Mystic Mantra: Kabir – Christ of the East!
The writer,editor of Osho World, is the author of Mindfulness:The Master Key
Published: Jun 29, 2018, in the Asian Age
Kabir introduced ulatbaansis (upside-down verse) to express the inexpressible just like Zen Koans.
Note: Reading about Saint Kabir by great souls, thinkers and visionaries like Tagore, Osho and Kabir himself, one is simply and unknowingly transported into a third heaven to enjoy what is called beatific vision dreamt of by all the spiritually minded, but not possible for the rest, on this parched earth where organized religions fight to conquer.
Osho calls Kabir the Christ of the East. Why East? May be Francis of Assisi is already known in the west as the Second Christ. Osho finds other similarities. While Kabir was a poor weaver, illiterate and without any schooling, Jesus was the son of a carpenter and was not known to have had good schooling either. “Is he not the carpenter’s son?” implied the insult of being illiterate.
God in you, in neighbour
But both Kabir and Jesus had the identical vision of seeking God and serving him: not in the temple, mosque, Kaaba, Kailash or churches and cathedrals, nor in rituals and ceremonies of three-fold Rites in India, nor in Yoga or renunciation but in your needy neighbour. Tagore also has written similar touching passages.
Yes you don’t have to go far to seek your God. He is the one rubbing shoulder with you but hungry, thirsty, sick, lonely, homeless or in prisons; “when you have done to these little ones you have done it to me”. So don’t waste time building 50 crore Rupees churches of concrete wonders or service stations called “Medical colleges” to dispense super specialty varieties.
God commercialized
Today God and religions are made into most attractive commercial products sold to the biggest bidder and publicized by big business gurus. Their God is the God of money. Any number of fake divines and God men are regularly caught nacked and ridiculed. It is against the onslaught of their exploiting propaganda that simple credulous God believing people have to be enlightened, educated, immunized and protected.
The easiest and nearest person to meet is God, if there is a God. We are with him, in him and through him or he is within us in the temple of our hearts. To the hungry he appears as bread, to the sick as medicine because he is mercy and goodness unlimited, a prodigal Father. If that doesn’t happen, bury the concept the God you have and be an atheist. But act like the God of your conception to everyone you can help, imitating, Kabir, St.Francis, Narayana Guru, Vivekananda, Tagore etc
Fight all Organized Religions
Fight tooth and nail against all organized religions, big money business. Organized religions are for organizers, just as political parties are for the bosses who call the shots. Whether you are rich or poor, try to live a life of high thinking and simple living like Gandhiji, the naked Fakir until the whole of India, especially the Dalits are properly clothed. You have to be a good Samaritan with Godly help to the wounded you find on your way. When you are the fallen and robbed on the road, that Good Samaritan God will appear to take care of you. james kottoor, editor ccv.
Saint Kabir is one of the greatest mystics who brought an authentic spiritual revolution in the collective psyche of a large number of people who were either atheists or belonging to the traditional religions.
And he did it in such a wonderful way — with his unique bhajans in simple Hindi language. The whole world must feel grateful to mystic poet Rabindranath Tagore for translating these songs into English. In the introduction to a collection of one hundred such songs, Kabir is given a befitting tribute: Kabir belongs to that small group of supreme mystics amongst whom St. Augustine, Ruysbroeck and Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi are perhaps the chief who have achieved that which we might call the synthetic vision of God.
Modern enlightened mystic Osho has also given hundreds of profound discourses on Kabir and one of the series is titled: The Revolution. Osho says: Kabir is a harbinger, a herald of the future, the first flower that heralds the spring. He is one of the greatest poets of religion. He is not a theologian; he does not belong to any religion. All religions belong to him, but he is vast enough to contain all. No particular religion defines him. He is a Hindu and a Muslim and a Christian and a Jain and a Buddhist. He’s a great beauty, a great poetry and a great orchestra.
Though Kabir was an illiterate, without any schooling, a poor weaver — unlike Buddha, Mahavira, Ram and Krishna — yet he could transform the lives of millions of people. He liberated them from the bondage of superstitions. He was truly a rebellious spirit. Osho describes Kabir as the Christ of the East. Christ was the son of a carpenter and speaks in the same revolutionary way as Kabir. Both have great similarities. They belong to the same earth, they are very earthy, but both have great insights.
Kabir awakens the consciousness of people who want to seek God and offers them a song: Moko Kahaan Dhoondhe Re Bande. 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.
Kabir introduced ulatbaansis (upside-down verse) to express the inexpressible just like Zen Koans. Apparently, these ulatbaansis are not something logical. They destroy the ordinary logic and take us to the mystical realm. Kabir declares: “I was wonderstruck when I saw the ocean on fire!” How can the ocean ever catch fire? If water can catch fire, then there cannot be anything like science in the world. And then Kabir says: “I have seen another miracle: the fish left the ocean and climbed up a tree.”
Such things do happen in the spiritual realm beyond mind. Kabir describes it as unmani avastha — a transcendental space beyond mind.
