Kabir and Vemana

by Guest Wed Mar 21, 2012 12:14 am

i had earlier read some writings (in translation) of the telugu poet Vemana. Vemana attacks the caste system, meaningless rituals, superstitions, and there is a certain rationalism and common sense which pervades all his writings.

i have been reading the writings of the hindi poet Kabir and i have to say there is an uncanny resemblance between Kabir and Vemana based on what i have read so far. Kabir and Vemana are so similar in their approach that i believe it would be difficult to tell them apart in english translation.

in subsequent posts i will give extracts from the writings of both Vemana and Kabir.

by Guest Wed Mar 21, 2012 12:18 am

This is Vemana. (what follows is from a sulekha post of yours truly.)

--------
Vemana was a 17th century poet (i believe from Andhra,
though others may clarify on this). One can see that Vemana was
evidently a deist. On pg 523-4 of Our Oriental Heritage, Will Durant
writes:

Vemana, a South Indian poet of the seventeenth century, writes
scornfully of ascetic hermits, pilgrimages, and caste:

The solitariness
of a dog! The meditations of a crane! The chanting of an ass! The
bathing of a frog!...How are you the better for smearing your body with
ashes? Your thoughts should be set on God alone; for the rest, an ass
can wallow in dirt as well as you...The books called Vedas are like
courtesans, deluding men, and wholly unfathomable; but the hidden
knowledge of God is like an honorable wife...Will the application of
white ashes do away with the smell of a wine-pot? Will a cord cast over
your neck make you a twice-born?...Why should we constantly revile the
Pariah? Are not his flesh and blood the same as ours? And of what caste is HE who made the Pariah?

by Guest Wed Mar 21, 2012 12:27 am

This is Kabir (from the book 'Songs of Kabir' translated by Arvind Mehrotra):

Were the Creator
Concerned about caste
We'd arrive in the world
with a caste mark on the forehead...

Nobody's lower-caste
The lower castes are everywhere
They are the ones
Who don't have Rama on their lips.

------------
His death in Benares
won't save the assasin
from certain hell.

any more than a dip
in the ganges will send
frogs--or you-- to paradise.

My home, says Kabir,
is where there's no day, no night
and no holy book in sight

To squat on our lives.

--------
Just one point: The translator points out that the Rama of Kabir is not the Rama of Ramayana. The Rama of Kabir is not a Hindu God, but a God encompassing all religions.

by Guest Wed Mar 21, 2012 12:35 am

More Kabir(What a wonderful poet he was):

To tonsured monks and dreadlocked Rastas
To idol worshippers and idol smashers
To fasting Jains and feasting Shaivites
To Vedic pundits and Faber poets
The weaver Kabir sends one message
The noose of death hangs over all.
Only Rama's name can save you.
Say it NOW.

----------
If going naked
brought liberation
the deer of the forest
would attain it first.

if a shaven head
was a sign of piety
ewes would be
pious too

if holding back the semen
brought you closer to heaven
a steer would
lead the way

there's no salvation
without Rama, says Kabir
Not to know it is
Really dumb.

by Guest Wed Mar 21, 2012 12:45 am

Kabir again:

I'd say this
through a megaphone
if i had one:

look at these men.
shaven heads,
great big earrings,
ash-smeared bodies,
but inside they're empty
as a house that's been
cleaned out by thieves.

and look at these others
in the best part of town,
who forget that when death
slips its noose round their necks
to drag them through the streets
it won't be pretty.

I live in Fearlessburg,
Kabir the weaver says.
Its builder? Rama

----------
one of my problems in reading Kabir in translation is the occurrence of words that i find a little odd. For instance, 'Fearlessburg' and 'megaphone'. But unfortunately the original hindi verses are not given in Meherotra's book--as they should have been.

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