Kabir Sant

Kabir (1398–1518 CE) was a well-known Indian Mystic poet and saint.

His writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement, and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das, and Kabir Sagar of Dharamdas.

Today, Kabir is an important figure in both Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam, especially in Sufism.

Born in the city of Varanasi in what is now Uttar Pradesh, he is known for being critical of both organized religion and religions.

He questioned what he regarded to be the meaningless and unethical practices of all religions, primarily what he considered to be the wrong practices in the Hindu and Muslim religions.

During his lifetime, he was threatened by both Hindus and Muslims for his views.

When he died, several Hindus and the Muslims he had inspired claimed him as theirs.

Kabir suggested that "truth" is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, considered everything, living and non living, as divine, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world.

To know the truth, suggested Kabir, drop the "I", or the ego.

Kabir's legacy survives and continues through the Kabir panth ("Path of Kabir"), a religious community that recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects.

Its members are known as Kabir panthis.

The years of Kabir's birth and death are uncertain.

Some historians favor 1398–1448 as the period Kabir lived, while others favor 1440–1518.

Generally, Kabir is believed to have been born in 1398 (Samvat 1455), on the full moon day of Jyeshtha month (according to the historical Hindu calendar Vikram Samvat) at the time of Brahmamuharta.

There is a considerable scholarly debate on the circumstances surrounding Kabir's birth.

Many followers of Kabir believe that he came from Satloka by assuming the body of light, and incarnated on a lotus flower and claim that the rishi Ashtanand was the direct witness of this incident, who himself appeared on a lotus flower in the Lahartara Pond.

A few accounts mention that Kabir in the form of a child was found at Lahartara Lake by a Muslim weaver called Niru and his wife Nima who raised him as his parents.

Kabir is believed to have become one of the many disciples of the Bhakti poet-saint Swami Ramananda in Varanasi, known for devotional Vaishnavism with a strong bent to monist Advaita philosophy teaching that God was inside every person and everything.

Early texts about his life place him with Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism as well as the Sufi tradition of Islam.

According to Irfan Habib, the two manuscript versions of the Persian text Dabestan-e Mazaheb are the earliest known texts with biographical information about Kabir.

The Dabestan-e-Mazaheb states Kabir is a "Bairagi" (Vaishnava yogi) and states he is a disciple of Ramanand (the text refers to him repeatedly as "Gang").

Kabir's family is believed to have lived in the locality of Kabir Chaura in Varanasi (Banaras).

Kabīr maṭha (कबीरमठ), a maṭha located in the back alleys of Kabir Chaura, celebrates his life and times.

Accompanying the property is a house named Nīrūṭīlā (नीरू टीला) which houses Niru and Nima graves.

Kabir's poems were in Sadhukkadi, borrowing from various dialects including Khadi boli, Braj, Bhojpuri, and Awadhi.

Kabir also wrote in pure Bhojpuri, for instance his poems like mor hīrā herāïl bā kichaṛe me is written in pure Bhojpuri.

They cover various aspects of life and call for a loving devotion for God.

Kabir composed his verses with simple words.

Most of his work was concerned with devotion, mysticism and discipline.

"Where spring, the lord of seasons reigneth, there the unstruck music sounds of itself, There the streams of light flow in all directions, few are the men who can cross to that shore! There, where millions of Krishnas stand with hands folded, Where millions of Vishnus bow their heads, where millions of Brahmas are reading the Vedas, Where millions of Shivas are lost in contemplation, where millions of Indras dwell in the sky, Where the demi-gods and the munis are unnumbered, where millions of Saraswatis, goddess of music play the vina, There is my Lord self-revealed, and the scent of sandal and flowers dwells in those deeps."

- Kabir, II.57

Kabir and his followers named his verbally composed poems of wisdom as "bāņīs" (utterances).

These include songs and couplets, called variously dohe, śalokā (Sanskrit: ślokā), or sākhī (Sanskrit: sākṣī).

The latter term means "witness", implying the poems to be evidence of the Truth.

Literary works with compositions attributed to Kabir include Kabir Bijak, Kabir Parachai, Sakhi Granth, Adi Granth (Sikh), and Kabir Granthawali (Rajasthan).

However, except for Adi Granth, significantly different versions of these texts exist and it is unclear which one is more original; for example, Kabir Bijak exists in two major recensions.

The most in depth scholarly analysis of various versions and translations are credited to Charlotte Vaudeville, the 20th century French scholar on Kabir.

There are 82 works attributed to Kabir as mentioned in Kabir and the Kabir panth by Westcott.

One of these manuscripts carried the date 1504 and the other 1824.

Shyamsundar Das himself brought to light two marked manuscripts which he published in 1928.