Decoding Kabir

“He’s there on the lips of the unlettered village person,amongst the urban educated,in Pakistan he’s a Sufi,and yet,you can’t pin him down and trap him in any religion or form. He has the ability to inhabit so many spaces yet refuse to be bound by any! A champion of people who are deeply athiestic,it is Kabir who has shown the world true democracy of people and religion,” Shabnam points out the multiplicity of this saint,refering to him as the ‘commonwealth of the country’.

Her journeys took her far and near,to both Hindus and Muslims,and there was one thread which strung them all – “a common profound wisdom”. “In cities,we tend to annexualise mystic sufi poetry. To the urban educated,sufi is the buzzword,it’s considered chic to wrap yourself in a pashmina shawl and entertain yourself with an evening of sufi music,but when you travel to interiors,to the periphery and rural India,Kabir acquires a whole new identity. His vani elevates one into a rarified space,and at the same time,translates and applies itself to the practicalities of life,” it was during one of her visits to Ujjain that she came across Kabir bhajan exponent and a science teacher,Prahlad Tipanya. A friend,guru,guide,brother,for Shabnam,Prahald is a rural rockstar who is spreading Kabir’s word. So popular is the man that he was named the Mahant of the Kabir Panth. “But I refused offerings and being worshiped like a God,I couldn’t relate to it,and gave up,” says the man who is happy singing Kabir’s bhajans. “And when I met his wife,Shanti,I realised how her wisdom ripped through the crap of self conscious,pretentious knowledge the educated man flaunts. Kabir,for one,never subscribed to the politics of knowledge,” reflects Shabnam.

From exploring Kabir in Had Anhad and Chalo Hamar Des to dealing with the dilemmas of the sacred and secular Kabir in Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein and Koi Sunta Hai,Shabnam has come a long way. So has she found her truth,her God? “That’s a difficult thing to explain for truth is a pathless land,and there is no objective reality.” It’s all fluid,free flowing,like Kabir.

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