Taking Spirituality beyond Religion

A new book tells us how Kabir was both extraordinary and ordinary, devout and rational

- Atreyee Majumder

KABIR, KABIR

The Life and Work of the Early Modern Poet-Philosopher

by Purushottam Agrawal

WESTLAND

Purushottam Agrawal’s Kabir, Kabir: The Life and Work of the Early Modern PoetPhilosopher is a translation and extension of the author’s acclaimed 2009 Hindi monograph Akath Kahani Prem Ki: Kabir ki Kavita aur Unka Samay. In this book, the author unravels an archive of Kabir’s legacy, not only through his own poetry but also the words of his disciples, most significantly Anantdas. The renowned philosophersaint-poet who dedicated his life to the practice of Bhakti in the name of Ram, was a most mysterious figure in the history of Bhakti saints as well as the chequered history of Hindu-Muslim interfaith discourse.

Agrawal, in the first half of the book, complicates popularly known facts about Kabir and illuminates the delicate philosophy that animated a very private man, born in the Muslim weaver family, who continued to live in the householder mode and as a weaver. One of the most interesting things Agrawal shows is Kabir’s fierce preference for solitude—signs of a deeply individualistic, nonsectarian journey towards the divine. The other significant attribute in this portrait is Kabir’s insistence on a constant dialogue between the internal spiritual journey and the need for voluble protest against the injustices in the external world—between the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’.