ABOUT KABEER
Kabir (Hindi: कबीर, IAST: Kabīrwas a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Adi Granth. His early life was in a Muslim family, but he was strongly influenced by his teacher, the Hindu bhakti leader Ramananda.
Kabir is known for being critical of both Hinduism and Islam, stating that the former was misguided by the Vedas and the latter by the Quran, and questioning their meaningless rites of initiation such as the sacred thread and circumcision respectively.During his lifetime, he was threatened by both Hindus and Muslims for his views.:4 When he died, both Hindus and Muslims he had inspired claimed him as theirs.
Kabir suggested that True God is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, considered all creatures on earth as his own self, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world.To know God, suggested Kabir, meditate with the mantra Rāma, Rāma.
Kabir's legacy survives and continues through the Kabir panth ("Path of Kabir"), a religious community that recognises him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. Its members are known as Kabir panthis.
EARLY LIFE
The years of Kabir's birth and death are unclear.Some historians favor 1398–1448 as the period Kabir lived,[1][11]:5 while others favor 1440–1518.
Many legends, inconsistent in their details, exist about his birth family and early life. According to one version, Kabir was born to a Brahmin unwed mother in Varanasi, by a seedless conception and delivered through the palm of her hand,[1]:5 who then abandoned him in a basket floating in a pond, and baby Kabir was picked up and then raised by a Muslim family.4–5However, modern scholarship has abandoned these legends for lack of historical evidence, and Kabir is widely accepted to have been born and brought up in a family of Muslim weavers.:3–5 According to the Indologist Wendy Doniger, Kabir was born into a Muslim family and various birth legends attempt to "drag Kabir back over the line from Muslim to Hindu".
Some scholars state that Kabir's parents may have been recent converts to Islam, they and Kabir were likely unaware of Islamic orthodox tradition, and are likely to have been following the Nath (Shaiva Yogi) school of Hinduism. This view, while contested by other scholars, has been summarized by Charlotte Vaudeville as follows:
Circumcised or not, Kabir was officially a musalman, though it appears likely that some form of Nathism was his ancestral tradition. This alone would explain his relative ignorance of Islamic tenets, his remarkable acquaintance with Tantric-yoga practices and his lavish use of its esoteric jargon [in his poems]. He appears far more conversant with Nath-panthi basic attitudes and philosophy than with the Islamic orthodox tradition.
— Charlotte Vaudeville on Kabir (1974),
Kabir is widely believed to have become one of the many disciples of the Bhakti poet-sant Swami Ramananda in Varanasi, known for devotional Vaishnavism with a strong bent to monist Advaita philosophy teaching that God was inside every person, everything.
Some legends assert that Kabir never married and led a celibate's life. Most scholars conclude from historical literature that this legend is also untrue, that Kabir was likely married, his wife probably was named Dhania, they had at least one son named Kamal and a daughter named Kamali.
Kabir's family is believed to have lived in the locality of Kabir Chaura in Varanasi. Kabīr maṭha (कबीरमठ), a maṭha located in the back alleys of Kabir Chaura, celebrates his life and times.Accompanying the property is a house named Nīrūṭīlā (नीरू टीला) which houses Niru and Nima's graves.
Many legends, inconsistent in their details, exist about his birth family and early life. According to one version, Kabir was born to a Brahmin unwed mother in Varanasi, by a seedless conception and delivered through the palm of her hand,[1]:5 who then abandoned him in a basket floating in a pond, and baby Kabir was picked up and then raised by a Muslim family.4–5However, modern scholarship has abandoned these legends for lack of historical evidence, and Kabir is widely accepted to have been born and brought up in a family of Muslim weavers.:3–5 According to the Indologist Wendy Doniger, Kabir was born into a Muslim family and various birth legends attempt to "drag Kabir back over the line from Muslim to Hindu".
