Lehal Library

23 Birth of Sikhism Rama and Allah.' He said: 'The Hindu resorts to the temple and the Mussalman to the mosque, but Kabir goes to the place where both are known.... Kabir has taken the higher path abandoning the custom of the two. If you say that I am a Hindu then it is not tme, nor am I a Mussalman. I am a body made of five elements where the Unknown plays. Mecca has verily become Kasi, and Rama has become Rahim. ,i; Kabir, though born a Muslim, found no difficulty in worshipping as a Hindu. He believed that there could be only one God and he refused to bow before idols. 'If God is a stone, I will worship a mountain,' h.e said. He did not believe that Mohammed was the only guide in spiritual matters, but like other Bh.aktas he believed in the necessity of every person attaching himself to a guru. He believed in the singing of hymns of praise. He accepted the Hindu theory of rebirth after death in preference to the Islamic one of a purgatory and paradise. Being a Muslim, he did not mince his words in condemning the Hindu caste system which made him an outcast To sum up, wh.at the different Bbaktas achieved in the realm of religious speculation was this: there was only one God. He was the only reality; the rest was illusion. God could not be represented in the form of an idol, for He was indefinable and all-pervasive. The best way to approach God was by resigning oneself to His will. The easiest way to find God's will was by becoming a disciple and seeking the guidance of a guru, as weU as by meditation and singing hymns oflove and praise (kirtan). The caste system was not divinely ordained, for all human beings were born equal. Spiritual life did not demand an ascetic denial of food, company. and sex., for a citizen discharging his obligations to his family and society had as good a chance of attaining salvation as a henn.it or a monk. Unfortunately, not many of the Bhaktas practised what they preached. Despite their proclamations of the unity of God, they continued to worship one or the other reincarnations of Vishnu or Shiva, more often than not represented by stone idols. And their pronouncements on the equality of mankind seldom meant 5 Tara Chand, /11jlunice of /sf.am on Indian CulLure, p. 150.