Thus spake Kabir! So sayeth the saint. Sure this line, capturing the 'essence-tial' Kabir feel, is a take on the famous title by Nietzsche. Equally inspired is Kabir as a philosopher. The unique beauty of his "dohe", the unusual quatrains, is that, like all saintly poetry in the great Bhakti tradition, it speaks not merely to the sense, common or otherwise, but to the heart and soul of the listener/reader, even when (s)he may not be a devotee.
'Jyeshtha Poornima' is thought to be the day Kabir was supposedly born. The 'legend'-ary 'stories' about his birth are as endless as the controversies about the exact number of his "dohe". So simple and yet so deep are they that imitation extrapolations are but natural. Why, it has been said that even the celebrated anthology compiled by none less than the Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, has only six authentic "dohe"! Let us not get in to all such contestations.
Instead, let us see if we can understand, interpret and translate the "dhai aakhar Kabir ke". My most favourite one is the one that should be, in my opinion, the motto of everyone if life is to be divine. Says Kabir (forgive me the translation of this and/or the following "dohe"), "When in search of evil I went/None I met with that taint/mine heart I searched, that moment/i knew, none so sinful ain't."
Imagine how the world would be, surely not so very near, almost on the brink of the third world war if Iran were to think thus of America, or vice versa, or Palestine of Israel, or vice versa, or Nato nations of Putin, or vice versa! Forget the big nations and the larger than life politicians. Always I wonder if, thus were not the mirror image of all the frenemies! When you point a finger at someone, please remember, the other four point back at you!
Yet another example of Kabir's deep sense captured in the simplest words would be, "What if tall and big/like the tree called fig/ no shade ever a wayfarer found/the fruits are afar, out of bound" What a perfect depiction with an apt image of the vainglory of the mighty but mean!
Hence let us end this brief intro to the "Kahat Kabir" epiphany with the greatest tribute that celebrates love, the force that should drive wor(l)ds. Says Kabir,"Big books they read, in death to end/the learned thus to knowledge did not bend/Love, the four lettered word, if be the trend/in wisdom would they lives spend".
Pratima@Daily I read and try to understand the gems from "Dnyaneshwari", "Dasbodh" and "Abhang-gatha" from the Marathi Bhakti tradition to enrich myself every which way.
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