Some scholars state that Kabir's parents may have been recent converts to Islam, they and Kabir were likely unaware of Islamic orthodox tradition, and are likely to have been following the Nath (Shaiva Yogi) school of Hinduism. This view, while contested by other scholars, has been summarized by Charlotte Vaudeville as follows:
Circumcised or not, Kabir was officially a musalman, though it appears likely that some form of Nathism was his ancestral tradition. This alone would explain his relative ignorance of Islamic tenets, his remarkable acquaintance with Tantric-yoga practices and his lavish use of its esoteric jargon [in his poems]. He appears far more conversant with Nath-panthi basic attitudes and philosophy than with the Islamic orthodox tradition.
— Charlotte Vaudeville on Kabir (1974),
Kabir is widely believed to have become one of the many disciples of the Bhakti poet-sant Swami Ramananda in Varanasi, known for devotional Vaishnavism with a strong bent to monist Advaita philosophy teaching that God was inside every person, everything.
Some legends assert that Kabir never married and led a celibate's life. Most scholars conclude from historical literature that this legend is also untrue, that Kabir was likely married, his wife probably was named Dhania, they had at least one son named Kamal and a daughter named Kamali.
Kabir's family is believed to have lived in the locality of Kabir Chaura in Varanasi. Kabīr maṭha (कबीरमठ), a maṭha located in the back alleys of Kabir Chaura, celebrates his life and times.Accompanying the property is a house named Nīrūṭīlā (नीरू टीला) which houses Niru and Nima's graves.
KABEER POEMS
Kabir's poems were in vernacular Hindi, borrowing from various dialects including Avadhi, Braj, and Bhojpuri.[20] They cover various aspects of life and call for a loving devotion for God.:4–6 Kabir composed his verses with simple Hindi words. Most of his work were concerned with devotion, mysticism and discipline.
Where spring, the lord of seasons reigneth, there the unstruck music sounds of itself,
There the streams of light flow in all directions, few are the men who can cross to that shore!
There, where millions of Krishnas stand with hands folded,
Where millions of Vishnus bow their heads, where millions of Brahmas are reading the Vedas,
Where millions of Shivas are lost in contemplation, where millions of Indras dwell in the sky,
Where the demi-gods and the munis are unnumbered, where millions of Saraswatis, goddess of music play the vina,
There is my Lord self-revealed, and the scent of sandal and flowers dwells in those deeps.
— Kabir, II.57, Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
Kabir and his followers named his verbally composed poems of wisdom as "bāņīs" (utterances). These include songs and couplets, called variously dohe, śalokā (Sanskrit: ślokā), or sākhī (Sanskrit: sākşī). The latter term means "witness", implying the poems to be evidence of the Truth.
Literary works with compositions attributed to Kabir include Kabir Bijak, Kabir Parachai, Sakhi Granth, Adi Granth (Sikh), and Kabir Granthawali (Rajasthan).[24] However, except for Adi Granth, significantly different versions of these texts exist and it is unclear which one is more original; for example, Kabir Bijak exists in two major recensions.The most in depth scholarly analysis of various versions and translations are credited to Charlotte Vaudeville, the 20th century French scholar on Kabir.
Kabir's poems were verbally composed in the 15th century and transmitted viva voce through the 17th century. Kabir Bijak was compiled and written down for the first time in the 17th century. Scholars state that this form of transmission, over geography and across generations bred change, interpolation and corruption of the poems. Furthermore, whole songs were creatively fabricated and new couplets inserted by unknown authors and attributed to Kabir, not because of dishonesty but out of respect for him and the creative exuberance of anonymous oral tradition found in Indian literary works. Scholars have sought to establish poetry that truly came from Kabir and its historicity value.
Where spring, the lord of seasons reigneth, there the unstruck music sounds of itself,
There the streams of light flow in all directions, few are the men who can cross to that shore!
There, where millions of Krishnas stand with hands folded,
Where millions of Vishnus bow their heads, where millions of Brahmas are reading the Vedas,
Where millions of Shivas are lost in contemplation, where millions of Indras dwell in the sky,
Where the demi-gods and the munis are unnumbered, where millions of Saraswatis, goddess of music play the vina,
There is my Lord self-revealed, and the scent of sandal and flowers dwells in those deeps.
