We want to discuss some sages and seers of ours living between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries.

Kabir was born in Benares. He lived from 1398 to 1448. His father, Niru, was a weaver and a Mohammedan. Kabir never left the trade of his father, though he became a great religious leader. He continued to make and sell cloth to his dying day. In this connection he said once, “Do some work to maintain yourself and help others also.”

 

Kabir also advised devotion and praised wisdom. He himself was devoted to his guru Ramananda and preached him all his life. All the things he did were demonstrations of what his guru had in his character. Even after so many years we can sense the sweetness of his love for Ramananda. Kabir was a good singer and verse maker. Thousands of ‘doha’ or verses are contained in his ‘Bijak’. This book is entirely spiritual in tone, and laymen often can’t fathom it.

 

Kabir tried to unite Hindu and Moslem spiritually, and he was partially successful. We can still feel the weight of his work. He travelled many places in our Land then to Mecca, Baghdad, Samarkhand, and Bokhara. He roamed only to preach the Lord. He had no so-called prejudices. For example, Hindus have the prejudice that if they die in Benares, they will go to heaven. But just before his death Kabir told his disciples to take him out of Benares. This was done and he expired in the village of Magahar in the Basti District. After his death his disciples split into two groups: one settling down in Benares under the leadership of Suratgopal with the “Bijak’ as its main written authority; and the other going down to Chhatrisgar led by Dharmadas. We now see that Chhatrisgar group has grown much. They claim a membership of 420,000. There are many Moslem disciples of Kabir still living in Magahar Village.

 

Rabidas was also born in Benares, and he was born there when Kabir was living there. Like Kabir, he was born into a humble family, his father being a cobbler. He was also a disciple of Guru Ramananda. He was highly spiritual and a glory to his nation. Queen Jhali took him as her spiritual master. Rabidas wrote more than thirty verses or prayers in a book called ‘Grantha- Sahib.’ Sikhs often still chant those prayers. His song was :

“He has no beginning, no end.

He was and ever is.

Nothing e’er destroys Him;

He lives in each man’s heart.

And though we may not know it,

We all are worshipping Him.’

 

Guru Nanak (1469-1538) was born in the village of Tilarandi (Raipur) situated on the bank of the Ravi River. He was unusually sharp and intelligent from his boyhood. When he was nine years old, he asked such penetrating questions on the occasion of his sacred thread ceremony that people present were astonished. He wanted one nation and one religion. The unity he desired lives today among the Sikhs. He was also a musician and verse maker. His ‘Japji’ has been loved by people of all sects. For devotional, active, and intelligent people the book is ideal. He, like Kabir, travelled a lot. He went to Afghanistan, Macca, Ceylon. He was also unprejudiced. He spoke lots against the caste system, idolatry, and sectarianism. His only meditation was to love Him the Supreme. “Leave all worldly pretensions and love God”, he said. “Seek and ye shall find.”

 

Tulsidas was born in Tori Village near Doabe, in the U. P. He lived from 1531 to 1623. He was a master of both Hindi and Urdu. He was a poet as well as a spiritual light. His Ramayana in Hindi was full of devotion and fine feeling. He started writing the Ramayana in Ramachandra’s own city of Ajodhya and finished it in Benares in 1575. It is still a favorite. In it he preached the doctrines of Sankaracharjya, so that Sankaracharjya’s Brahma became Tulsidas’s Rama. It was called ‘Ramcharitmanash.’ He also followed Ramanuja’s monism.

 

The saint Tukaram was born in the Village Dehu on the north-west side of Poona. He was of a business family and started his own business at the age of thirteen, but lost everything. He sought and found Vishnu (Bithova) in compensation for his worldly loss. He began to worship deeply and got the needed solace in his heart. He read ‘Abhanga’, the verses of Namdev, the verses of Kabir, the songs of Jnaneswar, and the ‘Bhagavat Gita’. He found much more interest in spiritual books than in his inherited calling of business. He completed the incomplete works of Namdev, and himself composed many thousands of Abhanga, of which only eleven thousand were published. He finished 26 other books too. He did not deal in any philosophy or ethics. He said only to love God. He was a loving man. Many a proud heart and disheartened spirit were conquered by his love. His love for men was the spiritual start of the people of Maharastra.

 

Ramdassoami was born in Jambu Kshetra on the bank of the River Godabari. He started his spiritual life form an early age and wandered about in forest and cave near the Godabari for several years. He meditated and developed in this wandering period. Sivaji took him as his master in 1649. Ramdas taught Sivaji many things about politics. His eye was on the building of the Hindu nation. We remember Vaisita and Valmiki when we think of him. He loved Sivaji’s son, Sambhuji, as his own after Sivaji’s death in 1680.

