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When he sings, I just stand and listen || Acharya Prashant, on Kabir Saheb (2019)
Acharya Prashant
Follow
1/2/2025
Video Information: Vishranti Shivir, 07.09.2019, Chandigarh, India
Context:
~Who is Saint Kabir?
~Why does Acharya Prashant have such fondness for him?
~Why is he regarded as one of the epitomes of spirituality?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
Learning
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
What's your question, Jamie, tonight, if any?
00:21
Yeah, I think I saw something.
00:30
Yes, Jamie wants to be introduced to Kabir Saheb.
00:37
Says, Dear Acharya Ji, in the West, we generally do not know Kabir.
00:40
In fact, during my time in India over the years,
00:44
you are the only one who has mentioned him,
00:48
him, that is Kabir Saheb to me.
00:50
If time permits and no other question requires your attention,
00:54
would you please share with me who Kabir is to you?
00:57
What you admire about his life on earth and what the core of his teaching is for us?
01:03
Thank you, Acharya Ji. Deepest gratitude, Jamie.
01:06
Jamie, yes, it's a pleasure to bring
01:11
Kabir Saheb to the West.
01:16
Geographically, Australia is not really in the West.
01:20
You are further to the East compared to India.
01:22
Yeah, culturally, culturally.
01:32
Kabir Saheb, how do I talk about him?
01:42
Bare honesty, honesty, honesty, honesty.
01:47
Honesty, thy name is Kabir.
01:53
Worked his entire life, first of all.
01:58
He was a weaver, small-time weaver from Varanasi, by profession.
02:05
Worked all his life and there is a very strong reason why I am mentioning this in the first place
02:11
as the most important thing about him.
02:16
There has been an abundance
02:18
of so-called religious teachers who do not bother to work.
02:31
They just yak.
02:34
All they have is gab.
02:37
Gab. Talk, talk and talk, not work.
02:42
Kabir Saheb worked. He was a weaver and he would weave every day
02:45
and he would live out of what he would earn from there.
02:49
Not that he is the only one who would work.
02:51
There are many others in history.
02:56
But India is a place where the devotional sentiment always runs high.
03:05
And he was born in the Bhakti age. He belonged to the 14th century.
03:11
14th and 15th century.
03:16
And he lived in Varanasi, the center of all orthodoxy.
03:27
He could have easily managed to have as much money and worldly goodies as he wanted.
03:39
He never had anything from his people, his audiences. Never.
03:49
And he wasn't a beggar either.
03:51
Neither was he a seated and decorated Guru
04:07
who would collect donations in lakhs and crores.
04:10
People would come and offer millions to him.
04:15
None of that.
04:16
He never bothered to establish himself as some high-flying Guru.
04:23
Nor he was a beggar.
04:27
He wouldn't say, I am a bhikshu.
04:28
He wouldn't take the begging bowl and go about collecting alms.
04:32
He worked like any ordinary person.
04:39
And he would call himself, you know, Kabira or Kabir.
04:47
He would never give himself a title or a sobriquet. Nothing.
04:53
He is Kabir. Just Kabir.
04:55
At least his addresses to himself never go beyond calling himself Kabir or Kabira or Kabira.
05:07
Kabira.
05:13
That's honesty to the bone, to the core.
05:23
Later on his followers started calling him Sahib and Sadguru Kabir and all those things.
05:29
He never did all that.
05:31
It's so beautiful. It's so beautiful.
05:34
In fact, I have this grudge against India just because Kabir Sahib was so humble about himself.
05:40
So India has not really given him the place he deserves.
05:47
We still address him as Kabir.
05:49
Very, very ordinary and far lesser folks are addressed far more admiringly and respectfully.
06:05
But the greatest of them all is called Kabir.
06:10
And not that he did not know that the world lives on pretense and showmanship.
06:22
He knew all those things.
06:24
And yet he would say Kabir.
06:26
Once he said, Kabir Kutta Ram Ka, Mutiya Mera Nao.
06:31
It requires guts.
06:35
And Jaime, your Acharya Ji is sold out to this beautiful display of guts.
06:49
Only somebody with the utter heart of a lion can dare to proclaim in public, Kabir Kutta Ram Ka.
06:59
Kabir is the pet dog of Ram.
07:05
And he didn't stop at that.
07:10
He went ahead and christened himself as Mutiya.
07:16
Kabir Kutta Ram Ka, Mutiya Mera Nao.
