Satguru Kabir Saheb and the Lineage of the Panth
Satguru Kabir Saheb was miraculously found floating on a lotus leaf at Lahartara, Varanasi. His Guru was the revered Saint Ramanand, and among his most well-known disciples was Dharam Das.
Satguru Kabir Saheb established the spiritual lineage of the Panth by bestowing 42 sacred names (Nam), known to us today as Acharyas or Hajur Sahebs.
When an Acharya is inaugurated, they renounce their birth name and assume the divine name allocated by Satguru Kabir Saheb himself.
Vijay Das Shastri was appointed as the eighteenth Acharya and took on the sacred name Panth Shri Hajur 1008 Ardhnam Saheb. His Guru is His Holiness Panth Shri Hajur 1008 Uditnam Saheb, the sixteenth name allocated by Satguru Kabir Saheb.
It was His Holiness Uditnam Saheb’s vision to build and renovate the birth place of Kabir Saheb, now known as Sadguru Prakatya Dham, Kabir Bagh, Lahartara—a place of great spiritual importance and devotion.
The Acharya (Hajur Saheb) holds the highest seat within the Panth. All Mahants are inaugurated by an Acharya through a sacred ceremony known as Chadar Vidhi, during which they receive a hat, a certificate, and divine blessings.
The Present Era
Many of the original scriptures of the Panth were written in Sanskrit and Hindi. In recent times, these sacred texts have been translated into English, making them more accessible to people around the world. The advent of the internet has further expanded their reach, allowing Kabir Saheb’s teachings to inspire a global audience.
While we remain deeply connected to our past, we often find it challenging to navigate the present. Our current Acharya (Hajur Saheb) has vowed to spread the teachings of Satguru Kabir Saheb across the world, with a special focus on guiding and inspiring the youth.
His Holiness has visited the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Mauritius, and Trinidad—his first visits outside India—and plans to continue visiting more countries in the near future.
His Holiness remains devoted to completing the mission of his Guru by making the birthplace of Satguru Kabir Saheb accessible to devotees around the world, ensuring that the light of Kabir Saheb’s message continues to shine across generations.
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Satguru Kabir Saheb
Sat means True
Guru means Teacher
The term Satguru refers to an enlightened teacher whose life’s purpose is to guide others on the path of truth and spiritual realization.
About Satguru Kabir Saheb
A saint appears in the world to guide those who have lost
their spiritual vision. In India, the fifteenth century was a time of great
turmoil—people of different faiths were in conflict, and even within the same
religions, divisions and disputes prevailed. Moral values had declined; people
were proud of their rituals and external practices but had forgotten the
essence of true devotion. Inequality and intolerance were widespread. It was
during this period that Kabir emerged on the stage of Indian history.
Birth and Early Life
According to legend, Swami Ashtanand was meditating on the
banks of Lahartara Pond near Varanasi when he saw a divine light descending
upon a lotus flower. The light took the form of a baby. Astonished, he hurried
to inform his guru, Swami Ramanand. Meanwhile, a humble Muslim weaver couple, Niru
and Nima, came upon the child. Believing him to be abandoned, Nima
persuaded her hesitant husband to take the infant home. Thus, Niru and Nima
became the foster parents of the divine child—though it is believed Kabir was
not their biological son.
It was the full moon day of the month of Jyeshtha,
Vikram Samvat 1455 (June 1398 CE), when the couple brought the child home.
When neighbors inquired about his caste and religion, Niru replied simply that
the baby was a human being found at Lahartara, and he did not know to which
caste or faith he belonged.
For the naming ceremony, Niru invited a Qazi. The Qazi
opened the holy book and repeatedly found the same name revealed to him—Kabir,
meaning “The Greatest of All.” He warned Niru that this was no ordinary
child. Disturbed by the omen, Niru briefly abandoned the baby in the forest,
but a divine voice called out, “O Niru, do not forsake this child! He will
bring glory to your name.” Awestruck, Niru returned home with the child, who
was then named Kabir.
Spiritual Awakening
As Kabir grew, he observed the social divisions and
religious strife around him. He questioned:
When no one could answer, he proclaimed that God is One,
and that all human beings are His children—brothers and sisters beyond caste,
creed, or religion. He taught that no one is born with sacred marks like the
thread of a Brahmin or the circumcision of a Muslim; these are man-made
distinctions.
People then asked him who his guru was, for in that
age, spiritual knowledge was not respected unless one had a guru. Although
Kabir, being self-realized, needed no guru, he chose to honor the tradition of guru-disciple
and sought initiation from Swami Ramanand. However, Ramanand initially
refused, as Kabir was the son of a Muslim weaver.
Legend says Kabir lay on the steps of the Ganges where
Ramanand came each morning for his bath. Accidentally stepping on Kabir,
Ramanand exclaimed, “Ram, Ram!” Kabir accepted those words as his guru
mantra and declared himself Ramanand’s disciple. Over time, even Ramanand
recognized Kabir’s profound wisdom and spiritual greatness. Another legend
recounts that when Ramanand was performing a ritual and became confused over a
mistake, Kabir’s unseen voice guided him. Realizing Kabir’s spiritual stature,
Ramanand bowed and said, “From this day, you are my guru.”
Teachings and Influence
Under Kabir’s influence, Ramanand began accepting disciples
from all castes and walks of life—such as Ravidas the cobbler and Sena
the barber. Kabir himself began to preach against caste divisions,
religious hypocrisy, and empty rituals. His message of unity and truth angered
orthodox priests and qazis alike, but common people—drawn by his simplicity and
sincerity—became his followers.
