Podcast: Who Was Kabir? Kabir's Treasure of Spiritual Wisdom
Guru Kabir is considered to be one of the primary founding masters of Sant Mat spirituality, the Sant tradition. Kabir is also the "Rumi" of India, a wonderful bhakti poet-mystic and lover of the Beloved Lord of the Soul, the Ocean of Love.
Sant Kabir lived during the fifteenth century, raised near Banaras by Muslim parents. He was a weaver, a simple and unlettered man, who earned his living at the loom. It is out of the heart of the common life that he sings his rapturous lyrics of Divine love.
“Kabir” is an Islamic name popular in the Muslim world — it’s one of the “Ninety-Nine Names of Allah” found in the Koran, meaning, “The Greatest”.
Today, Kabir has over twenty-five million devotees in various Kabir Panth and Sant lineages, and is loved by Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, Christians, and Muslims alike. Kabir’s hymns are still sung in the satsangs of various paths all over India and around the world.
Everyone’s Universal Saint, Kabir was:
- a Master or Sant Sat Guru of Surat Shabd Yoga, a founding Guru of Sant Mat and Kabir Panths;
- a musician and poet of Nirguna Bhakti (love and devotion for the One Beloved Formless God);
- a great teacher of Eastern Gnosis (Gnosticism or mysticism);
- peace maker between Hindus and Muslims;
- a social reformer in India who denounced the caste system;
- thought of by many in Islam to be a Sufi Master or Murshid;
- believed by Hindus to be one of the greatest poet-mystics and Vaishnava devotees in the history of India;
- considered a Bhagat by the Sikhs — many of his hymns are included in the Adi Granth (Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scriptures);
- influenced by Goraknath and the Nath Yogis, and the Nath Yogis of northern India were, in turn, influenced by Tantric Buddhism;
- Kabir’s spirituality is a blend of Prem and Bhakti: love and devotion for the Beloved Lord, the One God (Ek Ongkaar), and mystical, soul travel experiences of a visionary and auditory nature (Inner Light and Sound Meditation, Surat Shabd Yoga).
All for the love of wisdom, radio, and podcasts,
James Bean
Spiritual Awakening Radio
Who Was Kabir? Kabir's Treasure of Spiritual Wisdom