07:21
Gale Ram Ki Jewari, Jit Kheeche Tit Jao.
07:24
And when you come across something like this, you feel delighted to be alive at that moment.
07:34
When I am with Kabir Sahib, I feel grateful for being alive.
07:42
I am grateful I was born so that I could come upon Kabir.
07:47
And he lived in Varanasi, which I said is the seat of Hindu orthodoxy.
07:59
And yet he had the courage, the devotion and the conviction to say,
08:08
Paathar Pooje Hari Mile Toh Main Poojoon Pahaad.
08:13
At another place he says, Deotan Se Kutta Bhala.
08:19
If one could attain God by worshipping stones, I would rather worship the mountains.
08:32
And he told to all the idol worshippers that even dogs are better than all these gods that you worship.
08:42
At least dogs offer you some protection and security in the night.
08:46
What do these gods offer you?
08:49
Macho man, my hero.
08:53
And I have been a fanboy.
08:58
He is my superhero.
09:08
And the sheer depth of his realisation.
09:13
And the absolute simplicity of his expression.
09:17
Maya Maya Sab Kahe Maya Lakhe Na Koe, Jo Man Se Na Utre Maya Kahiye Soe.
09:23
And there are volumes upon volumes trying to describe what Maya is.
09:30
The entire world is perplexed about Maya.
09:36
What is Maya? What is Maya?
09:39
And Kabir Sahib dismisses all this talk about Maya like this.
09:44
With one flash of his hand.
09:50
Jo Man Se Na Utre Maya Kahiye Soe.
09:53
As if he is saying, son, the question is so simple.
09:58
Why can't you see the answer?
10:01
Like a maths teacher.
10:04
Consoling a beginner who is grappling with an actually easy but apparently insurmountable problem.
10:13
Son, it is so easy.
10:19
Just say y is equal to e raised to the power x.
10:22
And you will get the answer.
10:27
Just substitute e to the power x with y and you will get the answer.
10:32
Jo Man Se Na Utre Maya Kahiye Soe. Done, done, dismissed.
10:37
And Maya is cringing and squirming.
10:41
Finally somebody got the better of me.
10:44
Jo Man Se Na Utre Maya Kahiye Soe.
10:46
That which keeps occupying your mind.
10:50
That which you cannot get rid of is Maya.
10:57
Is there any other who ever put it across so simply and so beautifully and so totally?
11:04
There is nobody.
11:07
Kaal Kaal Sab Kahe.
11:10
Kaal Na Jaane Koi.
11:12
Jeti Man Ki Kalpana Kaal Kahave Soe.
11:15
Time is another of our obsessions.
11:19
And we never seem to get the better of it.
11:22
Time. What is time? What is time?
11:24
What is time?
11:26
What is space-time?
11:29
And Kabir Sahab says, Jeti Man Ki Kalpana Kaal Kahave Soe.
11:36
And here, he has hit two birds with this one arrow.
11:45
And he says, Jeti Man Ki Kalpana Kaal Kahave Soe.
11:48
By Kaal he means not merely time but also death.
11:55
Such fantastic mastery is rarely seen elsewhere.
12:00
Obviously you get glimpses of it many other places as well.
12:04
I respect all of them. All of them are very very dear to me.
12:08
I worship them.
12:10
But when it comes to Kabir Sahab, I said I am a fanboy.
12:16
When he speaks, when he sings, I can just stand and clap all day.
12:30
Brute honesty and childlike simplicity.
12:38
How can you put these two together? Kabir Sahab does.
12:43
Brute honesty and childlike simplicity and innocence.
12:58
I sometimes say to the ones around me,
13:03
if I am very unwell and dying, don't offer me Gangajal and all that.
13:11
Just sing Kabir to me.
13:19
Not that that would take me to heaven.
13:21
That might actually make me get up.
13:27
I am not interested in heavens or swarg.
13:31
But if you bring Kabir Sahab to me, chances are I will just spring back to my feet.
13:49
No mumbo jumbo, no miracles, no otherworldly stuff.
14:03
Kabira.
14:05
The highest that the world can ever know is calling himself Kabira.
14:15
Who will not fall in love with such a hero?
14:38
And work and work.
14:43
Work. Work the entire day. Work.
14:57
And have the courage to speak truth to power.
15:04
The bare truth.
15:07
The hard-hitting truth.
15:11
Never mix it up. Never dilute it.
15:18
Put things as they are.
