THE OCEAN OF LOVE - THE ANURAG SAGAR OF KABIR
FOREWORD
by Sant Ajaib Singh Ji
EVER SINCE the Almighty Lord started coming into this world in the
form of the Saints, it has always happened that during a Saint's
lifetime only a few people care to know about his life: where the
Saint was born, how he used to live, what qualities he had, and why he
came into this world. They don't care about all these things while the
Saint is alive; but when the Saints leave this world, their incredible
power and their teachings which change the lives of many people
impress the people of the world, and only then - when the Saint is
gone - do the people of the world start thinking about them and
devoting themselves to them. So that is why, according to the
understanding of the people, stories are told about the Saints. It is
very difficult to find out much about the Mahatmas of the past-their
birth, their place of birth, their parents, their early life, etc.
Whatever people have written about the Great Masters has been written
many years after their departure from this world. That is why Kabir's
life sketch has different versions. According to most of the
traditions, Kabir Sahib was born in 1398 in Benares and he died in
1518, living for 120 years.
There are many different stories of Kabir and of his effect on others,
some of which are told in the Introduction to this book. Dharam Das
was Kabir's gurumukh disciple and successor, who was a very wealthy
person and an idol-worshiper. It is said that once when he was doing
his worship, Kabir appeared to him and asked, "What are these little
idols? If this big idol is God, what are these small ones?" and then
disappeared, leaving Dharam Das to think about what had happened. At
that time, of course, he didn't know that it was Kabir Sahib who had
appeared to him. Second time Kabir appeared to Dharam Das was in the
form of a sadhu. Dharam Das and his wife were sitting by the fire, and
Kabir Sahib said to Dharam Das, "You are a sinner." Dharam Das's wife
could not bear this criticism so she said, "How can you say that he is
a sinner? You are a sinner!" Then Kabir Sahib replied, "Dharam Das,
look in the wood that you are burning -and you will see what you are
really doing." When they looked, they saw many insects in the wood,
and Kabir said, "You are burning so many insects alive! What is this?
Are you not sinning?" After saying this he again disappeared, and
Dharam Das realized the truth of it: "I am a great sinner."
Because he was a good soul devoted to God and he wanted the knowledge
of God, he remembered that he had met someone before who had asked him
about idols, and he realized both of them were the same person. Now
Dharam Das repented very much, and he thought that if his wife had not
got upset at Kabir Sahib, he might have been able to get the knowledge
of God. When he told that to his wife, she said, "Well, flies come to
the sugar. You have so much money; if you perform some kind of yajna
and announce that you are going to donate things to the sadhus, many
sadhus will come. It is possible that this sadhu will also come, and
you can talk to him and get some knowledge of God from him." So Dharam
Das performed many yajnas in the town of Benares, but Kabir Sahib
never came there. Then Dharam Das went to other places and there also
he performed many yajnas, but Kabir Sahib never came. In that way he
just went on spending his money, and even after he performed his last
yajna after selling every single thing, Kabir Sahib still didn't come.
So when Dharam Das had lost all his money and still didn't get to see
the Sadhu, he thought, "Why should I go back home when I have lost
everything? It is better to commit suicide." So he went to the bank of
the river and was about to jump in when Kabir appeared there. And then
Dharam Das touched Kabir Sahib's feet and said, "Oh, Lord, If I had
met You before, I would have given You all the wealth which I had,
instead of wasting it performing the yajnas." Kabir Sahib replied,
"This was the right time for you to come to me. If you had come to me
earlier, when you had all that wealth, it is possible that you would
not become what you will become now."
So Kabir Sahib gave him initiation and, after Kabir Sahib left the
body, Dharam Das continued the work of giving initiation into Shabd
Naam. And the book Anurag Sagar is in the form of questions from
Dharam Das and Kabir Sahib's replies to those questions.
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INTRODUCTION
I. The Life of Kabir
As Sant Ajaib Singh points out in his Foreword, the life of Kabir is
lost in the mists of legend and it is very difficult, from this point
so far removed in time from Kabir's life, to know many hard facts
about it. Still, there are certain elements of that life about which
the traditions seem to agree and about those we can be reasonably
sure.
