A long time ago I sat at a live performance of the late Aziz mian, one of the finest quwwals Pakistan has ever produced and the final act that night was a tribute poem sang by Aziz Mian sahib but which had been written centuries ago by one of the most unusual figures of the history of the Sub continent.
Linked in part to my Burning bridges thread I will be introducing several charcaters in the History of the Sub-Continent who bought not just small communities but the whole nation together in thier acts. These were universal human biengs and loved by many people from different walks of life.
One of these is the revered Saint Daas Kabir Jee. To Muslims Kabir is revered as a Saint, to Hindus as a great Sadhu and to Sikhs he was a figure who could be described as one of the founding fathers of thier faith too.
Sadly outside of the Sub-Continet he is relatively unknown and even in India, Banladesh, Pakistan few know his story.
Basically he was a mystic who was bought up by Muslim weavers and learned the spiritual and worldy arts through Muslim Sufis and Hindu Sadhus both being the mystic holy men of thier religions.
His life is said to have spanned the period between 1440 and 1520 AD although some put his date of departure at 1518 and his Birth date around 1417. We know very little about his early life and almost nothing is known of his parents. One assumes then that he was perhaps an orphan originally bought up by Muslim weavers but who later went to stay with the Great Hindu Saint Ramananda who was the founder of the Bhakti Hindu faith. Famous Nepalese Ghurkas of the Bahkti tribe were said to be the most astute followers of this faith but it has spread across India since that period.
He was from the region of Varanasi which is one of the holiest places in Hinduism with its great temples and many buildings along the Ganges river which even today is used for bathing and its supposed cleanliness of the soul.
Saint Kabir was taught by the greatest Hindu Sadhu of the time which caused much consternation among the other Hindu students for Kabir was a Muslim but Kabir seems to have trancended the boundaries of faith and many atribute to him great healing abilites and he is revered among both Hindu and Muslim communities as a powerful saint blessed by the one true God.
Kabir is known for his great philosophy in which he combined Hindu Brahmanic beliefs with his own vision of a one true God. This is most profoundly exibited in his poem “Main kya Janoo Ram.” Which forms one of many works in his great Bijak. The Bijak is essentially an Anthology of poems which translate as “the Seed” and it is well known for its direct manner of adressing many of the fundamental questions of man towards God.
The fifth Sikh Guru Arjun Dev collected some of Kabirs works to form what is the holiest scripture in Sikhism the Guru Granth Sahib.
Saint kabir is a rare example of a man who is reverred by all three of the major faiths of the subcontinet and is one of the prime example of efforts to create love and harmony betwen peoples.
I have chosen him as the first of my Bridges between the people and will soon post more interesting personalities that have tried to bring harmony in a land of great turmoil. All of these people deserve to be recognised for thier efforts and you dont have to neccasarily agree with thier universal teachings but you can help but say that in terms of human efforts they did indeed achieve great things.
Sadly Kabir is one who is less well known and recognised but I will soon post more personalities from Warris Shah to Khwaja Shahab and many many other great bridges of the Subcontinent.
For now I leave you with the original and very rare recording of Aziz Mians rendition of Daas Kabirs Poem. It is an hour long but well worth listening to as a work of classical music and philosophical debate between man and his maker.
