Kabir the Guru - 1

Kabirvad

Kabirvad is a banyan tree in Gujarat. It is named after Kabir, the mystic poet and saint of the 15^th century. There is a legend behind the tree. Two brothers are in search of a guru. They have an intuitive feeling that the guru will appear when they are ready for it. They plant a dry banyan root at a central spot in their courtyard. Whenever a sadhu passes by, they wash his feet at this particular spot. Their conviction is that the root will sprout into a sapling when their guru appears. Years pass and there’s no sign of any sapling. No less than four decades later, the sapling rises.

The man who had come the previous day was a beggarly figure whom the brothers didn’t treat particularly well though they gave him some water to drink out of courtesy. But the sapling rose, after 40 years! So the brothers went in search of that beggarly figure. Kabir, the great 15^th century mystic poet, had been their guest. The legend says that the brothers became Kabir’s disciples. The banyan tree is still found in Gujarat.

This may be one of the umpteen legends that came up when Kabir became popular in Varanasi and around as a poet, a mystic, a guru, and a teacher though he was just an illiterate weaver by profession.

When I was teaching in a school in Delhi, every now and then I would hear some dohas [couplets] of Kabir recited in the morning assembly. I didn’t understand much of them because their lingo was quite different from the modern Hindi.

What should be of interest to us today is that Kabir chose to write in Hindi in a time when Persian and Sanskrit were the dominant languages in North India. Moreover, Kabir was a Muslim. His King was a Muslim. Why did he choose to sing in Hindi and that too expressing devotion to Lord Ram?

Sing, I said. Yes, Kabir was an illiterate weaver. He didn’t write. He sang. And in most of his songs, Lord Ram of Hinduism stands out as the dominant god. Kabir loved Ram for reasons we may be given in due course of time though that is not quite likely since India’s present historians won’t be interested in a Muslim poet even if he was a fervent devotee of Ram.

Vipul Rikhi’s book, Drunk on Love: The Life, Vision and Songs of Kabir renewed my interest in the mystic singer. I have finished reading the book. My review will be up here tomorrow.

Kabir deserves a revisit today when some Hindus have chosen to victimise a lot of people for worshipping gods that are not Hindus. Now, do gods have religion? Are gods fighting up there in the cosmic spaces for their own kingdoms like we do here on earth? For example, will Lord Rama flex his muscles on seeing the palatial temple built for him by THE Narendra Modi in Rama’s putative birthplace of Ayodhya? Will Rama go to Allah and say something like, “You see how my beloved Modiji is honouring me with the kind of humility that he doesn’t really have!” And imagine Allah telling him that his [Allah’s] beloved people have constructed a palatial temple in Abu Dhabi for a Hindu god. Will Allah be jealous? Will Rama be arrogant? Will they start a star war? Will Jesus send Angel Gabriel to convert Rama and Allah to Christianity? And then will some RSS guy crop up there on a Treta Yug Pushpak Vimaan to shoot a couple of antediluvian arrows at Allah and label Jesus as Rice Bag?

Will Kabir sing there his 15^th century song?

If Allah lives in the mosque

Who occupies the rest of the world?

If Ram inhabits idols and temples

Why did no one find him there?

We have so much religion today. So much – I’m using the word much, not many, purposely. Too much religion. Kabir hated it. And we will see that tomorrow. We will take a deeper look at Vipul Rikhi’s book tomorrow.