A Message of Peace For Humanity
by Kabir
A Message of Peace For Humanity,
by Mahant Purushottam Das
(published in "Kabir Voice," Surry, BC Canada)
If one were to ask "what is the religion taught by Sri Kabir?" [all genuine Masters], then it may be said, "the religion taught by Satguru Kabir is the religion of the heart, the religion in which the most important quest is to seek God in the heart of humanity".
To seek God in the heart one must walk along the path of love. Sri Kabir was in love with love. His conception of love, which is synonymous with God, is immanental (God is immanent). Love works everywhere but most particularly in the human heart. It is possible for the individual soul to turn away from the sensual things and find the Lord, see Him and know Him. In away, somewhat akin to Vedanta, Sri Kabir identifies the Self with God. Love leads to absorption and "extinction" in God. In order to reach the state of Sahaj Samadhi (easy union with God) it is necessary to tread the path of love. This does not mean love to our close ones only, but to the entire Creation. Without love Sri Kabir says the heart is like a samsan (cremation ground). Love is the essence, it is the moving power of the Universe.
In love we have our being. Love becomes possible only when one is not concerned with one's own state of becoming, that is, when one is egoless. When "I-ness" is subtracted, says Sri Kabir, love manifests itself in its plenitude and one merges with pure being.
When 'I' was, God was not.
Now 'I' am not, God is.
The more loving the heart, the more sensitive it becomes to God, and one learns to recognize the Divine in every person. One becomes careful of every person with whom one comes into contact in one's thought, speech and action. For there is no person devoid of His presence (sab ghat mera saivan).
Complete submission to the will of God, say all Masters, is the condition sine qua non for love to dawn in the true devotee's heart. For true love involves no bargaining, no barter, no give and take. It does not need theories, doctrines, nor abstruse philosophical dissertations to add to those already existing, and which are puzzling the human mind. The practice of love is the only true yoga, the purpose being to escape from one's own illusory "I-ness" and, through illumination, to realize that God is the only Reality.
What the world needs today is the same message of love taught by Sri Kabir six hundred years ago. The absence of love is the only tragedy of life. The message which does not give a new doctrine is as old as the earth, Universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man, the fundamental unity of life. It asks for the tolerance on the part of each different faith, because their essence is the same. There is, in reality, no Hindu, no Muslim, no Christian, no black and no white, but there are HUMAN BEINGS, all the children of the same God. The message asks for harmony and consideration for all, irrespective of class, caste, age, sex, or nationality. For all people have only one destiny -- to abide in love and harmony.
At the time when parochialism, fanaticism, separation, tribalism and all negative "isms" ad infinitum are appearing like un-exorcised demons to crush humanity, the simple message of love must be heard, understood, internalized and practiced by all of us. This is the simple religion of Sri Kabir -- the Master of Benares. ////////
