Question

Who was Kabir? What were his main teachings? How did he express his teachings?

Answer 1

Instructions:

There should be at least 3 points here.

• Write about Kabir- his birth and beliefs.
• Write about Kabir’s teachings- God is the same, devotion to God and rejection of the caste system, idol worship and pilgrimages.
• Write about the Bijak, the dohas that Kabir used and the Kabirpanthis.

Solution:

• Kabir was a disciple of Ramananda. According to a legend, he was the abandoned son of a brahmin widow who was brought up by weavers, Niru and Nima. He was an advocate of the nirguna form of Bhakti.
• According to Kabir, the same God was referred to by several names like Rama, Hari, Allah, Rahim and many more. Everyone should be devoted to God and not pay heed to religious differences. He rejected the caste system, idol worship and pilgrimages. Kabir preached through simple couplets known as dohas.
• Kabir was a poet of the oral tradition and his works were preserved in the Bijak by his followers. These followers, known as Kabirpanthis were from Varanasi and other regions of Uttar Pradesh. In his dohas in the Bijak, Kabir urges his disciples to give orthodoxy in favour of a direct experience of the truth.