Bhagat Kabir Ji: the weaver of Kashi and his bani in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji

This day celebrates the birth of Bhagat Kabir Ji, the weaver-poet of Kashi, now Varanasi, whose bani has the largest place among the Bhagats in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Outside the Sikh tradition, the day is widely kept as Kabir Jayanti, on the full moon of Jeth.

The weaver of Kashi

Kabir Ji lived in the fifteenth century and was raised in a family of Muslim weavers, the julahas, at Kashi, the holiest city of Hinduism. He worked at the loom all his life and never left the life of a householder. Tradition holds that he was a disciple of Swami Ramanand. He spoke against the pride of caste, the empty rituals of both Hindus and Muslims, and the claim of priests to stand between people and the Divine, and he paid for it with persecution.

His bani

Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji included more than five hundred of Kabir Ji's shabads and shaloks in the Adi Granth, written in a plain, earthy language full of images from the loom, the market and the household. His bani speaks of devotion to the one Formless Creator, of death as a constant reminder, and of the Divine found within rather than in temples, mosques or pilgrimages.

His last days

In old age, tradition says, Kabir Ji left Kashi for Maghar, a town believed to bring a bad rebirth to anyone who died there, to show that a person's fate depends on their devotion, not the place of death. A story very like the one told of Guru Nanak Dev Ji says that Hindus and Muslims disputed his body and found only flowers.

How the day is observed

Sangats mark the day with kirtan of his shabads and katha on his life, and the Kabir Chaura in Varanasi draws pilgrims of many faiths.