15:27
And Sahab was attacked.
15:29
He was attacked from all sides because he did not belong to any side.
15:35
He didn't relent.
15:52
On one hand, to me he is the greatest scholar of Advaita.
15:58
You would not have heard such a description of Kabir Sahab.
16:02
He is mentioned as a Bhakti saint.
16:06
To me he is a great Vedanti.
16:12
He is the greatest scholar of Advaita that the world has known.
16:18
And he is also the greatest devotee when he says Ram.
16:26
Of course his Ram is not Maryada Purushottam Ram.
16:32
These two streams become one in him.
16:35
Gyan and Bhakti.
16:37
You cannot describe him as a Bhakti saint.
16:43
The knowledge of the entire Vedic corpus shines simplified in Kabir Sahab.
16:52
And yet he has the integrity to say
17:03
when the Vedas talk of animal sacrifice.
17:07
It goes something like this.
17:27
When it came.
17:36
To cruelty towards animals.
17:42
Kabir Sahab is in another league.
17:47
He is probably the only well known figure in the history of religion
17:52
who has spoken very clearly, loudly and unsparingly
18:02
against cruelty to animals and flesh eating.
18:08
He did not spare even the Vedas.
18:10
When the Vedas said that Ashwamedh should be there.
18:13
You know what Ashwamedh is right?
18:15
A sacrifice in which the horse is offered.
18:21
Similarly Ajmedh in which the goat is offered.
18:25
So Kabir Sahab says,
18:28
And that is another reason why I so closely identify with him.
18:35
Today veganism is a cause we espouse.
18:42
Kabir Sahab was a vegan in those times.
18:47
He was the staunchest vegetarian at least.
18:54
And he was very clear that if you eat flesh.
19:00
If you kill animals and if you eat animal flesh.
19:05
Then you are entering into evil.
19:13
And no forgiveness, no redemption would be available to you.
19:18
Nobody, just nobody has spoken so strongly against flesh eating.
19:29
In fact there have been teachers who were themselves flesh eaters.
19:35
And in that background when you look at Kabir Sahab.
19:43
He is exemplary all alone in a league of himself.
19:56
So not only does the Vedic stream.
19:58
But even the Buddhist stream and the Jain stream.
20:03
Come together and merge in him.
20:05
He is the greatest Sangam this country has known.
20:13
And I would also say.
20:20
India in particular and the world in general.
20:24
Have yet not given Kabir Sahab his due.
20:29
His real place in the history of mankind.
20:33
Is yet to be ascertained and evaluated.
20:36
We take him very casually.
20:41
Just because he never put up a great show about himself.
20:47
We take him very casually.
21:03
Go close to him and go close to all others.
21:07
And then you will realize how singularly, brightly he shines.
21:16
I can speak all night on him. So stop me.
21:39
In fact I have spoken more on Kabir Sahab than I have done on anybody else.
21:49
Both in Hindi and English.
21:51
And I think as long as this body is there I will continue doing that.
21:58
And his entire corpus is enormous.
22:05
There is so much to speak on.
22:37
And sense of humor.
23:02
That's not easily found among religious spiritual people.
23:08
My boss has a terrific sense of humor.
23:19
People sometimes tell me that they look up to me not merely as a teacher but also as a stand-up comedian.
23:32
They have probably not met my boss.
23:37
I have met him and his brand of humor is delicate and rib-splitting.
24:08
Both insightful and casual.
24:26
He is extremely casual.
24:32
You will not find him serious.
24:34
He just says things.
24:37
And what he just casually says, people interpret an entire…
24:52
People take an entire lifetime to interpret.
24:58
And he has just casually said something.
25:02
Now you interpret it.
25:04
Kabir Das talks of it in an inverted way.
25:33
Quilts are raining.
25:40
And water is being wetted.
25:45
At another place he describes the wedding ceremony of an aunt.
25:56
The wedding of an ant.
26:02
So now the aunt is having a grand wedding.
26:07
And the elephant has come over.
26:10
And the mouse has also come.
26:13
And the entire thing is described and in the end he says,
26:18
The one who can realize what is being said here will cross over.
26:25
If you can interpret what is going on, you will cross over.
26:29
And the entire description is outrightly funny.
26:37
He not merely meditates you, he outwits you.
26:46
The zenith of all wit.
27:16
All right.
27:34
Yes.
27:36
And thanks for asking this, Gemmy.
27:38
I am seriously glad.
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