The Target is Behind The Sky (Fifty Poems of Kabir)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Sant Kabirdas or Kabir (circa 1398-1518) was a leading light of the great devotional movement that swept across India during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He spent most of his life in and around Benares in North India. According to some legends, he was abandoned by his Hindu mother soon after his birth and was brought up by a Muslim weaver. He came into contact with Ramananda, a Hindu sage, fairly early in his life and was soon drawn towards the teachings of the Upanishads and the Sufis. In due course of time, Kabir established his own order, the Kabirpanth, which harmonised Hinduism and Islam by preaching a universal path. Kabir believed in one attribute less God and held that one's liberation from the endless cycle of births and death is possible when the individual soul (jivaatmaa) merges with the Universal Soul (Parmaatmaa). An apostle of peace and a votary of non-violence, Kabir condemned animal slaughter, dogmas and rituals as well as worship of idols. He was strongly opposed to religious fanaticism of both the Hindus and Muslims and attacked the rigours of the caste system and social evils like widow burning (sati). Kabir was thus far ahead of his time. His poems (padas) and couplets (dohas) in vernacular Hindi (Avadhi dialect) were compiled by his followers in the 'Bijak. Many of his songs have found their way into the holy book of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Saheb, and are popular among the Indian masses even today.

In doing these translations, I have derived great help from the works of Kabir Parakh Sansthan, especially the notes and explanations given by Shri Abhilash Das in his 'Kahat Kabir'. My indebtedness to him cannot be really expressed in words. My thanks are also due to my wife Deepa and to my sister Prof Ranu Uniyal of Lucknow University for offering their valuable suggestions from time to time. I am also grateful to Shri Alok Rawat, IAS, for his unstinted support and encouragement and to Shri Pradeep Mittal of Low Price Publications for bringing out this book in a very short time.

**Contents and Sample Pages**