— Kabir, II.57, Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
Kabir and his followers named his verbally composed poems of wisdom as "bāņīs" (utterances). These include songs and couplets, called variously dohe, śalokā (Sanskrit: ślokā), or sākhī (Sanskrit: sākşī). The latter term means "witness", implying the poems to be evidence of the Truth.
Literary works with compositions attributed to Kabir include Kabir Bijak, Kabir Parachai, Sakhi Granth, Adi Granth (Sikh), and Kabir Granthawali (Rajasthan).[24] However, except for Adi Granth, significantly different versions of these texts exist and it is unclear which one is more original; for example, Kabir Bijak exists in two major recensions.The most in depth scholarly analysis of various versions and translations are credited to Charlotte Vaudeville, the 20th century French scholar on Kabir.
Kabir's poems were verbally composed in the 15th century and transmitted viva voce through the 17th century. Kabir Bijak was compiled and written down for the first time in the 17th century. Scholars state that this form of transmission, over geography and across generations bred change, interpolation and corruption of the poems. Furthermore, whole songs were creatively fabricated and new couplets inserted by unknown authors and attributed to Kabir, not because of dishonesty but out of respect for him and the creative exuberance of anonymous oral tradition found in Indian literary works. Scholars have sought to establish poetry that truly came from Kabir and its historicity value.
INDIAN MYSTIC KABEER
Kabir is a celebrant. He celebrates all -- all colors of life, the whole rainbow of it. What he is going to say to you is not philosophy but pure poetry. It is not religion but a hand beckoning, a door half opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way back home, a way back to nature.
Nature is God to Kabir
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 Mohammedan and a Christian and a Jaina and a Buddhist. He's a great beauty, a great poetry, a great orchestra.
And the man was utterly illiterate. The man was a weaver, a poor man. In India he is rare -- Buddha was the son of a king, so was Mahavira, so was Rama and so was Krishna. India has been always interested too much in riches -- notwithstanding what its leaders go on saying to the world, that it is spiritual. It has been too materialistic, and not even honest about it. Even when Indians talk against material things they are materialists. If they praise Buddha they praise because he renounced the kingdom -- the value is still in the kingdom. Because he renounced such wealth, that's why he's worshipped.
Kabir is rare, he is a poor man. In Kabir, for the first time a poor man is recognized as a man of God. Otherwise it was a monopoly of kings and princes and rich people.
Kabir is the Christ of the East. Christ was also illiterate -- the son of a carpenter -- and Christ also speaks in the same way as Kabir. They have great similarities. They belong to the same earth, they are very earthy, but both have great insights. Unsophisticated they are, uncultured, uncivilized. Maybe that is the reason why their sayings are so potent. Their wisdom is not that of the universities, they have been never to any school. Their wisdom comes from the masses, their wisdom is out of their own experience. It is not learned, it is not scholarly, they are not pundits and rabbis. They are ordinary people. In Kabir, in the East, for the first time a poor man has come to declare the beauties of God.
It is very difficult for a poor man to declare the grace of God, it is very difficult for a poor man to be religious. This is my understanding -- that if you find a rich man and not religious, then he is stupid. A religious consciousness is bound to happen if you are rich. Much awareness is not needed for it, your very riches will prove to you the futility of this world. If you have all, you have to become religious, that is inevitable -- because when you have all you will be able to see, even a stupid person will be able to see, great intelligence is not needed, that 'I have got all, and I have nothing inside me. ' If this does . not happen to a rich man then he is really very very foolish, utterly stupid.
To be religious for a poor man is very difficult, great intelligence is needed -- because a poor man has nothing. To see that the world is meaningless is very difficult when you are poor. You have not experienced the world -- great insight is needed to see that which you don't have, to see its futility. Because of that, my appreciation for a Christ or a Kabir is far more than for a Buddha or a Mahavir. They had all; they went through the world. Buddha had all the beautiful women of his kingdom available to him. If he became aware that there is nothing in physical beauty, that it is a dream, it is natural. He had all the luxuries possible to a man twenty-five centuries ago. If he became alert that they don't satisfy, much intelligence is not needed for it. They don't satisfy -- the actual experience proves that they don't satisfy, that the discontent remains the same.
