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Now I have no caste, no creed, I am no more what I am!

The purpose of labor is to learn; when you know it, the labor is over.

Just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things, and stand firm in that which you are.

If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire.

When affection for the I-creature and what it owns is dead, then the work of the Teacher is over.

If here before me stand both- my Guru(teacher) and Govind(the almighty), I’d first prostrate my Guru! , because, it is He, who revealed to me,the Govind!!

Life

Birth: Kabir was born in 1398 to a weaver’s family and later adopted by childless Muslim weavers named Niru and Nimma, who found him near Lahara Tara lake, adjacent to the holy city of Varanasi.

Realization: Kabir had been a devout person since his childhood. He was not of the proper class to have a Guru or receive any teachings on spirituality, yet his poetry is filled with mystical insights and profound teachings which baffled the great pundits of his time. Kabir’s profound insights into truth, philosophy, and the nature of man came about from his direct experience of God-an experience that went beyond the ken of the intellect and worldly knowledge.

Death: Kabir died in 1518

Teaching Style: Kabir’s teaching is a new style. A lot of great message is imbibed in his life. He was born out of a flower. He taught the law of death through bud’s angle. He spread the fragrance of spiritual knowledge as long as he was alive. Finally he left  fragrant flowers in the place of his dead body. His message is thus, “Lead a beautiful life like a flower”, “Life is temporary like a flower” and  “Be helpful to others like a flower”.

Fame: Kabir was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose literature has greatly influenced the Bhakti movement of India. He sang the ideals of seeing all of humanity as one. His name, Kabir, is often interpreted as Guru’s Grace. A weaver by profession, Kabir ranks among the world’s greatest poets.To call Kabir a universal Guru is not an exaggeration. His greatest work is the Bijak(that is, the Seedling), an idea of the fundamental one. Collection of his poems demonstrates his own universal view of spirituality.

Kabir’s vocabulary is replete with ideas regarding Brahman and Hindu ideas of karma and reincarnation. The constant insistence on simplicity and directness, the hatred of all abstractions and philosophizing, the ruthless criticism of external religion: these are amongst his most marked characteristics. After his death his Muslim and Hindu devotees fought over his proper burial rites. However, when they finally opened Kabir’s coffin, they found the body missing. Instead there was a small book in which the Hindus and Muslims wrote all his sayings.

Legacy: In his Early life, Kabir became a disciple of the Hindu bhakti saint Ramananda. Kabir was influenced by prevailing religious mood such as old Brahmanic Hinduism, Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism, teachings of Nath yogis and the personal devotinalism from South India mixed with imageless God of Islam. His philosophy has represented a synthesis of Hindu, and Muslim concepts. From Hinduism he accepts the concept of reincarnation and the law of Karma and from Islam he takes the outer practices of Indian Sufi ascetics and Sufi mysticism. Not only has Kabir influenced Muslims and Hindus but he is one of the major inspirations behind Sikhism as well. The major part of Kabir’s work as a Bhagat was collected by the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjun Dev, and forms a part of the holy Sikh scripture “Guru Granth Sahib. Kabir’s genius has been in that he has inspired the scholars/poets like Rabindranath Tagore andthe common masses.

Teachings

The basic religious principles he espouses are simple. According to Kabir, all life is an interplay of two spiritual principles. One is the personal soul (Jivatma) and the other is God (Paramatma). It is Kabir’s view that salvation is the process of bringing into union these two divine principles. Purification of mind is of paramount importance. Without this nothing can be achieved in the spiritual path.

God himself is the Word that cannot be uttered, and himself the Word that speaks to all; himself is Formless and himself is all the forms; he is both Nirguna [Formless] and Saguna [Form]. Kabir explains that all sense of duality is due to Maya [illusion], that when man knows himself he becomes himself, and when he realize himself he unites with God. He often advocated leaving aside the Quran and Vedas and to simply follow Sahaja path, or the Simple/Natural Way to oneness in God.

Sant Kabir taught the world the life of Bhakti in Faith with personal Love and Devotion to God. Our chief duty is truth through words and deeds. No act of Devotion can equal truth and no crime is as harmful as falsehood. Sant Kabir spoke to the masses without discrimination for the good of all with strong messages of peace, love, unity, harmony, non-violence and equality.