This Guru Poornima, I have been reading about Sant Kabir. Ofcourse I have been reading books on Kabir by the Master of Masters, Osho. Osho’s books are compilations of his discourses. The reason I started reading about Kabir was because as soon as I woke up, the first thing that came to my mind was this doha (couplet) of Kabir –
गुरू गोविन्द दोऊ खड़े, काके लागूं पांय।
बलिहारी गुरु आपने, गोविंद दियो बताय।।
A simple translation would be “Guru and Govinda (God) both are standing in front of me, whose feet should I fall at first ? My Guru, you are great, for indicating that I should fall at Govinda’s feet”.
What a beautiful simple message !! The Guru is the door through whom we can find Govinda. As your search intensifies, your Guru finds you ….. because he knows and you don’t.
Osho speaks on Kabir –
“Kabir is really that normal person that you never come across in life, with no desire to be special. When he became enlightened, then too he remained in his ordinary life. He was a weaver; he continued to weave. His disciples started growing in numbers — hundreds, and then thousands, and then many more thousands were coming to him. And they will always ask him to stop weaving clothes — “There is no need. We will take care of you.” But he will laugh and he will say, “It is better to continue as God has willed me. I have no desire to be anything else. Let me be whatsoever I am, whatsoever God wants me to be. If he wants me to be a weaver, that’s why I am a weaver. I was born a weaver, and I will die as a weaver.”
He continued in his ordinary way. He will go to the marketplace to sell his goods. He will carry water from the well. He lived very, very ordinarily. That is one of the most significant things to be understood. He never claimed that he is a man of knowledge — because no man of knowledge ever claims it.”
The Path of Love
Another beautiful excerpt from the book “The Path of Love” –
Kabir says: I am not for renunciation. If God creates the world, the world is beautiful. If it comes out of God, it is beautiful; it cannot be a punishment, it is a reward. This is a very revolutionary statement – that the world is not a punishment, the world is a reward; that God has not thrown you into a dark and dismal cell. It is a celebration. God has loved you so much that he has created this world for you, to play with, to dance with. It is a celebration.
Kabir is not for renunciation; he’s all for celebration – one thing. The second thing: Kabir says: Life is in community. Life is a communion, so don’t try to escape from the world, and don’t try to remain in a solitary life. Because the richness is in the community; you are enriched by the community, by your relationships. The more you are related to people, the more you are rich. A solitary person living in a Himalayan cave is very poor, impoverished – because rivers of relationships don’t flow in him. He becomes a desert.
Each time somebody looks into you, a river flows in. Each time somebody shakes a hand with you, an energy moves into you. Each time there is a contact, you gain something. When you drop out of all contacts, out of relationship, and you become a solitary monk in a Himalayan cave, you have almost committed suicide. You are only one percent alive. Just because you breathe, you are alive.
This is a sort of death: you are living at the minimum, you are not living at all, you are living very grudgingly, you are living very reluctantly, you are living with a deep complaint that you don’t want to live and you have been forced to live. You don’t want this world at all: the rainbows and the trees and the stars and the people…. No, you don’t want to relate with anybody.
When you don’t want to relate with anybody, your contact with God is diminished, TERRIBLY diminished. When you come into relationship with a man, or with a tree, or with an animal, you are coming in contact with God in different forms.
Kabir says: To be in the community is the only way to be really alive. Relationship is life, and relationship is beautiful.
Indeed, Life is a celebration … Life is divine. There is no God sitting somewhere doling out blessings or meting out punishments. He is in every stone and every living being. So go out there and live life as a celebration 🙏🏿
Thank You Master. Thank you Sant Kabir Das.
Do read – Guru – defined by Osho
Great mam. 👍