KABIR: TOWARDS A CULTURE OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

Transcription

1 198 Dr. ISSN Dharam Singh Oct., 2003 Jan. 2003, Vol. 3/II-III KABIR: TOWARDS A CULTURE OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM Dr. Dharam Singh Though globalization of religion and pluralistic culture are more recent terms, the human desire for an inter-faith culture of coexistence and the phenomenon of inter-faith encounters and dialogues are not entirely new. In the medieval Indian scenario we come across many such encounters taking place between holy men of different and sometimes mutually opposite religious traditions. Man being a social creature by nature cannot remain aloof from or indifferent to what others around him believe in, think and do. In fact, to bring about mutual understanding among people of diverse faiths, it becomes necessary that we learn to develop appreciation and sympathy for the faith of the others. The medieval Indian socio-religious scene was dominated by Hinduism and Islam. Hinduism has been one of the oldest religions of Indian origin and its adherents in India then, as even today, constituted the largest majority. On the other hand, Islam being of Semitic origin was alien to India until the first half of the 7th century when the first contacts between India and the Muslim world were established in the South because of the ageold trade between Arabia and India. 1 However, soon these traders tuned invaders when Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni led a long chain of invasions on India and molestation of Indian populace. To begin with, they came as invaders, plundered the country-side and went back, but soon they settled as rulers. Muhammad Gauri who came a century and a half after Sultan Mahmud began to occupy territory and after his death in 1206 one of his former Oct., 2002 Jan. 2003

2 Kabir: Towards a Culture of Religious Pluralism 199 slaves Qutb-ud-din Aibak founder of the Muslim kingdom of Delhi. Thus, it was the time when Islam and Hinduism happened to be the two dominant religious traditions in India. Doctrinally, there was not much affinity between the two, rather they stood diagonally opposed to each other at certain points. Socially, they had little interaction and sympathy with each other. Hinduism was polytheistic and idolatrous, believed in Divine Incarnation and transmigration of soul. It considered the manifest world maya or unreal, worldly life a hindrance on the way to spiritual enlightenment, recommended sannyas or renunciation as the final goal of secular life. It was this other-worldly attitude adopted by Hinduism and the Indian sramanic traditions which resulted in moral degeneration in society and ultimate political subjugation of India. It tried to provide divine sanction to the idea of inherent inequality of mankind. Only the Brahmins could perform certain religious duties. Womankind was not given equal status with man. The Vedas were given the scriptural status and in stead of adherence to the teachings therein mere belief in them and/or observance of certain rites and rituals had come to be considered enough for one s spiritual sanctification. On the other hand, Islam was strictly monotheistic: Allah had no co-equal or co-eternal. It outrightly rejected the idea of Divine incarnation and idolatry. Although it retained duality between Creator and the creation in the sense that He creates but does not permeate the creation, still this manifest world was not considered maya and it did not recommend the other-worldly attitude. It did not accept any inherent inequality among humans on the basis of one s birth in a particular family. The Quran has been its scripture and every Muslim s total commitment and adherence to it is expected. The Muslim rulers in India, however, were not true to their faith as it can be in the case of any other ruler. They had to act many a time expediently to safeguard the interests of the Throne. Certain sects among the Muslims also supported fanaticism and to them all those who did not believe Global Religious Vision, Vol. 3/II-III

3 200 Dr. Dharam Singh in the Quran were infidels. The latter were required to be converted to Islam, even with force. This attitude of religious intolerance was not conducive to the proper growth of society. However, around the 14th century, we perceive the desire for religious co-existence trying to assert itself as against the prevailing culture of distrust and disharmony, of religious intolerance and socio-political oppression. On the one hand, certain Hindu Bhaktas like Ramananda and Kabir raised their banner of revolt against the orthodoxy of religion. It is difficult to say whether the Muslim presence, the presence of a religion different from and at certain points opposite to Hinduism encouraged this trend or it was a natural reaction to a given historical situation or it was part of a world-wide phenomenon of upward social status of the son. However, this protest especially Kabir s satires against both Islam and Hinduism go beyond attacks on the hypocrisy of their external rites and suggest that he was attempting to stake out an ideological position basically different from both. The new religious weltanschauung they tried to evolve had a universal appeal, was more a way of life than being a set of some arid and lifeless ritual. On the other hand, the Muslim missionaries and Sufis who preached in the Indian countryside presented to masses a somewhat liberal view of Islam. Unlike some of the Muslim rulers who tried forcible conversion these holy men gave out the message of love. A positive outcome of both these currents was the implicit stepping down by Hinduism and Islam from their respective citedals of orthodoxy to find out a few meeting points, notwithstanding the doctrinal differences between the two traditions they represented. The ensuing interaction between the two gave a new dimension to the religious life of the country, taking religion as something above the sectarian level. Consequently, the holy men coming from both the Hindu and Muslim traditions attracted mixed following coming from both the traditions. Thus Kabir s age was ripening for a great spiritual movement through the approach of the higher thought and practice Oct., 2002 Jan. 2003

