KABIR - A WEAVER SAINT

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KABIR – THE WEAVER SAINT

June 3 is the sacred birth anniversary of Saint Kabir.

Kabir was illiterate but illuminated. In this regard, he reminds us of the great

Western mystic, Boehme. Kabir was, essentially, a man of interior illumination.

But he was, as Boehme was not, a great musician and a great poet. Kabir was,

also, an expert craftsman. He made his living at the loom. In this regard, he

reminds us of Raidas. Kabir was a simple weaver, as Raidas was simple cobbler.

Kabir was not an ascetic. He did not leave the world. His renunciation was

inner, nor outer. He mingled as a man with men; he toiled, he recognized the

sanctity of labour and he rejoiced in the interior life communion with Supreme.

Kabir blended mystical vision with industry. He believed in the harmony of hands

and heart. And the more I think of him, the more I feel that Kabir had a natural

dislike for institutional religion, for all externalism. In this regard, he

reminds me of the quakers of England, who believed in the "Inner Light." Kabir

spoke, again and again, of "simple union with God," He sang of "Sahaj samadh,"

"simple union," the "samadh" of the simple heart. Kabir did not attach value to

pilgrims. "Not in Ka’aba nor in Kailash, but in thy heart within mayst thou meet

thy Lord." He says. One of his songs has the significant words:

Where dost thou seek Me?

Lo! I am beside thee!

Neither in temple nor in Mosque am I:

Neither in Ka’aba nor in Kailash!

I am not in outer rites and ceremonies,

I am by thee, with thee, within thee!

"Do not tell me," says Kabir, "that the saints of God belong to this caste or

that." The saints transcend all castes, all countries, all creeds. Hath not God

revealed Himself in different castes and different faiths? Barbers and

washermen, carpenters and masons, sweepers and cobblers have communed with God,

face to face!

So Kabir asks us to recognize the value of home-life for spiritual advance. He sings:

Lamps burn in every home.

Thy Lord is within thee:

Why climb the palm tree to seek Him?

The telling of beeds is naught to Him!

Kabir raised his voice against those who identified religion with externalism.

Of the interior life spoke in rapturous strains, again and again. Misled, he

says, is the man who, leaving home, wanders afar. Call back, says Kabir, call

back the wanderer home. And Kabir urges, again and again, that the home of

homes "is in the heart within."

Kabir did not stand aloof from life and its obligations. To him life itself was

a revelation of the Real. Kabir was a singer of life. "In life," he says,

"deliverance abides." Here and now mayst thou find thy God! Not in a far-off

forest, but here, in thy daily life, mayst thou greet thy God, if thou wilt but

awake. He says:

If your bonds be not broken now and here, in this earthly life, what hope is

there for deliverance for you in death?

And again:

If God is found now, He is found in death and beyond.

If you find Him not now; you but go to dwell

In the City of Death.

Kabir emphasized the value of the immediate. Precious is your life. Do not waste

it in distraction, but so live that you may find Him before death overcomes you.

God is now, here, or He is nowhere! Do not, therefore, miss the golden chance

this life gives you for self realization. Here is pure water before you. Drink

it in. Be filled: be full. Do not leave the world empty-handed. Why do you

pursue the shadow-shapes which come and go? Why do you wander after the mirage?

The "water of life" is before you. Listen tot he words of Kabir:

Dhruva, Prahlada and Sukdeva

Have drunk of the nectar:

And Raidas, the cobbler too.

Listen to me, brother!

Weave no longer your chains of falsehood!

Hold no longer the load of desire on your head!

Be light, if thou wouldst, indeed, be liberated!

How may I be light? Kabir’s answer is significant. (1) be detached. And (2) be

true – no matter what suffering you may have to pass through. Be true, though

persecuted by men, though assailed by suffering and pain. Bear witness to the

truth. And (3) be thirsty for love. This triple secret – detachment, worship of

truth and thirst of love – is the key to that higher life to which all awakening

must aspire as its crown. "The saints," says Kabir, "are drunk with love."

The secret of the Prema Nagara, the City of Love, was seen by Kabir. He lived a

life of detachment: he adored truth, day by day, and his heart was filled with

love. Thinking of him, I say to myself, what a joy in the thought that in this

world of strife and pain, this world of conflict and contradiction, this broken

world of tragedy and tears, have appeared, again and again, singers and seers

like Kabir who saw the Secret of the Beauteous Face of the Beloved.

(sadhu Vaswani in East and West Series, June 2004)

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