. The meat is cooked and distributed as holy prasad. Id was nearing, and Kabir’s father said to him, “My child we shall purchase a lamb and sacrifice it on the day of Id.” Kabir exclaimed, “sacrifice it! What does that mean?”
The father explained, “According to our custom, we buy an animal. Itis slaughtered and cut into pieces and cooked for the feast.” Hearing this, Kabir was horrified. He exclaimed, “Get it home? Feed it well and then slaughter and cut it into pieces? What kind of festivity is this?” It was beyond the child’s understanding.
However, Neru brought the lamb and tied it up in the house. From that day, child Kabir was unable to eat a morsel. When food was brought tohim he refused to eat, for he had lost his appetite.
His parent asked him what was his problem. What had happened to him? Without answering, Kabir would go and sit near the lamb and shed tears. He would pat the lamb lovingly and would say, “Now you shall be with us for a fewdays. After that, my father, with his own hands will slaughter you.”
The parents found it unbearable to see him crying. They said to him, “Son, you are the light of our eyes, the soul of our being. Why are you crying?”
Kabir said, “I am unable to bear it. There is a storm of agony in my heart. This lamb which we have kept with us and whom we have been feeding, we are going to slaughter it with our own hands! How can we do such a thing?” Kabir was heartbroken. He could not partake of any food or drink. He spent sleepless nights.
At last the father understood the great depth of sorrow and agony of his son. He promised that he would neither slaughter the lamb and nor he would sell it anyone else. The lamb would stay with them as a member of their family. Hearing those words from the lips of his father, Kabir danced with joy. Was he not an angel of compassion?
Thus, Kabir’s journey of compassionate life started and he, without any exaggeration became a great saint. Kabir Sahib travelled through out India. He became the disciple of a great saint Swami Ramananda. In kashi, one of the main centres of Hindu orthodoxy, he eked out a meagre living by weaving cloth and faced unrelenting opposition from the priestly class for teaching people of all caste how to worship God. He attracted a large following of disciples including Hindus and Muslim’s people from all shades of the society. He was outspoken in condemning the abominable rituals and religious observances. His versatility and power and depth pf his poetry is widely acknowledged and his ‘Bani’ forms an integral part of Guru Granth Sahib and is enchanted with all reverence.
Kabir ji, as an angel compassion, tried his best to invoke the name of God, and asked everyone through his very enriched ‘Duhas’ that everyone must give of his compassion to the sadand weary. We must carry the message of hope and cheer to the suffering and sorrowing ones, the poor and broken ones in this world which,by some reason we may not understand, is a world of suffering and pain.
The essential quality of Kabir ji’s life was compassion and tenderness for all those whom the cruel world trampled upon, day after day. He judged no one- not even the thief and the criminal, nor those whom society regarded as sinners and “fallen ones”. For him, it was one object to behold suffering and to poor out compassion.
How lonely is the world! And how sad! Why is it so? Who knows? Kabir ji used to say, we may not understand the why of it? But this we all must do: we invoke the Name of God and we must give of our compassion to the sad, and the weary. We must carry the message of hope and cheer to the suffering and sorrowing ones, the poor and the broken one. In this world which, for some reason we may not understand, is a world of suffering and pain. Most moving are the words which Kabir ji spoke to the people, “I am a hermit. And I live in a house by the side of a Bazar. And I see men move on, some good, some bad. But here, in the Bazar, I stay with longing in my heart for the well-being of all with an urge to become a servant of all, a helper of men.”
His compassion was not restricted to human beings; it extended to all creatures- even to trees and flowers. He did not pluck flowers. Flowers, he said, had their families, and they must not be separated from one and other.
Some of the Kabir’s Duhasare:-
4Kabir, I am the worst of men, except myself everybody is good. He who holds the same opinion is my friend.
4Kabir, man hath lost his faith through mamoon, but mamoon will not company him; he hath carelessly struck his feet with an axe by his own hand.
4Kabir, Maya is a thief who breaketh into and robbeth the shop; one man, Kabir who hath chased her in every direction, she shall not rob.
4Kabir, the body is like an earthen pot filled with water; it will burst today or tomorrow; if thou remember not they great God, thou shall be plundered half way.