TIME AND PLACE
As Sant Ji said, it has been generally agreed for centuries that Kabir
lived from 1398 to 1518. There are variations on those dates: one
alter-native that is proposed is 1380 to 1440, and another from 1440
to 1518. Neither alternative is based on tradition, however; they are
speculative reconstructions by modern scholars who apparently have
difficulty with the abnormally long life span. But while the span is
long, even for spiritual Masters, it is not unprecedented: a minority
of Indian holy men have always been long-lived. The celebrated
Trailanga Swami, who apparently lived for three hundred years in
Benares in relatively modern times in the full glare of the British
Raj, is a case in point; one of his disciples, a woman, Shankari Mai
Jiew, born in 1826, was still alive in 1946 - precisely Kabir's life
span.(1)
It was my own good fortune to meet the Maharishi Raghuvacharya, a
well-known yogi of Rishikesh who became, in his nineties, a disciple
of Sant Kirpal Singh Ji. I met Raghuvacharya on two occasions - in
1965 and 1969 - when he was well over 100 years old. He died in 1970,
aged 115, in full control of his powers; when I had met him the year
before he had given every impression of being a vigorous 65. Yet his
long life and birth date was known to hundreds of people, as he had
lived in Rishikesh all of his life.
So while it is unusual for Kabir to have lived such a long life, it is
by no means impossible; and since tradition has fixed on those dates
from early times, and nothing else about Kabir's life is any less
unusual, it seems reasonable to accept them.
It is also reasonably certain that he was born in Benares (then called
Kashi) and lived there most of his life, dying in the nearby town of
Magahar.(2)
(1). See Paramhansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, pp. 291-295, for
an interesting account of Trailanga Swami; but his remarkable age is
attested to by many witnesses. As this book was going to press, the
Boston Globe (February 9, 1982) carried the obituary of Ike Ward, born
into slavery in 1862, dead from old age (without having been through a
period of ill health) at 120.
(2). See note on page 15 below ["Kashi"].
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES
It is as certain as anything can be about Kabir that he was a Muslim
by birth and belonged to the julaha caste. Strictly speaking, Muslims
are not supposed to have any caste; but in India this idea has tended
to erode under the pressure of mass conversions of lower-caste Hindus,
who, in attempting to escape the difficulties of inferior caste, only
succeeded in bringing them with them into Islam. This would appear to
be the case with the julahas, apparently a Sudra caste that converted
en masse between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. The word julaha
means "weaver" in Persian, and the members of the caste are usually
either weavers or farmers. Their social status was and is very low,
and their conversion did not raise it, either in the eyes of Hindus or
of Muslims.
From the very beginning, Kabir has been identified as a julaha.
Indeed, he identifies himself that way. Although his songs and poetry
are not rich in autobiographical information (Anurag Sagar is
particularly disappointing in this respect) what information they do
contain is especially valuable; and the fact is that Kabir happily,
perhaps gleefully, lets the world know that he is a julaha:
I am of low community, my caste is julaha;
I have only one advantage and that is of Naam.(3)
(3). Songs of the Masters, p. 16. This song is from the Granth Sahib,
Gujari 2.
Since the julahas were by definition Muslims, and since Kabir is an
Islamic name (it is actually Arabic and is found in the Koran), his
Islamic faith would appear to be beyond dispute. It has been disputed,
though, on the grounds that his teaching appears to be given entirely
within a Hindu frame of reference. Anurag Sagar is a case in point:
while much of the poem is dedicated to exploding Hindu theology, it is
done from within: the ideas are stood on their head, as it were, by
someone who knows them inside out and who refutes them by showing the
truth that they are supposed to reflect. There is very little Islam in
Anurag Sagar, or in Kabir's poetry in general (although many of the
songs contain brief references to Islamic ideas).
There are various explanations for this, one of them being the obvious
one that Kabir was concerned with the here and now: Most of the people
in the area of his mission were Hindus, and he wanted to reach them
via their own religious language. Another is that the concerns of the
Anurag Sagar are in areas where Hindu mythology is very rich, and the
characters and events of that mythology lent itself to Kabir's poetic
genius in ways that the comparatively barren Islamic tradition could
not. And then there is the fact that the amount of Islamic education
julahas received was very small: the caste as a whole was and is
illiterate, and does not rank high on the priority list of Muslim
educators. Kabir's guru, as we will see, was a Hindu, and Kabir is
generally considered a Hindu saint by modern Hindus: in fact, he has
become a Hindu god, and idols of him are found in Hindu temples-ironic
fate for a Saint who denounced idolatry as strongly as any Hebrew
prophet. His Hindu admirers do not deny his Muslim origins, but they
either ignore or explain them away. Nevertheless, that a Saint who was
not only a Muslim but an illiterate, low-caste Muslim should so win
the hearts of Hindus and rise to such a position of eminence among
them is totally without parallel in all history and testifies
eloquently to the "incredible power" Sant Ji mentions in his Foreword.