4 Kabir: Towards a Culture of Religious Pluralism 201 of Hinduism and Islam... The first serious effort towards mutual appreciation and sympathy was made by the greatest of Indian mysties, Kabir, says Carpenter. 2 All this helped in the creation of an environment in which one could think of the universality of the essential values of religion, religious pluralism, spiritual unity and ethnical equality of mankind, universal Fatherhood of God and universal brotherhood of man. Kabir was born probably to Hindu parents and brought up by a Muslim couple. There are however a few scholars who consider him Muslim by birth and also associate him with the Sufi order. According to this school, he later on joined Ramananda s followers to break down the barriers between Moslems and Hindus. 3 Whatever be the truth about his birth, he kept himself throughout his life above denominations: he refused to call himself either a Hindu or a Muslim. Of course, he identifies himself with his profession as well as with what he thinks and believes in. At several places in his verses he makes reference to his profession of weaving. 4 In the Indian (Hindu) caste hierarchy, weaver s is a low caste; Kabir is not shy of this, and he refuses to consider himself inferior or lower than a Brahmin because mere birth in a particular family or caste does not raise or lower one s status. He makes himself clear when addressing a Brahmin in one of his hymns he says that the Brahmin cannot claim equality with him because the like of him depend on the Vedas and suffer in the process of transmigration whereas the like of Kabir swim across the worldocean as they recite the Name Divine. 5 Kabir consciously avoids denominating his religion. He calls himself the child of Allah and Ram: the same Real One is his Guru and Pir. He makes an unequivocal statement disowning both the pandit and the mulla h as well as whatever they have written. 6 In fact, he does not denounce either Hinduism or Islam or their scriptures, rather his complaint is that neither a Hindu nor a Muslim tries to comprehend and follow what is written in Global Religious Vision, Vol. 3/II-III

5 202 Dr. Dharam Singh their respective scriptures. 7 The Hindus believe in Rama and the Muslims in Allah whereas Kabir believes in the Real One who permeates through all places and beings. To him, no religious garb or denomination is important: what matters to him is man s inner purity and his constant mystical oneness with God. His Lord is neither in mosque nor in temple but in one s heart. Idolworship and wearing of janeu among Hindus are as futile as the Muslim practice of mere bowing to the West or circumcision unless they make their hearts pure of all duality and formalism. Kabir s decision not to identify himself with any particular creed was a conscious decision. On the one hand, he wanted to proclaim the spiritual unity of man, and all denominations of religion as of little consequence. On the other hand, he tried to pave way which both Hindus and Muslims could tread together. No doubt, he was influenced by two socio-religious currents yet he was far from being jumbled between the two, rather he tried to carve out his own way, a universal path above all sectarian levels. He was unlike the Hindu holy men who generally lived in forests or monasteries, went out naked, besmeared their bodies with ashes or matted their hair, and practised celibacy. He was also unlike most of the Sufi saints who lived in Khanqahs or even forests and also practised austerity and celibacy. Kabir, on the other hand, was a householder who earned his living by weaving cloth. According to him, family life was no hindrance in man s spiritual progress; what mattered was inner purity. With a view to creating an inter-religious culture in a pluralistic society that India was, Kabir tried to emphasize the unity of Reality as well. To him Ram and Rahim were one and the same: the different appellations of God have only been the expressions of one and the same truth. The Supreme Being is the creator of all and He at the same time permeates all. First of all, there was only Allah (God), then he created Light and from that Light is born the entire world, all humans. 8 Kabir denounced the Hindu practices of idolatry and polytheism and his concept of the unity of Reality is quite close to the Islamic concept of the Oct., 2002 Jan. 2003

