Endharo mahanubhavulu andhiriki vandanamu- Sant Kabirdas

Sant Kabir Das​

The meaning of Kabir is great. Kabir Das is revered by both Hindus and muslims. He was a man of principles and practiced what he preached. The religion found by Kabir is known as Kabir Panth.

Kabir’s father was a weaver by profession and he was a muslim. His name was Dhamal. He lived in Benares. He had no children for a long time. His wife was a pious lady. One day a fakir came to their house and she served him food. Before he left he told her that she would be blessed with a son to continue the hospitality. Dhamal was not at home and when he came home she told him about the blessing of the fakir. Dhamal laughed at her and said that as she had already crossed the child bearing age he could not believe it.

One day he went to the river Ganges to clean the weaving thread in the river after dying it. After finishing his work he was sitting and meditating at the bank of the river. Suddenly he heard the cries of a wailing baby. He walked up to the place from where the sound of the cry of the baby heard. To his surprise he found a lovely baby lying on a lotus leaf. He ran and took the baby and he thought that the baby was Allah’s gift. He took the baby home and gave it to his wife. She told Dhamal that the fakir’s blessings had become true.

They both loved the baby very dearly and they took the baby to Maszid to name him. The maulvi opened a page of Quran and he found the word kabir. So the child was given the name Kabir which means great.

Kabir was growing up learning the skill of weaving and also he blossomed into a pious and spiritual person. His parents wanted to get him married. But before that they had arranged for the sunnath ceremony which was important in their religion. But Kabir refused to have it and the relatives and their community people told him that they would expel him from the community. His parents became sad and dejected. Hence Kabir tried to run away from the house. But Dhamal stopped him and told him not to desert them and stay with them and help him in weaving clothes as he had become old.

Kabir’s thoughts were always about the one and only Lord. At times his hands would stop weaving and he would be deeply engrossed in meditation. Once he just weaved one hand length of a cloth and was engrossed in the thoughts of God. The Lord weaved another hand length and his mother came and said that his father would be angry with him if he knew that he weaved so little in a day. She told him to go and sell the cloth in the market or else she could not cook for them.

Kabir went to the bazaar and could not find any one to buy the cloth. Kabir was very disheartened and was thinking of going home. Just then someone pulled the cloth from his hand and tried to run. Kabir ran behind and pulled it out and the cloth was torn into two pieces.

The person who snatched the cloth started shouting.
“See, what sort of cloth is this? So flimsy and thin and he wants to sell this as rich silk cloth. Who will buy this?”

Kabir said, “You are a thief! You do not have money to buy the cloth and you are talking about its quality. It is a cloth worth adorning the Lord!”

The other fellow then said, “Okay. I’ll ask the people here to quote the price and I’ll pay accordingly.”

The people started quoting different prices. The person who was a Brahmin then said that in fact he did not have any money. But he was going to Brindavan and wanted to give the cloth to Lord Krishna.

Kabir told him that only if he got some money by selling the cloth, then his mother could light fire and cook some food.

The Brahmin said, "You look like a very pious and learned man. Have you not heard the story of Karna and Mahabali? They are still remembered because of their generosity. If you give this cloth to me, a poor Brahmin to adorn the Deity, you will be blessed and the God will help you.”

Kabir’s heart melted to hear those words. He gave the cloth to the Brahmin. The Brahmin felt very happy.

He said,” You seem to be a pious and learned man. If you keep chanting Rama nama you will be able to attain true Njaana. Further if you would be initiated by a guru and taught bramha njaanam your spiritual wisdom would become unparallel.”

Kabir had the other half of the torn cloth in his hand. He thought that at least he would sell it and get some money.
A fakir was coming towards him and he told him he was feeling too cold and would be grateful to him if he could give him the cloth. He said that he could at least cover his head with the cloth to save himself from mist.

Kabir being kind hearted and also impressed by the bramin’s words gave the cloth to the fakir saying “Jai Sitaram”, thinking about the glory of Sri Ram.

The fakir backed out from taking the cloth from Kabir. He shouted at him saying that he was a kafir, instead of taking Allah’s name he took the Hindu God’s name.

Kabir tried to convince him by saying that there was only one God and different religions called Him by different names. But the fakir accused him of being an enemy of Islam and that he would go and tell his mother about his behaviour.
Kabir felt very sad and also he was afraid that his mother would get angry with him. So he went and hid himself in an abandoned house.

To be continued​

 

Dear Sindhuja,
Thank you for your sweet comments.
Here brahma njaanam depicts the spiritual knowledge. The urge to know about the self and the Lord. The pursuit of spiritual knowledge aimed at union or communion with ultimate Reality or God. This could be achieved with deep meditation. But it is very difficult for ordinary mortals like us. We can only pursue bhakthi yoga.
Love,
PS

 

Dear Ami,
Thanks for dropping in and posting your fb which boosts my morale.
Love,
PS

 

Dear Sridhar,
It is really heart warming for me to see your sweet comments and you made my day! As you say Kabir was Bhakthi personified and his dohas are beautiful and meaningful. His dohas are in couplets with vast meaning like Thirukural!
Thanks for peeping in and posting your comments,
Love,
PS

 

Dear Lalitha,
Thanks for dropping in and posting your comments. I have posted the concluding part today. Hope that you enjoy reading it.
Love,
PS