Sant Kabir

The child of Lahartara

No one knows exactly when Kabir was born. Tradition gives the year 1398, in Kashi (Varanasi); historians place his life in the 15th century. The Kabir Panth, the community of his followers, tells how a weaver named Niru and his wife Nima found a baby at Lahartara pond in Kashi. They took him home and raised him as their own. That child was Kabir.

A weaver at the loom

Kabir grew up in a weaver (julaha) family and worked at the loom all his life. The thread, the shuttle and the cloth run all through his verses. He lived as a householder in Kashi. He did not withdraw to a forest or a monastery. He earned his living with his hands and sang of God while he worked.

He sang in the language of ordinary people, not in Sanskrit. His sakhis (two-line couplets, also called dohas), padas (songs) and ramainis (verses) were passed on by mouth. He did not write them down himself. Later singers carried them on, and added many verses of their own in his name.

The Name from Ramananda

Tradition holds that the young Kabir longed to have Swami Ramananda of Kashi as his guru. The story of how he received the Name is told below. Kabir took the word "Ram", spoken by Ramananda on the Panchganga ghat steps, as his initiation. The Kabir Panth accepts Ramananda as his guru, though historians question whether their dates allow it.

The Ram of Kabir, however, is not an image in a temple. He is nirgun, without form or qualities, present in every heart. In his own words, as printed in the NCERT Sparsh reader, Ram is in every heart, just as musk is inside the deer that searches the forest for its scent.

Songs against pretence

Through the 15th century Kabir sang against empty ritual, against caste pride and against hypocrisy. He was sharp with anyone who mistook outward forms for devotion. Britannica notes that he criticised empty ritual in every community equally. What he asked for instead was inner devotion to the one Ram, and sincere love.

He did not spare the learned either. Reading books, he sang, the whole world died, and no one became wise. One who reads the single word of love becomes the true pandit (learned man).

The last journey to Maghar

Late in life, tradition says, Kabir left Kashi for Maghar, in today's Sant Kabir Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh. People believed that dying in Kashi brought liberation and dying in Maghar did not. Kabir went anyway. By tradition he died there in 1518; some scholars place his death around 1448. If the traditional dates are right, he lived 120 years, but no one can be sure.

Around 1521, Kabir Chaura Math was established in Varanasi at the place where he used to meditate. In 1604 his verses were included by Guru Arjan in the Adi Granth, the Guru Granth Sahib. Kabir is also revered by many Muslims and by Sikhs, whose scripture includes his verses.