But for a Kabir or a Christ it is very difficult. They are not kings, they are poor people; even their necessary needs are not fulfilled. There is every possibility of hoping and dreaming and desiring. To see that the world is meaningless will need a great genius. So Kabir is illiterate but a man of great intelligence -- of eyes so penetrating that he can even see the futility of that which he has not got. He can SEE it without having it in his own hands, his perception is so clear. He brings the first glimpse of a future religion.
The future religion will not be of ritual. There will not be much worship ping Bud there will be much celebration. And in fact to celebrate is the only real worship. There will be much singing and much dancing, but not offered to any god in particular, just offered to existence itself. A pouring of the heart, a communion of the heart. Dance itself is enough, it need not be for somebody. The song in itself is enough, it need not be addressed. The prayer in itself is enough, it need not be done in a temple or a church or a mosque. In fact it need not be done at all, just a prayerful heart is enough. And it will be a religion which will not be confined by any doctrine, by any dogma -- a religion which will not supply a philosophy but will certainly give you the vision of a different dimension of reality.
Remember, Kabir is a rebel. And I make a great distinction between a rebel and a revolutionary. A revolutionary is not much of a revolutionary. A revolutionary is against something, he is an extremist. The orthodox, the conventional, the traditional, is the rightist; the revolutionary is the leftist -- but they are part of the same game. Just like the right hand and the left hand belong to the same man, the rightist and the leftist belong to the same mind.
Religion is not revolutionary, it is not orthodox, it is rebellion. These new dimensions are nowhere on the right or on the left, these new dimensions are up. Up is an entirely new framework whose very premises and goals transcend the conventional right and left. Left or right, they are all conservative, they are all down. Rebellion is an up dimension; it is neither right nor left. It is a totally new kind of energy, moving upwards; it has a different vision of life.
Kabir believes in the up dimension. What is up? The past is down, the old is down, the familiar is down. The unfamiliar, the unknown, the mysterious, is up. Be up. Never belong to the dimension of the down. That's where people are. Christians and Hindus and Mohammedans and Jainas and Buddhists, they go on living just as if crawling on the earth. They don't fly. Religion gives you wings to go into the infinite.
Listening to the sutras of Kabir, remember it. He will be very very shocking, he will shatter your mind. Out of his compassion he will destroy, he will create a kind of emptiness in you -- because only in that emptiness God is: God as godliness. Only in that emptiness is meditation, and only in that emptiness do you start seeing for the first time.
Nicholas of Cusa has pointed out that the word for God 'Deus' comes from 'theory'. 'Theory' is a beautiful word from which 'theory' comes. 'Theory' has become very ugly, but 'theory' is beautiful -- it simply means 'I see.'
Religion gives you eyes, it is simply a clarity. Remember, clarity does not give you explanations -- but it makes you able to live, it makes you able to love. Clarity does not give you meanings but it gives you significance. Again, they are different things. A meaning is a mind thing, a significance is a life experience -- it is existential.
I have heard, Albert Einstein used to say 'Religion without science is blind, and science without religion is lame.' With a little change, I would like to agree -- but that little change has much to say. Einstein says 'Religion without science is blind.' That is not right. Rather, 'Religion without science is lame, and science without religion is blind' -- because religion gives eyes. It gives insight into reality, it gives insight within and without. Yes, it is true -- without science religion is lame, it cannot walk.
You can see it in the East, the East is lame -- actually lame. And the West is blind, actually blind. Science gives energy, power, speed, technology, but it does not give you insight into what to do with it. It gives you insight only into matter, but not insight into your own being. So the insight into matter goes on becoming greater and greater technology, and you don't know what to do with it. And when technology is there you have to do something with it. Science gives power without giving you wisdom, that is the danger. And religion gives you wisdom without giving you power, that is the danger. In the East, people have eyes but no power to do anything.
The future will have a new kind of synthesis happening: science and religion meeting and merging into each other. Then man will not be lame and man will not be blind.