Kabir’s disciples came from all sections of society: kings
and laborers, Hindus and Muslims, Brahmins and Shudras. Even Emperor Sikandar
Lodhi, who once sought to punish Kabir, eventually acknowledged his
greatness.
While weaving at his loom, Kabir composed his immortal dohas
and bhajans, which his followers faithfully recorded. His couplets,
known as sakhis—meaning “testimonies”—bear witness to eternal truths. He
urged seekers to look for God within and taught the path of Sahaj Samadhi,
or “natural union with the Divine.” Among his foremost disciples were Dharmadas,
Vir Singh Baghail, King Ram Singh of Rewa, and Nawab Bijli
Khan of Gorakhpur. Many sacred sites, such as Kabir Chaura in Varanasi,
Kabir Vat on the Narmada River, and Kabir Kotha at Dwarka, remain
associated with his travels.
Final Days
Throughout his life, Kabir fearlessly opposed intolerance,
bigotry, untouchability, and the false belief in inequality between men and
women. He affirmed that every soul has the right to seek and attain the highest
spiritual goal.
Kabir lived for 120 years. To dispel the
superstition that dying in Varanasi grants salvation while dying in Magahar
brings misfortune, he deliberately chose to leave his body at Magahar,
proclaiming that a true saint attains liberation anywhere, for God is present
everywhere.
In 1518 CE (Magh Shukla Ekadashi, Vikram Samvat 1575),
Kabir departed from his mortal body. A legend tells that when Hindus and
Muslims quarreled over his remains—one group wishing to cremate, the other to
bury—a divine voice instructed them to lift the shroud. Beneath it, they found
not a body, but a bed of lotus flowers. The followers divided the
flowers: Hindus performed cremation rites, while Muslims buried theirs. Today,
both a Samadhi and a Maqbara stand side by side at Magahar,
symbolizing the unity Kabir lived and taught.
Thus, the life of Satguru Kabir, which began with
lotus flowers, also ended with them—a fitting symbol of purity, enlightenment,
and divine beauty.
The Philosophy of Satguru Kabir Saheb
Satguru Kabir Saheb embraced the Vedantic concept of the Atman (soul) and emphasized the Nirguna (formless) aspect of God. He opposed idol worship and ritualism, believing that God can be realized only through direct personal experience.
He rejected the caste system and all forms of social discrimination, proclaiming that all human beings are equal before God. For Kabir, the true Guru is one who leads the seeker to self-realization and divine truth.
Kabir Panth
Kabir = Satguru Kabir Saheb
Panth = Path or Way of Life
Kabir Panth is not merely a religion but a way of life. One need not convert or follow rigid doctrines to understand and live by the teachings of Satguru Kabir Saheb. His philosophy is open to all who seek truth and inner peace.
Five Pillars of Kabir Panth
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Love
-
Humanity
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Compassion
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Non-Violence
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Truth
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Sayings of Satguru Kabir
1. The life is passed in turning the beads, but the darkness
of the heart is not destroyed. Leave the turning of beads by the hand, but turn
the beads of your mind.
2. If you have no devotion to God, you will not gain
anything by pilgrimage. You may roam over the country and yet your heart
will be impure. The man who has gone to
3. I am very fond of the words of my sweetheart— Beloved
(God). I do not get any solace if anybody tries to console me in other ways. If
you make a fisl1 lie on a golden cot and give it ambrosia to drink, it will
surely die in no time.
4. The diamond appraiser only can know the value of the
diamond. Kabir says: only he who has developed devotion can attain God.
5. Show thou a rose to him that showeth thee a thorn. To
thee there is always a rose; to him there is a thorn for ever more.
6. Have no faith in this perishable body. Remember the Lord
by all your breaths; that is the only way to salvation.
7. "Why dost thou trample upon me?" crieth the
earth to the potter, "A day will come when I shall trample upon
thee."
8. The body is an inn and the mind a bird that has willingly
taken a lodging in it. It is but a truism that none is none's relative.
9. 'Virtue' abides where there is compassion, 'vice' where
there is greed; 'death' where there is wrath, and the Lord Himself where there
is forgiveness.
10. Every forest does not contain a sandal tree; every army
does not contain a real soldier; every sea does not contain pearls; even so, a
Sadhu or a saint or a Mahatma is not found everywhere in the world.
11. Have patience; everything comes out in time. The
gardener waters the plant daily, but it bears fruit only in season.
12. If I turn the whole earth into paper, all the trees
into pens and the seven seas into ink, even then the greatness of the Lord
cannot be fully described.
13. There is no greater evil than a bad word; it burns
everything into ashes. A kind word is, on the contrary, like rain that falls in
nectar-like torrents.
14. A word is priceless if one knows how to use it. Let
every word be weighed in the scales of the heart before it is given out.
15. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today, nor
till the evening what you can do this very moment; for you know not when death
may overtake you, upsetting all your plans.
16. He alone is the hero who has all the five senses at his
command. He who has no such control
never approaches the Lord.
17. A dumb man, having tasted sugar, cannot express its
taste. Even so, the experience of Self-realisation cannot be expressed.
18. Just as sugar toys are made of sugar and sugar exists in
all of them, even so, the whole universe exists in Brahman and Brahman in it.
19. The sugar and the sugar toys are not two things; they
both are one. Similarly, when real knowledge dawns, the manifold universe
appears as one.
20. Just as the tree is in the seed and the seed in the
tree, even so is the world in Brahman.
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