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[1]From: Sukla Sen <suklasen@yahoo.com> Date: Mon Jun 20, 2005 Subject: Let's Remember Kabir - The People's Bard Date sent: 20 Jun 2005 12:33:17 -0000 From: "Gail Omvedt" <gailomvedt@...> There's a suggestion from some friends here that June 22, supposedly Kabir's birthday, be celebrated as anti-communal day. I'm attaching some of my recent translation attempts, many of them based on Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh's translation of Bijak. The most imp. ones for anti-communalism are Shubd 4 and 97, gail "Time will submit to slavery from illusion's bonds we'll be free everyone will be powerful and prosperous -- Brahman, Ksatriya, Vaishya, Shudra and Chandala all have rights women, children, male and female and even prostitutes" --Tuka (Tukaram), 17th cent. Marathi Sant of India Gail Omvedt Kasegao District Sangli India 415404 ------------------------------------------------------------ KABIR Saints, I see the world is mad. If I tell the truth they rush to beat me, but the world believes a lie. Parading their rules, showing their religion, they take their morning baths killing souls, worshipping rocks, they know nothing of the truth. I??™ve seen so many pirs and auliyas, reading the Koran and such, and teaching their students tricks, they also don??™t know much. And yogis seated with their show, hearts bursting with their pride praying to brass, to stones, parading their pilgrimage, putting on rosaries and hats, caste marks on foreheads, braying their sakhis and sabdas, never knowing the self. The Hindu says it??™s Ram I love, the Turk says Rahiman, they fight each other, kill and die, the secret??™s never won. >From house to house they mouth their spells, puffed up with their pride; along with their gurus pupils drown, repenting in the end. Kabir says, listen to me, O sants, it??™s all a gaudy mess, whatever I say no one agrees, find it in naturalness (Shabd #4) ---------------------- Sants, the Brahmans are expert butchers, Killing goats and buffalos, no fear in their mind, Baths and tilak to worship the goddess, rituals so refined. Killing souls without a pause, rivers of blood flow down. They??™re ultra-pure, with high caste claims, say ???all authority is mine.??? All want to be their disciples, brother, it makes me laugh! They recite stories to end all sins, their actions are so low. I see all this before my eyes, it??™s Yama??™s illusion I find. Turks, they say, are killers of cows; they??™re worse than all I find. Says Kabir, listen O Sants, the Kaliyuga??™s full of Brahmans??™ lies (Shabd 11). --------------------- Sants, they??™re drunk and tipsy, They??™ve drank the cups of the nectar of love in holy company. Mixing above and below, they??™ve made a burning distillery, Blocking the flow of karma from lust, so juice unending can flow. Gorakh, Datta, Vasishtha, Vyas, Kapi, Narad, Shuk Mani and all, Sit tight with Shambhu, Sanak and friends, passing the liquor bowl. Ambarish, Yagna, Janak and Jara, Shesh with thousand mouths gaping, Count them, they??™re countless millions, householders and renouncers raving. Dhruv, Prahlad, Vibhishan are drunk, drunk is Ram??™s Shabri, The formless Brahman is drunk in Vrindavan, intoxicated lust you see, Sages, munis, pirs and Sufis, those who drink may know, Says Kabir, the sugar of idiots, who can describe it so? (Shabd 12) -------------------------- Pandit, look in your heart to know. Tell me how untouchability was born ??“ untouchability is what you made so. Mix red juice, white juice and air ??“ a body bakes in a body. As soon as eight lotuses are ready it comes into the world. Then how is untouchability born? Eighty-four hundred thousand pots all fall into the dust, the potter slaps clay on the wheel, removes each with a touch. We eat by touching, we wash by touching, from a touch the world was born. Says Kabir, only he??™s untouched who has no link with Maya (Shabd 41). ------------------ Pandit, search and explain to me how to annihilate change, Wealth and religion, love, liberation, in which direction do they range? North or south, east or west, in heaven or below, If it??™s said no place is without Gopal, where will hell itself go? Heaven and hell are for those who don??™t know, not for knowers of Hari, All the terrors that people fear, can never frighten me. I have no worry about merit or sin, heaven or hell is the same, Says Kabir, listen O Sants, the way??™s open all the time (Shabd 42) ---------------------- Pandit, your thinking??™s a sham, there??