The Bijak of Kabir

Kabir was an extraordinary poet whose works have been sung and recited by millions throughout North India for half a millennium. He was perhaps illiterate (I don’t touch ink or paper, this hand never grasped a pen) and he preached an abrasive, sometimes shocking, always uncomprising message exhorting his audience to shed their delusions, pretensions and empty orthodoxies in favour of an intense, direct personal confrontation with truth. Thousands of poems are popularly attributed to Kabir but only a few written collections have survived over the centuries. The Bijak is one of the most important anthologies, being the sacred book of the Kabir Panth and the main representative of the Eastern tradition of Kabirís verses. All versions of the Bijak include three main sections called Ramaini, Sabda and Sakhi, plus a fourth section containing a number of miscellaneous folk-song forms. Most of the Kabir material has been popularized through the song-form known as sabda or pada and through the aphoristic sakhi that serves throughout North India as a vehicle for popular wisdom. These two forms, universally linked with Kabir, have been emphasized in this translation. Shukdev Singh and Linda Hess have accomplished a translation of real grace and remarkable accuracy. The introduction and notes explore Kabirís work, place it in its initial context and explore its meaning for modern time. The Bijak is one of the most important anthologies, being the sacred book of the Kabir Panth and the main representative of the Eastern tradition of Kabir’s verses. Shukdev Singh and Linda Hess have accomplished a translation of real grace and remarkable accuracy. The introduction and notes explore Kabir’s work, place it in its initial context and explore its meaning for modern time.