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| Painting showing Kabir working on his loom. |
-Brian Mendonca
ऐसी वाणी बोलिए मन का आप खोये।
औरन को शीतल करे, आपहुं शीतल होए।
Today is the birth anniversary of Kabir - the saint-poet of India who lived in the fifteenth century. Kabir (1440-1518) was brought up by a Muslim weaver. His dohe (couplets) distill the essence of right living and can be compared to Epictetus (though not so wordy).
But how was one to mediate Kabir to students? It seemed an uphill task. But I was determined to try. Surfing the net I found Kabir's dohe transliterated with an English translation. This was a boon to break the language barrier. I thought I would share my screen and ask students to read the couplets to get a feel of Kabir's verse. I knew I was in unchartered waters.
From the moment I heard the FM Delhi announcer inform her listeners of the significance of the day this morning on my way to work - she even rattled off some dohe - I decided that Kabir would be my topic for my undergraduate class.
It was like living in two worlds. Delhi FM (102.6 Megahertz) on my way to work in the crisp morning, recalled my past in Delhi and my travels in spaces inhabited by Kabir like Kashi (Benaras), where he was born. It presented a swirl of North India which seemed a bit surreal as I negotiated the cows at Nuvem, Goa.
The students warmed up to the exercise. With each doha they read in the online class, the more confident they became. They were uplifted by the poetry. It was amazing to hear them interpret his terse lines:
बड़ा भया तो क्या भया, जैसे पेड़ खजूर।
पंथी को छाया नहीं फल लागे अति दूर।
The sense distilled by the student for the couplet above was so apt. Of what use is it to have stature when you cannot help those in need? Be not like the date tree which offers not shade and its seed remains high.
In the couplet quoted at the top, the student liked the advice of Kabirji when he counsels one to speak sweetly so that the listener is lost in your words. Such a practice brings happiness to others and makes you happy as well.
माटी कहे कुमार से, तू क्या रोंदे मोहे।
एक दिन ऐसा आएगा, मैं रोंदुंगी तोहे।
In perhaps his more well-known doha above, Kabirji writes 'The earth tells the potter, what will you fashion me into? A day will come when I will knead you in the dust.' This was one of the first couplets I heard of Kabir in my younger days.
Instilling a strong work ethic, Kabirji says:
काल करे सो आज कर, आज करे सो अब।
पल में परलय होएगी, बहुरि करेगा कब।
[What you planned to do tomorrow, do today; what you planned to do today, do now. For if the tide turns, when will you complete your work?]
Always an iconoclast, Kabir, in the last years of his life left Kashi - worn out by its rituals - and opted to stay in a non-descript place on its periphery. It was believed that anyone who dies there would be consigned to the netherworld to atone for their sins (
narak). Undeterred, it was there that Kabir chose to leave this world. When he died the Hindus and the Muslims claimed him as their own. The legend goes that when they removed the cloth (
chaddar) covering his body, all they found were flowers which they divided among themselves.To this day there stands in
Maghar a samadhi and a mausoleum in his memory.
पोथी पढ़ पढ़ जग मुआ, पंडित भया न कोय।
ढाई आखर प्रेम का, पढ़े सो पंडित होय।
[By studying big tomes (books) one does not become learned or holy. True holiness resides in understanding just the two syllables of love.] Kabir spoke the language of humanism. He extolled simplicity with an absolute trust in the divine.
साईं इतना दीजिये, जामे कुटुंब समाये ।
मैं भी भूखा न रहूँ, साधू न भूखा जाए ।
[O Lord give me just that much, with which to take care of my family. Just that much so I should neither starve nor allow a person to leave my door hungry.]
Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and Mirabai (1498-1547) met Kabir in his lifetime. It was a time of a resurgence of reform through vernacular poetry across India.*
I ended by playing Kabir's
dohe set to music on YouTube with the couplets appearing in Hindi on the screen. I was delighted when many of the same couplets on the poetry site above were featured.
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Quotations from hindisahityadarpan(dot)in; picture courtesy forwardpress(dot)in. *See A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement by John Stratton Hawley. Harvard UP, 2015. Updated 27 June 2021.
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