Kabir Das Biography 
Kabir Das was a mystic poet and saint of India who was equally admired by Hindus as well as Muslims. His writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement. Kabir Panth recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects with followers around 9,600,000. They are known as Kabir Panthis. His noted works are Bijak, Sakhi Granth, Kabir Granthawali and Anurag Sagar. He believed in the fundamental principle of one god. His works are best reflections of spirituality. His two line couplets, known as the 'Kabir ke Dohe' with deep philosophical meanings are quite popular even now. Kabir’s poems are available in different dialects in market right now.
Kabir was born to a Brahmin widow at Lahartara near Kashi. He was brought up by a poor Muslim weaver family, Niru and Nima. Kabir became the disciple of Ramananda and when he was 13 years old, his guru passed away. Kabir was not a saint who kept away from family life. Instead Kabir chose to live the balanced life of a householder and mystic man. His family lived in the locality of Kabir Chaura in Varanasi. Kabir's legends describe his victory in trials by a Sultan, a Brahmin, a Qazi, a merchant and god. He protested against social discrimination and economic exploitation.
Bijak is regarded as the greatest of all his works which preaches an idea of the fundamental one. He has equally accepted the good and criticized the bad concepts of both the religions. He was a believer of Sahaja path. He believed in the Vedantic concept of atman and incarnation. He was against idol worship of Hindus and caste system, but believed both bhakti and Sufi ideas.
Kabir was illiterate. Hence his words were expressed orally in vernacular Hindi and have borrowed words from Avadhi, Braj and Bhojpuri derivations of Aryan language as well. Once he died there were arguments between Hindus and Muslims about religious rituals after that. It is a folk story that his body was converted to a bunch of flowers and as per his words, Muslims and Hindus took one part each.
Published: N/A
Updated: November 22, 2013
