Kabir was an extraordinary oral poet whose works have been sung and recited by millions throughout North India for half a millennium. He may have been illiterate and he preached an abrasive, sometimes shocking, always uncompromising message that exhorted his audience to shed their delusions, pretentions, and empty orthodoxies in favor of an intense, direct, and personal confrontation with the truth. Thousands of poems are popularly attributed to Kabir, but only a few written collections have survived over the centuries. The Bijak is one of the most important, and is the sacred book of those who follow Kabir.
Originally published in 1976, with more than 75,000 copies in print, this collection of poems by fifteenth-century ecstatic poet Kabir is full of fun and full of thought. Columbia University professor of religion John Stratton Hawley has contributed an introduction that makes clear Kabir's immense importance to the contemporary reader and praises Bly's intuitive translations. By making every reader consider anew their religious thinking, the poems of Kabir seem as relevant today as when they were first written.
Saint Poet Kabir Was Illiterate By Choice. He Was Of The Firm View That If One Realises The Value Of The Two Letters Of The Alphabet R And M Which Make The Name Of Shri Rama There Was No Need To Bother About The Rest Of The Fifty-Four Alphabets Which Might As Well Be Washed Down The River As Being Of No Value. But Kabir Also Emphasised That The True Value Of Shri Rama Should Be Realised Which Will Help Man To Realise The Intrinsic Value Of God And Ingrain True And Deep Love For The Lord. And Kabir Acted Accordingly As He Has Shown In His Songs And Maxims Which Flowed From His Lips In Thousands. The Maxims Selected For This Book Through Small In Number Being 160 In All Show How Deep And Broad Were His Realisation.
Songs of Kabir Rabindranath Tagore - Kabir lived in the 15th Century (1440-1518); born to Mohammadan parents; he came under the influence of the famous Hindu saint; Sri Ramananda and delved deep into the mysteries of Hindu mysticism. A true worshipper of God; he emphasized the purity of mind and selfless devotion to God. He openly opposed the weaknesses of both Hinduism and Islam.During his life time he composed many poems. They are usually two line couplets; known as dohas; recited by many scholars even today to denote some deep philosophical truths.All these songs of Kabir were translated into English by none other than Rabindranath Tagore; the mystic poet and the Noble Laureate; the first edition; published by The Macmillan Company; 1915; New York.This book shall prove to be an asset for the Kabir lovers who can't enjoy his writings in Hindi.
The word Brahm means the Absolute or Ultimate Reality that is the primal cause of the existence of the universe and all beings. Nirupan means the form or nature of that Reality. For simplicity, we can say God. Yet we know that God is beyond forms and attributes that we can ascribe to Him. But we need to use words to communicate, so Kabir explains to his disciple that the Ultimate cannot be described in words, but must be experienced inwardly. He then describes various methods of approaching God, the negative actions to avoid, and the virtuous ones to be cultivated, as one progresses on the spiritual path to enlightenment. Kabir uses several Indian analogies and metaphors to explain the teachings to his earnest disciple.
Kabir was a great iconoclastic-mystic poet of fifteenth-century North India; his poems were composed orally, written down by others in manuscripts and books, and transmitted through song. Scholars and translators usually attend to written collections, but these present only a partial picture of the Kabir who has remained vibrantly alive through the centuries mostly in oral forms. Entering the worlds of singers and listeners in rural Madhya Pradesh, Bodies of Song combines ethnographic and textual study in exploring how oral transmission and performance shape the content and interpretation of vernacular poetry in North India. The book investigates textual scholars' study of oral-performative traditions in a milieu where texts move simultaneously via oral, written, audio/video-recorded, and electronic pathways. As texts and performances are always socially embedded, Linda Hess brings readers into the lives of those who sing, hear, celebrate, revere, and dispute about Kabir. Bodies of Song is rich in stories of individuals and families, villages and towns, religious and secular organizations, castes and communities. Dialogue between religious/spiritual Kabir and social/political Kabir is a continuous theme throughout the book: ambiguously located between Hindu and Muslim cultures, Kabir rejected religious identities, pretentions, and hypocrisies. But even while satirizing the religious, he composed stunning poetry of religious experience and psychological insight. A weaver by trade, Kabir also criticized caste and other inequalities and today serves as an icon for Dalits and all who strive to remove caste prejudice and oppression.
