Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh·c. 1398 – 1518
संत कबीर
Sant Kabir
The Weaver of Truth
He belonged to no religion, and both claimed him after death.
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. You do not see that the Real is in your home, and you wander from forest to forest listlessly.”
Life
Kabir was born around 1398 in Varanasi, into a family of Muslim weavers. Legend says he was found as an infant on a lotus leaf in a lake by Niru and Nima, a childless Muslim couple who raised him. He grew up at the loom, weaving cloth by day and God by night.
He became a disciple of the great Vaishnava saint Ramananda, though the story of how this happened is itself a parable of Kabir's audacity. Knowing Ramananda would not accept a Muslim disciple, Kabir lay on the steps of the ghat where Ramananda bathed before dawn. When the old guru stumbled over him in the dark, he exclaimed 'Ram! Ram!', and Kabir claimed this as his initiation mantra.
Kabir was relentlessly persecuted by both Hindu pandits and Muslim mullahs. He mocked empty ritual on both sides: the brahmin's sacred thread and the mullah's call to prayer alike. He was brought before Sultan Sikandar Lodi, thrown into the Ganges bound in chains, placed before a charging elephant, and each time, the stories say, he emerged unharmed.
He spent his final years in Maghar, deliberately choosing to die there rather than in Varanasi, to disprove the superstition that dying in Kashi guarantees liberation. After his death, both Hindus and Muslims claimed his body. When the shroud was lifted, they found only flowers, which the Hindus cremated and the Muslims buried. His dohas, sung in a rough, earthy Sadhukkadi Hindi, remain the most quoted spiritual verses in North India.
One Heart
“Moko kahan dhundhere bande, main to tere paas mein. Where do you search for me, O servant? I am right beside you.”
Teachings
Beyond All Religion
God is neither in the temple nor the mosque. He is not found in rituals, pilgrimages, or scriptures. He is found in the direct experience of the heart that has stopped pretending.
The Satguru's Grace
Without the living Guru who strikes like a surgeon, the sleeping soul cannot wake. The Satguru's word is a sword that cuts through lifetimes of accumulated illusion.
The Name Above All Names
Ram for Kabir is not the historical prince of Ayodhya but the formless, all-pervading Reality. The Name is the direct portal: no intermediary, no institution, no priesthood required.
Works & Publications
Kabir Granthavali
The primary collection of Kabir's verses (dohas, padas, and ramainis) compiled by followers after his death.
Bijak
The sacred scripture of the Kabir Panth, containing his most essential teachings in three sections: Ramaini, Shabda, and Sakhi.
Verses in the Guru Granth Sahib
541 of Kabir's hymns are included in the Sikh holy scripture, the largest contribution by any non-Sikh saint, a testament to his universal appeal.
An Inspiration
Kabir's ferocious honesty and his refusal to let devotion become comfortable echoes throughout Ananta's satsang. Like Kabir, Ananta cuts through spiritual pretense, leaving no hiding behind concepts, no settling for secondhand truth.