Sant / Bhakti

Kabir

Kabir was a 15th-century Indian poet-saint whose two-line dohas (couplets) cut through religious hypocrisy, caste pride, and ritual observance to insist on the direct experience of God within the heart. Born a Muslim and raised in a weaver's family, he drew equally from Hindu and Islamic mysticism and is claimed by both traditions to this day.

Almost everything about Kabir's life is legendary, including the story that he was born of a virgin widow and raised by a Muslim weaver family in Varanasi. He is traditionally considered a disciple of the Hindu Vaishnava saint Ramananda, and his poetry reflects a deep knowledge of both Sufi and Bhakti vocabularies. His verses are blunt, funny, and uncompromising: he mocked the pundit who reads scriptures without self-knowledge, the mullah who prays five times while ignoring God within, and the ascetic who tortures the body while the mind roams free. His dohas and padas were transmitted orally for centuries in multiple regional variants and have been preserved in the Guru Granth Sahib, the Bijak (the primary Kabir Panthi scripture), and the Kabir Granthavali. The Kabir Panth — a spiritual movement in his name — still has millions of followers across India. His influence on Guru Nanak and the entire Sant tradition of North India was foundational.