Remembering Guru Kabir

Remembering Guru Kabir: Many in India have been celebrating the birth anniversary (Kabir Jayanti) of Guru Kabir, which also coincided with the “strawberry” full moon of June 2nd, 2015.

“Tell me, O Swan [Hamsa — the Soul], your ancient tale.
From what land do you come, O Swan? to what shore will you fly?
Where would you take your rest, O Swan, and what do you seek?
Even this morning, O Swan, awake, arise, follow me!
There is a land where no doubt nor sorrow have rule: where the
terror of Death is no more.
There the woods of spring are a-bloom, and the fragrant scent “He
is I” is borne on the wind:
There the bee of the heart is deeply immersed, and desires no
other joy.” (Songs of Kabir)

Sant Kabir lived during the fifteenth century, raised near Banaras, India by Muslim parents. He was a weaver, a simple and unlettered man, who earned his living at the loom. It is out of the heart of the common life that he sings his rapturous lyrics of Divine love.

“Kabir” is an Islamic name popular in the Muslim world — it’s one of the “Ninety-Nine Names of Allah” found in the Koran, meaning, “The Greatest”. Today, Kabir has over twenty-five million devotees in various Kabir Panth and Sant lineages, and is loved by Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims alike. Kabir’s hymns are still sung in the satsangs of various Paths all over India and the world.

Everyone’s Universal Saint, Kabir was:

* a Master or Sat Guru of Surat Shabd Yoga, a founding Guru of Sant Mat and Kabir Panth;

* a musician and poet of Nirguna Bhakti (love and devotion for the One Formless God);

* a great teacher of Eastern Gnosis (Gnosticism or mysticism);

* peace maker between Hindus and Muslims;

* a social reformer in India who denounced the caste system;

* thought of by many in Islam to be a Sufi Master or Murshid;

* believed by Hindus to be one of the greatest poet-mystics and Vaishnava devotees in the history of India;

* considered a Bhagat by the Sikhs — many of his hymns are included in the Adi Granth (Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scriptures);

* influenced by Goraknath and the Nath Yogis, and the Nath Yogis of northern India were, in turn, influenced by Tantric Buddhism;

Kabir’s spirituality is a blend of Prem and Bhakti: love and devotion for the Beloved Lord, the One God (Ek Ongkaar), and mystical, soul travel experiences of a visionary and auditory nature (Inner Light and Sound Meditation, Surat Shabd Yoga).