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Gurus Life Sketches Of The Gurus And Bhagats: Bhagat Kabir Ji

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Each week SPN would like to post an event in the life of one of our Gurus or Bhagats. The thread is a place for comments, reflections and discussions: a place to learn more about the values of Sikhi and the moral and ethical insights of the Guru Sahibhan, bhagats and sants whose bani is part of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.


We start with Bhagat Kabir and his life and times in Benares

Saint Kabir Das (kabir, Arabic for "great", dasa, Sanskrit for "slave" or "servant"), is widely acknowledged as one of the great personality of the Bhakti movement in North India. He was as is widely acknowledged born in Year 1398 A.D.(71 years before Guru Nanak). ...

Kabir's life was centred around Kashi, also called Banaras (Varanasi) Legend has it that he was actually the son of a Brahmin widow who abandoned him and that he was found by a Muslim weaver named Niru, who adopted the boy and taught him the weaver's trade. It is not clear whether he ever married, but tradition gives him a wife named Loi and two children. ...

From the writings of Kabir it seems that his knowledge of Islam was slight, rather in his poetical utterances (Bani) a wealth of Hathayoga terminology and a thought structure which bears obvious resemblance to Nath Yogis. Nath Yogis in addition to the yogic conception that all truth is experimental, i.e. to be realized within the body with the aid of psycho-physical practices, concentration, control of breathing and thus making the body incorruptible and the yogis immortal.

...Tradition tells us that Swami Ramanand was his Guru (a teacher).

In fifteenth century, Benaras was the seat of Brahmin orthodoxy and their learning center. Brahmins had strong hold on all the spheres of life in this city. Thus Kabir belonging to a low caste of Julaha had to go through immense tough time of preaching his idealogy. Kabir and his followers would gather at one place in the city and meditate. Brahmins ridiculed him for preaching to prostitutes and other low castes. Kabir satirically denounced Brahmins and thus won hearts of people around him. ...

Kabir through his couplets not only reformed the mindset of common villagers and low caste people but give them self confidence to question Brahmins. ...

Kabir was in fact first person to go against Brahmins and be so successfull. Benaras was devasted by an attack by a Muslim invader Tamur Lang or "Tamur the lame" during his time. Kabir also denounced mullahs and their rituals of bowing towards kaba five times a day. Because of open condemnation of established and popular religoins, Kabir became an object of the wrath of both Hindus and Muslims in and around Benaras. Kabir travelled in and around Benaras to preach his beliefs.

http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/events/kabir.html

If you would like to add a life sketch to this thread, do not post the entire biography. Pick a sakkhi or an event that makes a point. The thread is open.
 

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