Data de nascimento: 1440
Data de falecimento: 1518
Outros nomes:ڀڳت ڪبير
Kabir foi um dos grandes poetas místicos ou santos-poetas da Índia medieval, tendo composto poemas que evidenciam a fusão entre o movimento de bhakti hindu e o sufismo muçulmano, movimentos religiosos que exercem profunda influência cultural em todo o mundo até os nossos dias.
Kabir nasceu numa família de brâmanes hindus e foi mais tarde adotado por muçulmanos, no norte da índia, perto de Varanasi. Ainda jovem tornou-se discípulo Ramananda, que no norte da India difundia a doutrina de bhakti como promulgada por Ramanuja no sul do sub-continente, no século XII.
Kabir foi contemporâneo de outros protagonistas famosos do movimento de bhakti da Índia medieval, tais como Mirabai, Caitanya, Tulsidas e Guru Nanak, o principal preceptor dos sikhs.
— Kabir
I am not a Hindu, / Nor a Muslim am I! / I am this body, a play / Of five elements; a drama / Of the spirit dancing / With joy and sorrow.
poema de Kabir, citado em "Reading About the World", Vol. 2 ISBN 0-8281-0849-8
— Kabir
Context: They call Him Emptiness who is the Truth of truths, in Whom all truths are stored!
There within Him creation goes forward, which is beyond all philosophy; for philosophy cannot attain to Him: There is an endless world, O my Brother! and there is the Nameless Being, of whom naught can be said.
Only he knows it who has reached that region: it is other than all that is heard and said.
No form, no body, no length, no breadth is seen there: how can I tell you that which it is?
— Kabir
Variant translation: Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath
As translated by Stephen Mitchell in The Enlightened Heart (1993)
— Kabir
Context: It is needless to ask of a saint the caste to which he belongs;
For the priest, the warrior. the tradesman, and all the thirty-six castes, alike are seeking for God.
It is but folly to ask what the caste of a saint may be;
The barber has sought God, the washerwoman, and the carpenter —
Even Raidas was a seeker after God.
— Kabir
Context: O friend! hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live, understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides.
If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliverance in death?
It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with Him because it has passed from the body:
If He is found now, He is found then,
If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death.
If you have union now, you shall have it hereafter.
— Kabir
Context: Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive preachers, when critically examined, turn out to be false.
Sakhi, 168; translation by Yashwant K. Malaiya based on that of Puran Sahib.
— Kabir
Context: Do not go to the garden of flowers!
O Friend! go not there;
In your body is the garden of flowers.
Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty.
— Kabir
Context: Open your eyes of love, and see Him who pervades this world! consider it well, and know that this is your own country.
— Kabir
Context: O servant, where dost thou seek Me?
Lo! I am beside thee.
I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash:
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation.
If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me: thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time.
Variant translation: Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly —
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
As paraphrased by Robert Bly in The Kabir Book (1977)
— Kabir
Context: He comes to the Path of the Infinite on whom the grace of the Lord descends: he is freed from births and deaths who attains to Him.
Kabîr says: "It cannot be told by the words of the mouth, it cannot be written on paper: It is like a dumb person who tastes a sweet thing — how shall it be explained?"
— Kabir
Context: They call Him Emptiness who is the Truth of truths, in Whom all truths are stored!
There within Him creation goes forward, which is beyond all philosophy; for philosophy cannot attain to Him: There is an endless world, O my Brother! and there is the Nameless Being, of whom naught can be said.
Only he knows it who has reached that region: it is other than all that is heard and said.
No form, no body, no length, no breadth is seen there: how can I tell you that which it is?
