Concept
Kabir
Overview
Kabir (fl. 15th century) was a famous Indian devotional mystic poet and saint. His writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement, and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das, and Kabir Sagar of Dharamdas. Today, Kabir is an important personality in Hinduism, Sikhism and in Sufism. He was a disciple of Ramananda, the founder of the Ramanandi Sampradaya.
He was born in the city of Varanasi in what is now Uttar Pradesh, he is known for being critical of organised religions. He questioned what he regarded to be the meaningless and unethical practices of all religions, primarily what he considered to be the wrong practices in Hinduism and Islam. During his lifetime, he was threatened by both Hindus and Muslims for his views. When he died, several Hindus and the Muslims he had inspired claimed him as theirs.
Kabir's suggestion was that "truth" is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, who considers everything, living and non living, as divine, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world. To know the truth, suggested Kabir, drop the "I", or the ego. Kabir's legacy survives and continues through the Kabir panth ("Path of Kabir"), Sant Mat sect that recognises Kabir as its founder. Its members are known as Kabir panthis.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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We have explained this in the treatise entitled _Marvels of the Heart_, which forms part of our work, _The Revival of the Religious Sciences_. The certitude derived from proofs is called “knowledge”; passing into the state we describe is called “transport”; believing the experience of others and oral transmission is “faith.” Such are the three degrees of knowledge, as it is written, “The Lord will raise to different…
Ghazzali, The Confessions of Al Ghazzali
States what Kabir is.
Other methods of deliverance from evil are in the excessive acts of penance performed by the Indians, to which a retreat within themselves is added. Now when the Indian thus internally collects himself, and retreats within his own thoughts, the moment of such pure concentration is called Brahma, the one and the clearly supersensuous state, which the understanding calls the highest possible existence. When this is so…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Kabir is.
So, when any impression comes on the _chitta_, or “mind stuff,” it vibrates a little. This state of the mind is called the _manas_. Then comes the reaction, the will. There is another thing behind this will which accompanies all the acts of the mind, which is called egoism, the _ahamkâra_, the self-consciousness, which says “I am,” and behind that is what is called _Buddhi_, the intellect, the highest form of…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Kabir is.
Philosophers who discussed Kabir
Related ideas
- Ātman (Hinduism)
- Hinduism
- Hindus
- India
- Wendy Doniger
- Bhakti
- Bhakti movement
- Adi Shankara
- Mumbai
- Monism
- South Asia
- Poetry
- Uttar Pradesh
- Guru Nanak
- Brahmin
- Poet
- Sikhism
- Mysticism
- Syncretism
- Advaita Vedanta
- Theism
- Sant Mat
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Guru Granth Sahib
Place in the tradition
Part of Timeline of Eastern philosophers.