In India, Kabir Jayanti or Kabir Prakat Diwas, is celebrated as his birth anniversary (24th June, 2021) to remember the great social reformist, devotional poet and mystic saint of India. His poems, songs and couplets are in vernacular dialect advocating the realisation of oneness in God through devotional path. His work and messages have influenced Sikhism a great deal and been incorporated in the holy scripture of Shri Guru Granth Sahib.
Sant Kabir- one of the limelight of the Bhakti Movement as an abandoned child, he was brought up in a family of Muslim weavers Niru and his wife, Nima at Lehartara, situated in Varanasi. As he grew up, he observed and got moved by the futility of blind faith and rampant social inequity in various communities.
Young Kabir took to the weaver's trade as a vocation with devotional zeal. He had great spiritual leanings right from an early age and was against the ritualistic aspects of various religions. He spurned the prevalent societal caste system and idol worship and subscribed for bhakti and Sufi ideas, wrote this blogger in merinews.com portal.
According to the blogger, Kabir’s spiritual message can be summed as two tenets as follows: Life is interplay of personal soul (Jivatma) and God (Paramatma). Salvation is the process of union of Jivatma with Paramatma. His poetic work elucidates universal view of spirituality while vehemently opposing rituals and dogmas, both in Hinduism and in Islam.
Here are a few haiku based on the teachings of Sant Kabir.
To attain Godhead,
To attain the salvation
Surrender to God
~*~
Purity of heart
And unflinching devotion
Are pre-conditions
~*~
Total submission -
No rituals, no rites needed -
To attain Godhood
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