His parents, who figure in the Anurag Sagar, were Nima (his mother)
and Niru (his father). They were not, according to Kabir himself, his
actual physical parents, as his birth was miraculous; but he chose
them, for reasons explained in the poem, was brought up by them as
their son, accepted the limitations of their low caste, and learned
the weaver's trade from his father. There is evidence in his writings
that his mother had a very difficult time dealing with his Sainthood
and all that it implied, and also with his use of Hindu concepts in
his teaching:
Kabir's mother weeps bitterly, worrying:
"How is this child going to live, 0 God?"...
Kabir says, "Listen, mother,
God is the only giver for all of us."(4)
[Kabir's mother asks:]
"Who in our family has ever invoked Ram?"(5)
(4). Ibid.
(5). Granth Sahib, Bilaval 4.
When he grew up, he married Loi, who was also his disciple, had two
children -- a son Kamal and a daughter Kamali-and earned his living as
a weaver. Loi and Kamali are not mentioned in Anurag Sagar, but Kamal
is, in a context that makes it clear that he was Kabir's physical son.
Thus it is very unlikely that he was not married, as some of his Hindu
followers (who find the concept of a married holy man difficult to
accept) maintain. In the Sant Mat tradition it is not unusual for a
Master to be married, and as Kabir was the founder of that tradition
there is no reason why he should not have been. Those who object to
this maintain that Loi and the children were all disciples only; but
as the traditions clearly depict all three in an intimate relationship
with Kabir on a daily domestic basis, it is extremely unlikely that
they were not his physical family.
KABIR AND RAMANANDA
The Anurag Sagar maintains, and Sant Mat tradition affirms, that Kabir
is the proto-Master or original Saint, who has descended directly from
God four different times, once in each yuga or time-cycle, founding a
line of Masters each time, and that his incarnation in the present
time-cycle or Kali Yuga - that is, the life of the historical Kabir -
is thus only a fraction of his totality. In the Anurag Sagar Kabir
goes into greater or lesser detail on each of these four incarnations,
as well as his pre-incarnate activity, and his account is accepted by
the Masters of Sant Mat as a straightforward accurate approximation of
actions and events which are ultimately too tremendous to fit easily
into our verbal and con-ceptual framework. His description of his
various incarnations, like many other parts of the poem, is as true as
it can be, given the limits of the medium it is conveyed in, and forms
a basic and important part of the body of ideas and stories that
constitute the verbal tradition of Sant Mat; and the Masters who have
come after him have accepted Kabir as the founder of the various lines
of Masters.
Nevertheless, tradition affirms, and Kabir's writings bear it out,
that Kabir took initiation from a Guru, and the Guru was Ramananda.
This may seem contradictory; but it is a basic pillar of Sant Mat that
everyone needs to sit at the feet of a Master. As Jesus said to John
the Baptist, when the latter in amazement asked him why he had come to
him, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness."(6)
(6). Matthew 3:15.
The situation is exactly analogous; and just as John's question implies
that he should be coming to Jesus, rather than the other way around,
so the tradition affirms that ultimately Kabir liberated Ramananda.
But still Kabir outwardly sat at Ramananda's feet and humbled himself
before him in the eyes of the world. Sant Kirpal Singh Ji has written:
All born Saints, though very few, come into the world with esoteric
knowledge right from their birth but have for form's sake to adopt a
Master. ["Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness."] Kabir
Sahib, for instance, had to accept Shri Ramananda as his Master.(7)
(7). Kirpal Singh, Godman, p. 62.
Sant Ajaib Singh Ji has commented on the relationship of Kabir and
Ramananda in detail as follows:
Kabir Sahib was all-powerful and even if he had not taken anyone as
Guru, still it would not matter much. But still he didn't break the
limits and traditions and that's why he took Ramananda as his Master.
But the fact was that Ramananda was liberated by Kabir Sahib.
