Soulful Songs of Kabir (Selected Poems)

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Introduction I have ventured to translate in English, the psalms and poems of the highly illumined and illustrious, the great spiritual Master Kabir Saheb on the intuitive directions of my holy spiritual Master, Saint Shri Abhilash Saheb, the propounder of the spiritually permeated organization, popularly known as the Kabir Parakh Sansthan, Allahabad (U.P.-India); who relinquished his earthly frame and remained eternally established in his own Self-essence on the 26th September, 2012. This humble presentation of the work is, as such, a magnificent gift from my holy spiritual Master, who produced a candid commentary of the five hundred and one selected songs of Kabir Saheb under the title "Kahat Kabir- Sayeth Kabir" without which I could not have justified this presentation. This pious task of translation is, therefore, the outcome of the deep inspiration of my holy spiritual Master and the minute guidance bestowed upon me by the present holy spiritual Master, Saint Shri Dharmendra Saheb, who is not only spiritually permeated but is also gifted with the scholarly endowments.

As a messenger of light, Kabir carries the Lamp of Love, wisdom and freedom to the suffering society. A number of poems are composed explicitly as riddles and from the riddling poems; it is a leap to "Ulatvasis", the upside down language of paradoxes and enigmas. Such poems greatly fascinate, while those perplex the readers. He rather produces the effective devices, sometimes a matrix of verbal impossibilities in which lies a transpired truth. Sometimes his poems are composed on anaphora - repetition of a word at the beginning or end of each line. His songs are rhythmical, lyrical, sonorous, melodious and memorable. He has used various metaphors, metonymies and vice versa, symbols, rhetorical questions exclamations, epithets, personifications etc., with a superbly and astonishing skill. Kabir's writings include the Bijak, Sakhi Granth and Kabir Granthawali. Adi Guru Granth Sahib, the holy text of Sikhism contains as many as 225 bhajans (hymns/psalms), 69 Vanis (Stanzas) and 238 Shlokas of the Saint Kabir Saheb which are regularly and ceremoniously being sung and read over with a great devotion, throughout the world. His greatest work is the Bijak, fundamental and most authentic work which was translated by me in English versicular form in the year 2005.

Kabir was a great scientist of the soul, researching the means of the Self-realisation by shedding off the body-centric-ego, the wanderings of the mind and the allurements of the sense organs. Identifying with body, mind and senses is ignorance as it takes away attention from the inner Self the moral tone is quite strong in Kabir's hymns. Kabir's extempore outpourings of songs and couplets numbering thousands have been widely hailed for their deep spiritual fervor and poetic quality and are sung with great rapture by old and young alike in India and abroad. His poetry is considered as rich gems for its spiritual message and worldly wisdom. Any conscientious reader can realize the truth in his inner chamber of his own being. He staunchly preached freedom from fear. Through his "Jhulana and Rekhta" hymns, Kabir has artistically and melodiously depicted the picture of a swing of the illusion and delusion which takes away Jiva, the soul from one birth to another based on the theory of 'cause and effect'.

I must bring home a unique feature of Kabir. He remains totally distinguished from Sur, Tulsi, Mira, Rahim etc., who are primely addressing to God, whereas Kabir talks directly to man. In all his poems he uses the phrase like "Sayeth Kabir, Listen O, saints! Listen O, sadho!". In fact, this has been Kabir's trademark. He seizes the audience attention by addressing-"O, saints; O, brother; O, pundit; O, man; O, Jiva; even O, fool etc. etc." The sadho or saint of Kabir is not a sadhu in ochre; he is a common man, a common seeker or an aspirant. The listener and reader is the centre in Kabir's poems. He passionately .appeals to listen to his sermons.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages