Kabir - A Poet of Synthesis

I was in Dubai a couple of months ago. One day I went to the local fish-market where most of the merchants are poor Pakistanis. I was conversing with some of them while waiting for my fish to be cleaned, and I asked them about who the greatest poet in Pakistan is. They told me "Kabir". Kabir is Arabic for Large...

Kabir was a poet from Benares* born in the 15th century to Mohammedan parents and became in early life a disciple of the celebrated Hindu ascetic Ramananda. Benares was a theological heated battleground between the Sufis and the Hindu Brahmans. Kabir was a family man and he was a proponent of living a simple life and seeking God in everday occurences. He poked fun at the ascetics that renounce life: "Your lord is near: yet you are climbing the palm tree to seek Him!".

To him "The devout seeker is he who mingles in his heart the double currents of love and detachment, like the mingling of the streams of Ganges and Jumna".

"The conscious and the unconscious, both are His footstools. He is neither manifest nor hidden, He is neither revealed nor unrevealed: There are no words to tell that which He is."

Rumi uses an analogous line. He says it is like saying of God "He is not a goat." He also has a line that says: "The Truth is made of a hundred lies". I think that is magnificent... Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism.. they are all partial truths. Only God is the Truth.

Here are some excerpts from the book Songs of Kabir translated by the Indian poet and Nobel prize laureate Tagore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The river and its waves are one surf: where is the difference between the river and its waves?

When the wave rises, it is the water; and when it falls, it is the same water again. Tell me, Sir, where is the distinction? Because it has been named as a wave, shall it no longer be considered as water?

Within the Supreme Brahma, the worlds are being told like beads: look upon that rosary with the eyes of wisdom.

The Purana and the Koran are mere words; lifting up the curtain, I have seen.

* Benares (Modern Varanasi): A city much-frequented by the Buddha, just a few miles from Sarnath.