™s no creation, nor creator, Tangible, intangible, pure nor impure, sun nor moon, no earth or water, No form of light, no place or time, no word and no flesh are there. Neither works nor faith are there, no worshipping or chants, Sacred texts have no value there, is it double or alone? Nothing like Gorak or Ram is there, nor any thought of the Ved, There is no Brahma, Hari, Shiv or Shakti, no actions of pilgrimage, Where there??™s no mother, father or guru, can we say it??™s two or one? Says Kabir, if now you understand, you??™re guru, I??™m at your command (Shabd 43) ----------------------- Allah-Ram, the creatures are like you, Be gracious, Lord, to them. Why bump that shaven head on the earth, why dunk those bones in water? Parading as a holy man, you hide yourself, and slaughter. Why wash your hands and mouth, why chant with heart of fraud? Why bow and bow in the mosque, and trudge to Mecca to see God? Twenty-four days for the Hindus, thirty days for the Turks ??“ a month each for fasting, eleven for other works. Does Khuda live in the mosque? Then who lives everywhere? Is Ram in idols and holy ground? Have you looked and found him there? Hari in the East, Allah in the west ??“ so you like to dream, search in the heart, in the heart alone: there live Ram and Karim! Which has lies, Koran or Veda? They who do not think are the lie; All beings are one and equal, divide them and they die. Every man and woman born, are forms of you, so says Kabir. I??™m Ram-and-Allah??™s foolish baby, he??™s my guru and my pir (Shabd 97) -------------------- Come, O come, in the name of my Hari, what have you to do with other things? Where were Eve and Adam then, where the prophets and holy men? Where was the earth, where the sky, where did the Veda and Koran lie? In which world was a masjid built? false is the fast, false is Id! The truth is one, just Allah??™s name, for whom you do so many salaams, He who told you to use a knife, how did he come from paradise? A false creator they conjure, to go on making Hindu and Turk, Says Kabir, these cults and castes are not, like day and night, from God (Shabd 98) ------------------------- People, you are simple-minded! As water enters water, so Kabir will meet with dust. ???That Maithili pandit said you??™d die near Magahar. What a terrible place to be dead! If you want Ram to take you away, die somewhere else instead. Who dies at Magahar becomes an ass!??? So much for your faith in Ram. Kashi and Magahar are barren land if in your heart is Ram. If Kabir should die in Kasi, what is left for Ram? (Shabd 103) ------------------------- This is the big fight, Raja Ram he who solves it is free of bonds ??“ Is Brahma great or where he came from? are the Vedas great or who gave birth to them? is this mind great or what it believes in? is Ram greater or the knower of Ram? Kabir wanders the world detached, is the holy place great, or the devotee? (Shabd 112) ---------------------------- People find lies believable, listen O good Sants, In your own body the bandit sits, don??™t fall into his snare, >From the earth up to the sky, lies are spread out everywhere. In all directions the net is found, engulfing the self xxxx Yoga, chants, austerities, pilgrimages, vows and gifts, Bhakti, the Vedas and Koran, are arrows of this snare. They say they can give you blessings, magicians is what they are, They keep boasting of glory vast, Hindu, Turk and all high castes. They talk of the heavens above, within the limits fixed, They guard their interests well, without water they are drowned. Who should I tell, says Kabir, the whole world is blind, People run away from truth, but are bound to the lie (Shabd 113) ------------------------ ???That art thou??? is what they preach; this is what the Upanisads teach. They are so stubborn on this theme, they propagate to all around. This their supreme assumption, honoured by Sanak, Narad and Shukra. Yagnavalkya discussed it with Janak, Dattatraya found it inspiration, The same was discussed by Vasisth and Ram, the same bluff Krishna taught to Arjun. The same was taken up madly by Janak, called bodiless while in the body. Break the bounds of tradition??™s chains, don??™t die while alive, If you can??™t see what??™s before your eyes, you??™re as good as blind (Ramaini 8) ----------------------- Great is the evil of his ego this heretic harasses all the people. He harassed king Bali in the form of Waman, When is good ever done by this Brahman? The Brahman made the Ved and Puran, which keep us from knowing ourselves as human. >From one came the cult of Brahman, from another came cowherd Krishna, >From one came the sect of Shiva, from another ghosts and demons. >From one came Jain meditation, from another namaaz??