Kabir's approach will give you many glimpses of the future, what kind of religion is possible. It may shock you many times, it may be disturbing to you many times. But remember, all growth is painful -- and with Kabir you can grow immensely.
Kabir is not interested in giving you any answers -- because he knows perfectly well there is no answer. The game of question and answers is just a game -- not that Kabir was not answering his disciples' questions; he was answering, but answering playfully. That quality you have to remember. He is not a serious man; no wise man can ever be serious. Seriousness is part of ignorance, seriousness is a shadow of the ego. The wise is always non-serious. There can be no serious answers to questions, not at least with Kabir -- because he does not believe that there is any meaning in life, and he does not believe that you have to stand aloof from life to observe and to find the meaning. He believes in participation. He does not want you to become a spectator, a speculator, a philosopher.
He says: Jump into life! Become part of it, throb with it. And then you will know -- although you will never be able to transfer your knowledge through words to anybody else. Truth is not transferable. But you will become truth and you will be a light in this dark night of life and you will become a path into this jungle of life.
Many will have insights in your presence, you will be a catalytic agent, but you will not be able to give ready-made answers.
There can be no serious answers to questions about the meaning of life, for to ask about life is to stand back from life and pretend one is not it. And from there you have taken a false step from the very beginning. And the first step wrong, and all your steps will be wrong. Questions at best are a form of play and may be enjoyed as such. And there are no right answers, only light ones. Let me repeat it: And there are no right answers, only light ones, given and taken lightly by those who know that they play.
That is the game between a master and a disciple. Whatsoever Kabir is saying has not been written -- it is addressed to his disciples. This is a spontaneous outpouring of his heart. He was a singer, he was a poet: somebody would ask something and he would sing a song spontaneously. And nobody has ever sung such songs.
The enlightened man is not other than the fool. Remember, while moving in the company of Kabir, that the enlightened man is not other than the fool. What makes a man enlightened is the realization that he is as a fool. 'My mind is that of a fool' says Lao Tzu. Kabir will agree perfectly, totally. 'How empty it is' says Lao Tzu ' -- as empty as the mind of a fool.' Emptiness takes nothing seriously, raises no one thing up over another. Worship ping nothing, it celebrates all.
Kabir is a celebrant. He celebrates all -- all colors of life, the whole rainbow of it. What he is going to say to you is not philosophy but pure poetry. It is not religion but a hand beckoning, a door half opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way back home, a way back to nature.
Nature is God to Kabir -- the trees and the rocks and the rivers and the mountains. He does not believe in the temples and the churches and the mosques, he believes in the living reality. God is there, breathing, flowering, flowing. And where are you going? You are going to a temple, man-made, to worship an idol, again manufactured by man, in his own image.
He calls you back to celebrate life.
The Revolution by osho
# 1
Nature is God to Kabir
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 Mohammedan and a Christian and a Jaina and a Buddhist. He's a great beauty, a great poetry, a great orchestra.
And the man was utterly illiterate. The man was a weaver, a poor man. In India he is rare -- Buddha was the son of a king, so was Mahavira, so was Rama and so was Krishna. India has been always interested too much in riches -- notwithstanding what its leaders go on saying to the world, that it is spiritual. It has been too materialistic, and not even honest about it. Even when Indians talk against material things they are materialists. If they praise Buddha they praise because he renounced the kingdom -- the value is still in the kingdom. Because he renounced such wealth, that's why he's worshipped.
Kabir is rare, he is a poor man. In Kabir, for the first time a poor man is recognized as a man of God. Otherwise it was a monopoly of kings and princes and rich people.
Kabir is the Christ of the East. Christ was also illiterate -- the son of a carpenter -- and Christ also speaks in the same way as Kabir. They have great similarities. They belong to the same earth, they are very earthy, but both have great insights. Unsophisticated they are, uncultured, uncivilized. Maybe that is the reason why their sayings are so potent. Their wisdom is not that of the universities, they have been never to any school. Their wisdom comes from the masses, their wisdom is out of their own experience. It is not learned, it is not scholarly, they are not pundits and rabbis. They are ordinary people. In Kabir, in the East, for the first time a poor man has come to declare the beauties of God.