 

Dadu was another who fulfilled the true spirit of our culture. He had a very broad mind. He was the son of a Moslem quilt maker, but we don’t know where he was born. Benares, Gujrat, and Ahmedabad all claim him.  He established an institution called ‘Paramshampradai’ to unite people of different faiths. When men are spiritually developed, they become loving and give up obsessions and superstitions, he said. He tried for this, and many became broader in outlook due to him. He did not follow scriptures. He simply tried to know himself. He taught men to leave ego and love God instead. He asked his disciples to see all men and women of the world as their own brothers and sisters. ‘Our heart is the centre of love; we can find everything there,’ he said. ‘Don’t ask God for anything. To serve His sons and daughters is everything and the only way to love Him. Be brave, be energetic, and depend on God. Leave all sectarianism, pilgrimages, idol worship, and other outer expositions of religion. They are all useless. To love the Satguru is the best way.’ Such were his sayings and prayers contained in 37 anga and 27 raga.

 

Dadu had many famous disciples. Some of these were Sundarji, Garibdasji, Sankardasji, Haridasji, Kazi Mohammedji, and Rajjabji. The last named said:

“The candle will burn in the midst of darkness.

That candle is within you.

Complete your prayer and worship

in your life-temple.

The Ganges flowed from Narayan’s feet.

It can flow from every heart.

Where devoted men are gathered,

flow many Ganges Rivers.

Bathing in those waters

purifies the heart.

In every atom He is living.

If many atoms come together,

there is a spiritual sensation-

barren minds are moistened

and the struggling life is eased.

The whole world is in the Vedas,

and the Koran contains it too.

Loving man is Brahma,

and Brahma is Veda and Koran.”

 

Gurugovinda Sing was born in Patna in 1660. He was the tenth Sikh guru after Nanak. He wrote a second volume to Grantha Sahib. (Grantha means ‘concerning the guru’.) His sayings were for strong and brave personalities. Emperor Aurangzeb was ruling the country then, and the Sikh people had to fight him. Gurugovinda was a very spirited man; he did not miss his opportunity. He faced all with militancy. He did not like to hide himself behind religion. It is not that he challenged anyone to fight him, but he was ready to accept any challenge given him by another. His character was wonderful and rare in history. Probably Guru Nanak had had the same spirit, but had had no opportunity to show it.

Daria Sahib (1700-1780) was born in Dharkanda Village, Ara District, Bihar. One kshatriya royal family had come from Ujjaini and settled down in Jagadishpur, near Bakshar. In that family one Piron Shah, a saint, was born. He was most probably a sufi. Piron Shah’s son was Daria.

 

Daria called God ‘Satyanam’, and spoke lots of devotion even in his boyhood. He had thirty-six prominent disciples. Like Kabir, Nanak, and the others, Daria discarded pilgrimages, the putting of holy mark on the body, etc. He once more restored the old and eternal religion. He said that the religious life is itself a craving of man and needs no other justification. People had all but forgotten this old idea. He hoisted the flag of truth in their midst, and they rushed to him for guidance and initiation. Amongst many others, Dildasji is a known disciple.

 

A few years before the birth of Daria one Jagjiban Sahib preached ‘Satyanam’. He was born on the bank of the Soraju in 1682. His master’s name was Bullar, and he himself became the master of Dulamdasji, Jalalidasji, and Debidasji. The last-named had exceptional realizations.

 

Poltu Sahib took birth in Nagpur-Jalalpur, in the Faijabad District. He lived from 1757 to 1835. His guru’s name was Govinda. Many people supposed him to be a second Kabir. Like Kabir, he was without social prejudices. He said, “If the higher classes ignore the lower, the society is hurt, and those higher classes themselves are hurt. He who has realized the truth never considers what caste he belongs to. God is not for any particular class. Be sweet, serviceable. The truth is within you. Why do you seek it outside ?”

 

Maharshi Debendranath Tagore was born in Jorasanko, Calcutta. He lived from 1817 to 1904. His father was Prince Dwanakanath Tagore. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was his friend. You may say he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and at the same time that he was born religious. He was inducted into the Brahma religion in 1843. He was a patron of the ‘Tattabodhini’- magazine for which he wrote many religious articles. He wandered over the Himalayas in 1857-58 and realized many things about God. He was said to be always in tune with God. He made marvelous public speeches, especially on religious subjects. After Raja Ram Mohan Roy died, Debendranath took over the Brahma Society.

 

Sree Arobindo Ghosh was also born in Calcutta. His birth date was August 15, 1872. From his seventh to twelfth year he was in England. Then he took service as a private secretary to the King of Baroda. He became a professor at the Baroda College in 1892. But perhaps he was not satisfied. In 1903 he returned to Calcutta and published ‘Bande Mataram’ ‘Karmajogin’ and ‘Dharma’ magazine. He was interested in politics, especially in the independence of his country. After satisfying this interest, he retired to Pondicherry where he devoted himself to spiritual culture. He wanted to go to the top in this line, and meditated for a long time. He did not want that spiritual realizations should be reserved for a few and the mass of men go uncultured. He wanted that all men together should reach a supramental plane and have concrete spiritual realizations. Let all go forward to an infinite expansion, he said.