™ prostration. Whatever is said moves them never, but a lord that is false is known to Kabir. Keep your mind, speech and body pure, the truth is Kabir??™s, his words are true. You are the god, you are the blossom, you are the lineage and you are the caste. All beings living in the world, you are the master, you are the bliss. This has been said for all the four ages, how will I keep proclaiming it then? No one honours the truth itself, all run after the lie, the liars all gather together in crowds, the innocent eat dirt and die (Ramaini 14). ------------------------------- The pandit drowned himself in the Vedas, missed the mystery of his own self. Worship, libations, six sacred rites, this dharma??™s full of ritual blights. Four ages teaching Gayatri, I ask you, who won liberty? You wash your body if you touch another, tell me who could be lower than you? Proud of your merit, puffed up with your rights, no good comes out of such great pride How could he whose very name is pride-destroyer endure the same? Drop the limits of caste and clan, seek for freedom??™s space, destroy the shoot, destroy the seed, seek the unembodied place. (Ramaini 35) --------------------- There are many differences in words, find the essence word, Says Kabir, where the essence is not in words, human life??™s in vain (Sakhi 5) The word hit ??“ one fell down, another left his realm, Whoever can discern the word, has achieved his end (Sakhi 6) Kabir puts on a gown of love and dances in the world, They shine with beauty who speak the truth with body and with mind (Sakhi 58). Truth is better than all else, keep truth in your heart, There is no joy without the truth, no efforts can impart (Sakhi 64) Those who can??™t control their tongues, have no truth in their heart, keep no company with them, on the way they??™ll step apart (Sakhi 83) As a monkey to his handler, so life is to the mind, In various ways he lets it dance, but keeps it to command (Sakhi 95) Human birth is very rare, it comes but once to men, Once the fruit falls from the tree, it can??™t grow again (Sakhi 115) (see the Tamil Siddha poem by Civavakiyyar: ???Milk does not return to the udder, Likewise butter can never become butter-milk; The sound of the conch does not exist once it is broken; The blown flower, the fallen fruit do not go back to the tree; The dead are never born again, never!??? (cited Kailasapathy, 1987: 401). If I say it??™s one it is not so, if two it??™s not right, As it is so it is, Kabir says thoughtfully (Sakhi 120). If you don??™t know your destination, you??™re sure to go astray, Thorns will pierce you as you go, you??™ll never find the way (Sakhi 206) Three men went on a pilgrimage, a waverer, a thief, a fraud, They could not purge a single sin, but multiplied their load. Almost all the pilgrimages drowned, swimming in water cold, Says Kabir, hear me O Sants, demonic will be their end. The poisonous talk of pilgrimage, has grown from age to age, Kabir yanks it by the roots, lest men eat of it and die (Sakhi 214-216) Gold, sadhus and good men, join easily after a break, The wicked and the earthen pot shatter with one blow (Sakhi 225) They sell themselves to other men, I explain but they won??™t understand, Though I try to draw them to me, they walk on to death??™s land (Sakhi 233) The truthful are not hurt by curses, nor engulfed by time, The one who walks from truth to truth will never be destroyed (Sakhi 308). Kabir speaks dohas every day, at the decided time, Those who die will not come back, they??™ll not return again (Sakhi 320) There is no evil like a lie, no power like what??™s true, The heart that holds the truth within, that heart is filled with you (Sakhi 334). DOHAS (numbers from Das) A donkey??™s better than a baman, a dog beats other castes A cock is better than a mullah to tell us night is past (#180). Water never stays on heights, it flows to lower ground The lowly drink it to the fill; on high their thirst abounds (#85). All are born as human beings, this is known by all Sudras are made by lying rogues: this is Kabir??™s call (#167) The lineage of Kabir has drowned; I gave birth to Kamal, Not keeping Hari in his heart, he sought for gold and fell (#176) _______________________________________________ |
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June22, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net]More on Split in the Brigade >> |
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