Ramananda was an idol worshiper and didn't have any knowledge of
spirituality. But the Hindu people were taking him as a very great
holy man, and they were also criticizing Kabir Sahib because he didn't
have any Master or guru, saying that to take init-iation or to take a
mantra from him is a sin. Kabir Sahib was a very clever Mahatma, and
he thought that if he took any small Mahatma as his Master, then these
people would not believe. So he should take somebody who is well-known
among all these people as his Master. But since Ramananda was not
happy in even seeing any Muslim, and because Kabir was born in a
Muslim family, there was no question of taking initiation from
Ramananda. It was impossible for him.
Ramananda used to go, every morning, to the River Ganges. So, because
Kabir Sahib wanted to take him as his Master, Kabir changed his form
into a small child. He lay down on the steps on which Ramananda was
coming back. It was very dark, and accidentally Ramananda stepped on
that child. And Kabir, who was that child, started weeping. Who knows
whether Ramananda really stepped on Kabir Sahib or not? But still
Kabir wanted some excuse to weep, so he started weeping. Ramananda was
very much afraid and he said, "0 man of God, repeat `God.' 0 man of
God, repeat `God'" - like that. But Kabir Sahib went on weeping. And
he again said this thing, "0 man of God, repeat `God.'" And Ramananda
came back home and Kabir disappeared from that place.
After that Kabir Sahib started saying to people, "Ramananda is my
Master. I have got initiation from Him." So the Hindu people were very
upset with Ramananda, and they came to him, saying, "You have got
thousands of Hindu disciples but you are still hungry for more. Why
did you make this Muslim your disciple?" In those days, people were
believing very much in caste. So Ramananda said, "Who said he is my
disciple? I do not know any Kabir and I have not given initiation
to any Kabir." So all the Hindu people came to Kabir Sahib and told
him, "You come with us to Ramananda. You are saying that he is your
Master but he doesn't believe that. You come with us." So Kabir went
to Ramananda's home.
And at that time Ramananda was worshiping an idol of Lord Vishnu.
Because he was never happy to see the faces of Muslim people, he had
a curtain and Kabir Sahib was sitting on the other side of the
curtain. Ramananda was playing with the idol and at the end he put the
crown on the head of the idol, but he forgot to put the chain on the
neck. So he was very confused at what to do then, because if he
removed the crown from the head that meant disrespect and there was no
other way to put the chain on the neck. So Kabir Sahib, who was all-
conscious, said, "Master, Guru Ji, why are you so confused? Just
unhook the chain and then again hook it and then you will be able to
put the chain around the neck." When he saw Kabir Sahib was sitting
there on the other side of the curtain and couldn't even see him, he
thought, "How did he know I had this problem? And he has solved my
problem!" He was very sur-prised. So he talked with him and said,
"When did I initiate you?" Kabir Sahib reminded him of the incident
and he told him, "You stepped on me and you told me to repeat this
thing, so I am repeating that, and you are my Master."
So Ramananda said, "That was a child; but you are Kabir." He said, "If
you want me to become a child, I can show you. Now also I can change
myself into a child and I can show you that I am the same thing." So
when Ramananda came to know all this he said, "If you are all-
conscious, then why is there this curtain between you and me? Remove
that curtain." So after that Kabir Sahib liberated Ramananda.
Even though Ramananda had received a lot from Kabir, still he was
involved in all the practices he was doing, rites and rituals and
idol-worshiping. Once Ramananda was performing the ceremony in which
they make many good foods and they give it to the people, saying,
"This is going to our fathers and forefathers, those who have died and
who are residing in the heavens." For that ceremony Ramananda sent all
his disciples including Kabir Sahib into the village to get some milk
to make rice pudding and other things. So Kabir also went and there he
saw that there was one dead cow, and by force he started putting some
food in the mouth of that dead cow. Because she was dead, she couldn't
eat by herself. But by using a stick, he was forcing the food in her
mouth. He started milking her. But she was dead; how could she give
milk? So the other disciples, when they saw Kabir doing this thing, they
came to Ramananda and reported it. Ramananda called Kabir and rebuked
him and said, "Oh man, the dead cow cannot eat food and she cannot
give milk." So Kabir Sahib said, "Guru Ji, are you sure that the
dead cow cannot eat anything or give any fruit?" So he said, "Yes,
that is definitely true." So he said, "Well, how are you sure that the
food that you are giving to other people, saying, `This is going to go
to your fathers, those who are residing in the heavens?' will really
give you fruit?" Ramananda didn't have any reply to that. And
Kabir Sahib only did this to teach him a lesson because Kabir Sahib
had made up his mind to liberate Ramananda.(8)
(8). Ajaib Singh, Streams in the Desert, p. 381.
