Go naked if you want — Homage to Kabir (and more)
This is a triptych post, meaning I had three different things to say today and so they combined into this.
First is an Homage.
I pay homage and give tribute to Kabir, probably the greatest poet and wise human India has ever seen, for he taught me simplicity of beingness.
Kabir is a human, the way I understand a Human (capital H) should be.
The fact that he was a Bhakti devotee, and the fact that he raised above the differences of religion and casts, gender, age and behaviors are only part of the reason I admire him.
Kabir says: “Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive preachers, when critically examined, turn out to be false”.
Kabir denied all external manifestations of righteousness and piety, but it is the ferocity and vigor of his passion that enthralled me.
I first met his poems, translated by none other than Rabindranath Tagore more than 30 years ago and though I understood them not, they kept me awake at night.
Kabir gave us poems, chief of which to my mind is the following:
Go Naked
Go naked if you want
put on animal skins
what does it matter till you see the inward Ram?
If the union yogis seek
Came from roaming about in the buff,
every deer in the forest would be saved.
If shaving your head
spelled spiritual success,
heaven would be filled with sheep.
And brother, if holding back your seed
Earned you a place in paradise,
eunuchs would be the first to arrive
Kabir says: Listen brother,
without the name of Ram
who has ever on the spirit’s prize?
# Let it be said that I am aware of the many interpretations of the term Ram as used by Kabir, and I am certain you know how to look it up and choose for yourself which of these you accept or deny.
For my own mind percipience however the term Ram as used by Kabir means the fundamental substance of existence. (see Spinoza)
Kabir says: Don’t open your diamonds in a vegetable market. Tie them in bundle and keep them in your heart, and go your own way.
Second is a personal statement- inspired by Kabir.
As you may know I am not a religious person, I am however a universalist of acceptance. What this means in practice is that I scour the variety of human experience and human manifestations. Historical, current and potential futures.
Forever seeking that which exalts the human spirit and stands to the criteria of greatness. Kabir stands to such a demand, as do all those minds, poets, scientists, artists, mystics and engineers alike to whom I pay homage in this series of Homages.
These Minds that inspire awe, minds that inspire motivation; These Minds, emotionally engorged superior intellects, paved new highways of beingness and as pathfinders showed us the immensity of options possible and available for human evolution. These are the minds that I deem subjectified myths.
They may well have been mortals at a certain point in time, but their uncommon existential quests elevated them to a kind of immortality, not of flesh but of mind. Subjectified myths in turn elevate each and every one that connects to their bank of sensations. Fulfilling their self-imposed duties of being repositories of human ideals and standards. They are the very yardsticks by which our common history of thought becomes the foundation of our own development. Because of their greatness, ours becomes an option. By acknowledging the significance, of Keats and Kabir, Tagore and Spinoza, Mary Shelley and Hypatia and many more we allow ourselves the inner connectivity of Indra’s net.
Subjectified myths remind us, that we are not alone in our endeavors. That there were unique minds before us and there will be others after us. They fulfill the role of showing us our own uniqueness in the array of existence. They are the matrix we join when we think for ourselves and develop our inimitable distinctiveness.
They are the touchstones and steppingstones in our own evolutionary pathways.
Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished
Daniel Gilbert
Subjectified myths.
The real, finding its origins inside our skulls, extends into history and projects into futures via storied entities, hence subjectified myths. The real is that which influences us, forces that moves us, disembodied motives creating causes that move the matter of our immediacy.
I believe in the human species. Greatness and pitfalls included. As our current situation proves again, we are together, in a small boat, in a huge ocean of unknowns, some of these unknowns (though somewhat predictable) appear in the form of a global pandemic. Who is to say that out of these dire straights will not arise an enlightened civilization (UBI included)?
That statement is neither an optimistic one, though I do love my optimistic nihilism nor a stoic approach. It is not even a realist statement , it is however an idealist approach based on my universal acceptance of the event of life, of being, of beauty.
There are many ways to do the right thing. And we need as many ways as possible to cover the plains of uncertainties with the flowering of actions in time.
And that above small statement means everything.
Third — If you are a thinking being and need to read something read this:
The following is a short excerpt from what I consider the best reading I have had in a long while, I highly recommend reading thoroughly what Charles Einsenstein has to say in The Coronation :
When the self is understood as relational, interdependent, even inter-existent, then it bleeds over into the other, and the other bleeds over into the self. Understanding the self as a locus of consciousness in a matrix of relationship, one no longer searches for an enemy as the key to understanding every problem, but looks instead for imbalances in relationships. The War on Death gives way to the quest to live well and fully, and we see that fear of death is actually fear of life. How much of life will we forego to stay safe?
Thank you for reading and… Go naked if you want!