6 Kabir: Towards a Culture of Religious Pluralism 203 oneness (tawhid) of God. There is none equal to Him. 9 Unlike the popular Vaisnavism, his God is nirgun with no anthropomorphic attributes. Had idol-worship been of use, he might have worshipped the mountain itself, says Kabir. In another hymn, Kabir calls the stone of Grind-mill better than the stoneidol because the former at least grinds wheat into flour for human consumption. He expresses his remorse at those who pluck the living flowers to be offered to the lifeless idol. God of Kabir s perception is also omnipresent and omnipotent. Kabir denounces those who claim that He resides only in mosque or temple: He is neither in the west nor confined to an idol, rather He dwells in each human heart and it is here that He has to be realized. 10 No doubt, Kabir most often uses the word Rama for God but his Rama is not the son of Dashratha or husband of Sita, but it is a synonym for God. In fact, by the time of Kabir the deification of Rama had already gone so far that his name had become a synonym for God. 11 We find the word similarly used by the Sikh Gurus also. After proclaiming the unity of Reality, Kabir goes on to stress the Universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of mankind. God not only creates every being but also manifests, qua spirit, Himself in all human forms. Thus, the fact that the True Lord permeates each human being (sabh mahi sacha eko soi) implies that both the Creator and the Creation are essentially one. This implicity provided a relatively ontological character to this manifest world, thereby setting a trend towards bringing about a balance between the two extreme attitudes of this worldliness and other-worldliness, life-negation and lifeaffirmation. However, inspite of this essential oneness of man. Kabir does acknowledge the apparent differences among beings. He gives the example of a potter, using the same clay to make utensils of different shapes and sizes (mati ek anek bhanti kari saji sajanharai and mati ek bhekh dhari nana). These apparent differences among humans belong only to the exterior: the differences in colour, language, dress and personal appearance Global Religious Vision, Vol. 3/II-III

7 204 Dr. Dharam Singh are the result of differences in the spatio-cultural background. However, within this varied exterior lies the same soul which Kabir refers to as Ram ki ansu or a Divine particle. Similarly, different religious denominations represent only the diverse ways leading to God realization because the same Lord permeates both the Hindus and the Muslims. It is also in this very vein that Guru Angad, the second spiritual preceptor of the Sikh faith, prays God to deliver or liberate man the [religious] way he can be. 12 Similarly, Kabir denounces the Hindu caste system especially the Brahmin s pride in his so-called high caste. In fact, Brahmanism had felt invigorated by its triumph over Buddhism and was asserting its authority over all. The priestcraft and sacredotalism dominated the Hindu religious scene. Kabir, however, rejected the Brahmin monopoly of matters spiritual as he found all humans made of the same clay. All beings are born of the same Light, and none can be called superior or inferior to the other. He taunts the Brahmin for taking pride in his caste because Brahmin is also born the way a Sudra is: to become a real Brahmin, one must have knowledge of Brahman. What make one superior or better than the other are his deeds. This philosophy of karma, if not allowed to stoop to karma-kand, can serve as the basis for bringing about a moral transformation in society. He is of the view that man must immerse in Rama and do good, noble deeds to become acceptable at the Divine Portal. This is akin to what the Sikh scripture has to say on the definition of the best dharma: the best of all religions is to remember nam and do noble deeds, says Guru Arjan. 13 The term sabda in religious literature has generally been used for the mystical utterance that conveys knowledge of the Unknown and leads one to ultimate union with God. Every religious tradition has its own scripture which is believed to contain the sabda. By the time of Kabir, the followers of these traditions had come to rely on the scriptures as such, without ever reflecting on the Word contained therein. To Kabir, sabda or Word is both a means to realize God and synonym for God Oct., 2002 Jan. 2003