KABIR AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
Kabir's impact on his contemporaries was profound. Many stories are
told which illustrate his power, insight, and various aspects of his
extraordinary personality - including his honesty, unforced humility,
total dependence on God, compassion and bluntness. Baba Sawan Singh,
after being praised by many for having performed a miracle, told this
story which emphasizes the human-ness of this most transcendent of
Saints without diminishing his glory:
The people attribute this incident to my miraculous powers. It is
just as it once happened with Kabir Sahib. The pundits, the pseudo-
Saints and the well-read people were jealous of Kabir Sahib.
Accordingly they proclaimed throughout the town that on a certain
day there would be a Bhandara (a religious gathering and feast) at
Kabir Sahib's place. Kabir Sahib came to know about this trick the
evening before. How could He feed thousands of men? [He was of
course very poor.] He left the place in the evening and hid Himself
in the jungle, remaining there until the next day. From His place of
hiding He could see the people returning from His home the next
day, and all of them were remarking, "Well done, Kabir! What
delicious food you provided for the Sadhus!"
Kabir Sahib did not know what this meant....He returned home
and His family told Him, "Well, you were here all the time and you
yourself fed all the people." Kabir Sahib at once understood that it
was all the mercy and blessing of the Supreme Father. [He is
reported to have exclaimed: "Kabir did not do it, could not do it,
would not do it; it is God Who has done it, and the credit has gone
to Kabir! "] The same is the case in this incident. The Saints always
remain within the Will of God.(9)
(9). Quoted by Rai Sahib Munshi Ram, With the Three Masters, Vol. 2,
pp. 184-85.
Sant Kirpal Singh used to tell a marvelous story which demonstrates
Kabir's power as well as his humor and wisdom:
At the time of Kabir Sahib there was a certain pundit or religious
teacher. His story is written in the scriptures, and it tells of how
he studied the holy and other books extensively and became the most
learned man for many miles around, so he called himself Sarbajeet,
meaning one who has won above all others. On completion of his
studies, he returned to his mother's house. She was a follower of
Kabir Sahib, and he said to her, "Mother, I have become Sarbarjeet;
you should call me that from now on." She replied, "I will, if you can
beat Kabir Sahib in knowledge." Worldly knowledge often encourages
pride, and carelessly picking up his books he said, "Oh, that is
nothing," and went off to Kabir Sahib's humble dwelling.
Kabir Sahib said to the young man, "Well, Punditji, what has brought
you here?" The proud pundit replied, "I am Sarbajeet, and I have come
to beat you in knowledge." Kabir Sahib smiled at him and said, "I do
not want to argue over this, so you just write down that Sarbajeet has
won and Kabir has lost; and I will sign it." The pundit was very
pleased that Kabir had given in so easily; he quickly wrote the words
and got Kabir to sign it. He went home, and flourishing the paper at
his mother, he said, "Now you will have to call me Sarbajeet, for
Kabir Sahib has acknowledged it." She took the paper and read aloud,
"Sarbajeet has lost and Kabir has won." Unbelieving, he read it for
himself, and said, "How is this possible? There must be some mistake -
I will go back to Kabir Sahib." On arriving at the Saint's house, he
blurted out, "Maharaj, I made a slight mistake, so I want to rewrite
the paper." Kabir Sahib amiably agreed, and signed the new
declaration. When the pundit reached home, his mother read the paper
and said, "But it is still written, 'Sarbajeet has lost and Kabir has
won."' In frustration he shouted, "I will go again to Kabir!" and
hurried off. It is a rule with all great Masters that they never
belittle a person, but with love they make the people understand. If
one does not listen even then, they will go to the extent of
operating, like a doctor who will do his very best to cure a tumor,
even if it means resorting to surgery. So, with great kindness, Kabir
Sahib pointed out to the pundit, "How can your mind and mine become
one? I say what I have seen, and you say what you have read from
printed matter." (10)
(10). Kirpal Singh, "The Jewel of Infinite Value," Sat Sandesh,
Vol. 3, No. 10, pp. 4-5.
