Page:A History of Hindi Literature.djvu/40

26 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE " Consider the parable of the sieve ; it suffers the flour to pass, but retains the husk ; So men let pass what is good and swallow what is useless."^ The lines below illustrate Kabir's theological stand- point : — If God be within the mosque, then to whom does this world belong ? If Ram be within the image which you find upon your pilgrimage, then who is there to know what happens without ? Hari is in the East ; Allah is in the West. Look within your heart, for there you will find both Karim and Ram ; All the men and women of the world are His living forms. Kabir is the child of Allah and of Ram : He is my guru, He is my Pir."2 One more extract will illustrate the poetical merit of Kabir's verse : — No one knew the mystery of that weaver : who came into the world and spread the warp. The earth and sky are the two beams : the sun and moon are two filled shuttles. Taking a thousand threads he spreads them lengthways: to-day he weaveth still, but hard to reach is the far-off end. Says Kabir, Joining Karma with Karma, woven with unwoven threads, splendidly the weaver weaves.^ The son of Kabir, named Kamal, is also said to have been a poet, and his couplets to have been made in refutation of the sayings of his father whom he seems to have opposed. Hence arose the proverb, '*An unlucky family was Kabir's, in which the son Kamal was born." Nanak. — Of the many movements which owe their inspiration to the teaching of Kabir none is more important than the religion of the Sikhs, which was founded in the Punjab by Nanak (1469-1538). It is said that Nanak, when twenty-seven years of age, met Kabir, and the influence of the latter is seen not only in the large number of Kabir's compositions afterwards included in the Sikh Gra7ith, but in the doctrines of Nanak, which are very similar to those of Kabir, and ^ Translations from Westcott's "Kabir and the Kabir Panth," pp. 95, 86, 93. 2 Translation by Sir Rabindranath Tagore, "Kabir's Poems," 69. ^ Btjak. Ramaini 28. (Rev. Ahmad Shah's translation.)