It is very difficult for a poor man to declare the grace of God, it is very difficult for a poor man to be religious. This is my understanding -- that if you find a rich man and not religious, then he is stupid. A religious consciousness is bound to happen if you are rich. Much awareness is not needed for it, your very riches will prove to you the futility of this world. If you have all, you have to become religious, that is inevitable -- because when you have all you will be able to see, even a stupid person will be able to see, great intelligence is not needed, that 'I have got all, and I have nothing inside me. ' If this does . not happen to a rich man then he is really very very foolish, utterly stupid.
To be religious for a poor man is very difficult, great intelligence is needed -- because a poor man has nothing. To see that the world is meaningless is very difficult when you are poor. You have not experienced the world -- great insight is needed to see that which you don't have, to see its futility. Because of that, my appreciation for a Christ or a Kabir is far more than for a Buddha or a Mahavir. They had all; they went through the world. Buddha had all the beautiful women of his kingdom available to him. If he became aware that there is nothing in physical beauty, that it is a dream, it is natural. He had all the luxuries possible to a man twenty-five centuries ago. If he became alert that they don't satisfy, much intelligence is not needed for it. They don't satisfy -- the actual experience proves that they don't satisfy, that the discontent remains the same.
But for a Kabir or a Christ it is very difficult. They are not kings, they are poor people; even their necessary needs are not fulfilled. There is every possibility of hoping and dreaming and desiring. To see that the world is meaningless will need a great genius. So Kabir is illiterate but a man of great intelligence -- of eyes so penetrating that he can even see the futility of that which he has not got. He can SEE it without having it in his own hands, his perception is so clear. He brings the first glimpse of a future religion.
The future religion will not be of ritual. There will not be much worship ping Bud there will be much celebration. And in fact to celebrate is the only real worship. There will be much singing and much dancing, but not offered to any god in particular, just offered to existence itself. A pouring of the heart, a communion of the heart. Dance itself is enough, it need not be for somebody. The song in itself is enough, it need not be addressed. The prayer in itself is enough, it need not be done in a temple or a church or a mosque. In fact it need not be done at all, just a prayerful heart is enough. And it will be a religion which will not be confined by any doctrine, by any dogma -- a religion which will not supply a philosophy but will certainly give you the vision of a different dimension of reality.
Remember, Kabir is a rebel. And I make a great distinction between a rebel and a revolutionary. A revolutionary is not much of a revolutionary. A revolutionary is against something, he is an extremist. The orthodox, the conventional, the traditional, is the rightist; the revolutionary is the leftist -- but they are part of the same game. Just like the right hand and the left hand belong to the same man, the rightist and the leftist belong to the same mind.
Religion is not revolutionary, it is not orthodox, it is rebellion. These new dimensions are nowhere on the right or on the left, these new dimensions are up. Up is an entirely new framework whose very premises and goals transcend the conventional right and left. Left or right, they are all conservative, they are all down. Rebellion is an up dimension; it is neither right nor left. It is a totally new kind of energy, moving upwards; it has a different vision of life.
Kabir believes in the up dimension. What is up? The past is down, the old is down, the familiar is down. The unfamiliar, the unknown, the mysterious, is up. Be up. Never belong to the dimension of the down. That's where people are. Christians and Hindus and Mohammedans and Jainas and Buddhists, they go on living just as if crawling on the earth. They don't fly. Religion gives you wings to go into the infinite.
Listening to the sutras of Kabir, remember it. He will be very very shocking, he will shatter your mind. Out of his compassion he will destroy, he will create a kind of emptiness in you -- because only in that emptiness God is: God as godliness. Only in that emptiness is meditation, and only in that emptiness do you start seeing for the first time.
Nicholas of Cusa has pointed out that the word for God 'Deus' comes from 'theory'. 'Theory' is a beautiful word from which 'theory' comes. 'Theory' has become very ugly, but 'theory' is beautiful -- it simply means 'I see.'
