Kabir is talked about a lot, admired a lot and even worshipped by many, but hardly followed. This is true of most of the great people. We end up becoming their admirers rather than followers. One of my senior colleagues in IAS used to tell me, that when people listen to talks of great achievers, most of them are ‘prabhavit’ (impressed), but rarely ‘parivartit’ (reformed). We go home and extol virtues of the great speaker, but most of the time fail to bring in our lives the changes suggested by that great person.
Even few couplets of Kabir are sufficient to change our lives provided we truly follow them.
Society is an amalgamation of people. If people are good, society will be good. All of us want others to be good, while for us we have different standards. And this is the reason for the pitiable state in which we find the society today.
One way to reverse this trend is to follow what Kabirji says —
And it is because of this lack of introspection and self-correction that we are still grappling with the same problems against which Kabirji fought centuries ago — Hindu-Muslim differences, casteism, religious fundamentalism, ritualism, etc. Today we are supposedly more ‘educated’ than what people were during Kabirji’s time. But these problems have taken a turn for the worse. When an illiterate like Kabir could raise his voice against all such evils and fight resolutely, then why we the so called educated cannot ? But how can we expect them to fight the woes of society when todays educated cannot even take care of their parents and when they fight bitterly with their siblings and stab their friends in the back.
Maybe it is because of our education system today. Earlier the two main purposes for which people sent their wards for education were ‘character-building and knowledge’. Now it just teaches a person to become a money making factory. Parents are heard telling their wards — quickly do a course so that you can start earning, or choose a course which will fetch crores of income. We are not bothered about gaining knowledge or becoming wise. One of the greatest educationist and visionary — Benjamin Franklin has said — “the greatest aim and purpose of all education is — service to society”.
Of what use is our education if we cannot put it to use to eradicate the social evils or fight against the injustice or illogical things happening in the society. If Kabirji could do, why can’t we ?
It is therefore heartening to see that BCAS is a place where the education that one had is being put to the service of society. In my numerous interactions with the members and on going through the Namaskar articles I have found that an earnest attempt is being made to do something about the various problems of the society. I have been particularly inspired by two of the senior members — Narayan Varma and Pradeep Shah and have been regularly working with them in my own small way. This article too is an outcome of that.
Coming back to Kabir, as I have mentioned earlier, we do not need to do too much research on all that he has said. Even if we can just understand and imbibe a few of his teachings from the ocean of wisdom that he gave, we can do wonders, both for ourselves as well as for the society.
As Namaskar very often champions the cause of ‘giving’, I would now quote some of Kabir’s sayings about ‘giving’ :
It is amazing to see how Kabir could pack so much wisdom in just one Doha ! It talks about contentment, compassion, seva and giving (even when there is barely enough). In his view, man should ask God to give him only as much as is required to fulfil his needs. Whereas we all continue to run after money and matter and realise very late in life that we failed to do all those things that make our life worth ‘living’.
Nature takes its own time and everything has its own pace. But today there is a mad rush for everything which leaves us all with lots of tensions, blood pressures and frustrations. We have to learn to do our jobs and detach ourselves from its results which would happen at their own pace. We have to be patient and not hanker after them.
What is the point of being a big person when you are of no use to anybody ? It is like being a date tree. It is tall but a passerby cannot get respite from the hot sun under its shade and its fruits are too high and cannot be eaten by people.
Trees do not eat their fruits; rivers do not drink their water. Saints live this life to do good to others.
Says Kabir that making gifts does not diminish one’s wealth just as taking a beakful of grains by a little bird does not diminish the grain heap or the river water does not diminish even though it is extensively usd by a large number of people.
Like when water starts increasing in the boat, we have to throw the excess water out of it, similarly when wealth starts increasing, we should start giving it away. Otherwise in both cases there is the danger of drowning.
I would like to conclude by repeating what I mentioned earlier. Kabir is not something that we should keep in the museum. We have to try to understand and imbibe his teachings in our lives. It will benefit us, our society, our country and even the entire world.