8 Kabir: Towards a Culture of Religious Pluralism 205 like the wahyi of Islam and nam of Sikhism. He does not rely on either the Vedas or the Quran. At the same time, however, he does not denounce them as meaningless or useless. The fault lies not with the scriptures but with man who does not reflect on them. So the Word comes to be the symbol or expression of the spiritual principle of the whole field of existence. All duality and doubts are destroyed as one recognizes it. The only way to escape the process of transmigration is to make one s abode with sabda because it is the Word which gives us vision of the Invisible. Kabir is equally harsh in the condemnation of rituals and formalism observed whether by a Hindu or a Muslim. God of Kabir s perception does not reside in mosque or temple alone, rather He is in one s mind. He feels sorry for those Hindus who worship idols (but puji puji hindu mue), wear matted hair (jata dhari dhari jogi mue), merely recite scriptures (bed pare pari pandit mue) as well as for those Muslims who just bow to the west (turk mue siri nai), but both of them fail to realize God. 14 To realize Him, one need not live in the forests or caves or pilgrimage centres, go naked, get the head shaven or wear matter hair, observe celibacy, observe roja and get the circumcision done. Generally people do any or many of these, but their mind is not pure of the filth of evil thoughts which turns all such observances futile. Kabir recommends that man should conquer his mind, treat his home equal to forest, and turn his mind into the Qa aba and this body into prayer temple. Kabir s advice is: remember only the Name Divine and seek protection of the Real One. Only those are acceptable at the Divine Portal who do good, noble deeds and realize God. No doubt, Kabir gazed into the mystery of life and saw the vision of the ineffable Light. He brings from the world of beyond a new message for the individual and for society... He is a mighty warner, an intrepid path-finder, the great pioneer of the unity of the Hindu and Muslim communities in India, and the apostle of the faith of Humanity. 15 However, Kabir s message had a universal appeal but the established institutionalized religions Global Religious Vision, Vol. 3/II-III

9 206 Dr. Dharam Singh did not take it lying down. The Brahmins among Hindus made many endeavours to make him realize his low caste status: the Sudras, according to the Manusmriti, cannot study scriptures, enter the temple or realize Gold in their present birth. However, the rational intellect and enlightened mind of Kabir always overcame them in each discussion and polemic. He was equally unacceptable among the orthodox Muslims because inspite of his having been brought up in a Muslim household, he was surrounded by Hindu practice and early learned among his playmates to call out Ram- Ram. He was often retorted and called a kafir or infidel. Kabir composed a hymn wherein he lists eight demerits of an infidel: he harms others without any reason; donns a grab to deceive the world; drinks; steals; commits suicide; smokes tobacco; commits robbery; and kills a living being. Although the tradition holds that Kabir uttered this hymn to silence his critics who called him a kafir, it can easily be called the basis of his ethical teachings. Everybody, irrespective of his caste or creed, needs avoid these demerits so as to become a noble, useful member of society. Kabir may not have achieved complete success in bringing about the desired transformation to make the entire mankind rise above sectarian considerations notwithstanding the fact that in him we find a synthesis of the three principal dissenting movements, a compound of elements drawn mainly from Vaisnava bhakt and the hath-yoga of the Nath Yogis, with a marginal contribution from Sufism. 16 However, the real significance of his contribution towards a culture of religious pluralism lies in the fact that he took the initiative in this direction. Interestingly, Sikhism founded in north-west of India by Guru Nanak ( ) is considered more a practical way of life and its metaphysical and moral postulates determined and formulated by the mystical experiences of the Gurus enjoy a universal appeal. Guru Nanak himself was acclaimed even during his lifetime and thereafter as Hindu s Guru and Muslim s Pir. The Words of Guru Nanak which he uttered after his first mystical experience at Sultanpur (the Bein episode) that there is no Hindu and no Muslim Oct., 2002 Jan. 2003

10 Kabir: Towards a Culture of Religious Pluralism 207 also reflect a trend towards the acceptance of a culture of religious pluralism and co-existence. When Guru Arjan compiled the Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, he included in it some of the hymns of Kabir also which were earlier collected by Guru Nanak. The reason obviously was that some of the postulates stressed in Sikhism find their echoes therein. REFERENCES 1. M. Mujeeb, The Indian Muslims, p J.E. Carpenter, Theism in Medieval India, p G.H. Westcott, Kabir and the Kabir Panth, p Guru Granth Sahib, p Ibid., p Ibid., pp Ibid., p Ibid., p Ibid., p Ibid., p R.C. Zaehner, Hinduism, p Guru Granth Sahib, IV, p Ibid., V. p Ibid., p Tara Chand, Influence of Islam on Indian Culture, pp W.H. McLeod, Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion, 152, see also Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Hindi Sahitya Ki Bhumika, 41. Global Religious Vision, Vol. 3/II-III