Religion gives you eyes, it is simply a clarity. Remember, clarity does not give you explanations -- but it makes you able to live, it makes you able to love. Clarity does not give you meanings but it gives you significance. Again, they are different things. A meaning is a mind thing, a significance is a life experience -- it is existential.
I have heard, Albert Einstein used to say 'Religion without science is blind, and science without religion is lame.' With a little change, I would like to agree -- but that little change has much to say. Einstein says 'Religion without science is blind.' That is not right. Rather, 'Religion without science is lame, and science without religion is blind' -- because religion gives eyes. It gives insight into reality, it gives insight within and without. Yes, it is true -- without science religion is lame, it cannot walk.
You can see it in the East, the East is lame -- actually lame. And the West is blind, actually blind. Science gives energy, power, speed, technology, but it does not give you insight into what to do with it. It gives you insight only into matter, but not insight into your own being. So the insight into matter goes on becoming greater and greater technology, and you don't know what to do with it. And when technology is there you have to do something with it. Science gives power without giving you wisdom, that is the danger. And religion gives you wisdom without giving you power, that is the danger. In the East, people have eyes but no power to do anything.
The future will have a new kind of synthesis happening: science and religion meeting and merging into each other. Then man will not be lame and man will not be blind.
Kabir's approach will give you many glimpses of the future, what kind of religion is possible. It may shock you many times, it may be disturbing to you many times. But remember, all growth is painful -- and with Kabir you can grow immensely.
Kabir is not interested in giving you any answers -- because he knows perfectly well there is no answer. The game of question and answers is just a game -- not that Kabir was not answering his disciples' questions; he was answering, but answering playfully. That quality you have to remember. He is not a serious man; no wise man can ever be serious. Seriousness is part of ignorance, seriousness is a shadow of the ego. The wise is always non-serious. There can be no serious answers to questions, not at least with Kabir -- because he does not believe that there is any meaning in life, and he does not believe that you have to stand aloof from life to observe and to find the meaning. He believes in participation. He does not want you to become a spectator, a speculator, a philosopher.
He says: Jump into life! Become part of it, throb with it. And then you will know -- although you will never be able to transfer your knowledge through words to anybody else. Truth is not transferable. But you will become truth and you will be a light in this dark night of life and you will become a path into this jungle of life.
Many will have insights in your presence, you will be a catalytic agent, but you will not be able to give ready-made answers.
There can be no serious answers to questions about the meaning of life, for to ask about life is to stand back from life and pretend one is not it. And from there you have taken a false step from the very beginning. And the first step wrong, and all your steps will be wrong. Questions at best are a form of play and may be enjoyed as such. And there are no right answers, only light ones. Let me repeat it: And there are no right answers, only light ones, given and taken lightly by those who know that they play.
That is the game between a master and a disciple. Whatsoever Kabir is saying has not been written -- it is addressed to his disciples. This is a spontaneous outpouring of his heart. He was a singer, he was a poet: somebody would ask something and he would sing a song spontaneously. And nobody has ever sung such songs.
The enlightened man is not other than the fool. Remember, while moving in the company of Kabir, that the enlightened man is not other than the fool. What makes a man enlightened is the realization that he is as a fool. 'My mind is that of a fool' says Lao Tzu. Kabir will agree perfectly, totally. 'How empty it is' says Lao Tzu ' -- as empty as the mind of a fool.' Emptiness takes nothing seriously, raises no one thing up over another. Worship ping nothing, it celebrates all.
Kabir is a celebrant. He celebrates all -- all colors of life, the whole rainbow of it. What he is going to say to you is not philosophy but pure poetry. It is not religion but a hand beckoning, a door half opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way back home, a way back to nature.
Nature is God to Kabir -- the trees and the rocks and the rivers and the mountains. He does not believe in the temples and the churches and the mosques, he believes in the living reality. God is there, breathing, flowering, flowing. And where are you going? You are going to a temple, man-made, to worship an idol, again manufactured by man, in his own image.
He calls you back to celebrate life.
The Revolution by osho
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