Sant Ajaib Singh tells a brief story which is very revealing:
In the time of Kabir Sahib, once on the banks of the River Ganga a
person of low caste was bathing and a pundit was passing by. And it
happened that one drop of water from the body of that low-caste man
touched the body of the pundit, and he became very upset because he
considered himself polluted; but Kabir Sahib told him very lovingly,
"Oh Brahmin, you were also born of a woman; how can you be called
brahmin when we shudras came into the world from the same place and we
were born in the same manner? How can you say that we and you are
different? You have blood and we also have the same blood!" So Kabir
Sahib lovingly explained to him that all men are the same. (11)
(11). Ajaib Singh, Streams in the Desert, p. 174.
Revolutionary sentiments like this have endeared Kabir to such modern
Indian visionaries as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, but had
the opposite effect in his own time. A caste-conscious Hindu society
and an orthodox Muslim establishment both viewed the presumptuous
julaha with horror, and he was persecuted a number of times, primarily
by the Emperor Sikander Lodi. He was drowned in the Ganges chained in
a boat full of stones, but either was miraculously saved at the last
minute or resurrected from the dead; he was buried alive, but survived
that also; he was bound and thrown in front of an elephant, but the
elephant refused to touch him. These stories are part of the
tradition, but of course are not verifiable; nevertheless, that
Kabir's teaching and ac-tions brought him into conflict with authority
and eventually persecu-tion is overwhelmingly probable; to survive
such persecution either through divine intervention or resurrection is
not without precedent; and in any case, Kabir's survival is well
attested, as is his death in Magahar at an advanced age.
The earliest written reference to Kabir outside of the Sant Mat tradi-
tion is in the Bhakta Mala, a poem on the lives of various Saints,
written by Nabha Das about 1600 (eighty years after Kabir's death). It
is a very interesting and accurate brief summing-up of his career as
seen from outside:
Kabir refused to acknowledge caste distinctions, or to recognize the
authority of the six Hindu schools of philosophy; ... He held that
religion without bhakti [loving devotion for God] was no religion at
all, and that asceticism, fasting and almsgiving had no value if
unaccompanied by bhajan [meditation]. By means of ramainis, shabdas
and sakhis [different types of songs] he imparted religious
instruction to Hindus and Mohammedans alike. He had no preference for
either religion, but gave teaching that was appreciated by
the followers of both. He spoke out his mind fearlessly, and never
made it his object merely to please his hearers.
KABIR'S SUCCESSORS
As the seminal figure in the modern history of Sant Mat, Kabir had a
number of disciples who became Masters and gave initiation after his
passing: some of them are known only from his writings, but many are
famous in their own right. Ravidas and Dadu Sahib are two well-known
Saints who derived directly or indirectly from Kabir, and there are
many others. The two that are of concern to us here are Dharam Das,
who was his gurumukh successor and who is honored today especially by
the members of the Kabir panth, a religious sect in northern India (it
has Hindu and Muslim sections) which claims to have been founded by
Kabir, and Baba Nanak, the first guru of the Sikhs, who is honored
today especially by the followers of the Sikh religion.
It is one of the ironies of history that the line continuing through
Dharam Das, whose special relationship with Kabir is vividly described
by Sant Ji in his Foreword, should have decayed and become eventually
one of ceremonial religious leadership, while the line continuing
through Nanak, who only met Kabir twice and who was himself a swateh
sant, "born free,"(12) should be the line through which Kabir's power
and im-pulse continue in their fulness in the modern world.(13) But it
is true: the Kabir-panth today has no knowledge of the inner
teachings, and has reduced its initiation to one of ritual only. While
the same is true of the Sikh religion, that line went underground
after the death of the tenth Sikh Guru and has continued unabated down
to the present.
KABIR'S PASSING
When Kabir was ready to leave, it is said that his Hindu and Muslim
disciples were prepared to fight over whether his body should be
cremated or buried. After rebuking them sternly for forgetting his
teachings so soon, he lay down, covered himself with sheets, and told
everyone to leave. When they came back into the room, his body was
gone; where it had been was a heap of flowers. His Muslim followers
took half of the flowers and buried them, and his Hindu disciples took
the other half and burned them. Thus in death as in life, Kabir demon-
strated the universality of the Masters.
It is also said that Kabir made a number of resurrection appearances
after his death, including at least one to Dharam Das in which he gave
him further instruction along the lines of the Anurag Sagar.
(12). Kirpal Singh, Godman, p. 20.
(13). See Streams in the Desert, p. 11, for a complete list of the Masters
descending from Kabir through Nanak down to the present.
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