For
Monday: Indian Islamic Poets, Part I: Kabir, Poems (pp.1587-1594)
Answer
TWO of the following…
1.
How does Kabir’s poetry and ideas contrast with the other Indian work we’ve
read in class, The Bhagavad Gita? Though he is a Muslim, does his philosophy complement
the teachings of Krishna in that work?
How might his poems express a truly Indian or “Eastern” view of
spirituality?
2.
Through these poems, Kabir chides holy men for worshipping rocks or “[teaching]
many students/their business tricks” (1592).
What does he feel is wrong with much of the organized religion of his
day? Why does he feel it is more of a
“business” than a path to heaven?
3.
Kabir’s poetry is rich in metaphors, as it advises us to be an ant, rather than
an elephant, or a “mosque with ten doors.”
Discuss one of the metaphors in a specific poem that helps us see the
truth, rather than the illusion of the senses.
4.
In a passage that sounds a lot like the Daodejing,
Kabir writes, “Accomplish one thing and you accomplish all./Seek to do all and
you lose the one vital thing” (1594).
How might this share an essential philosophy with the Daodejing, and what do you feel he means
by this statement—or others like it?
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