a post existential philosopher: the relevance of non...

Volume III, Issue VI, August 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065

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A Post Existential Philosopher: The Relevance of Non Generic

Philosophy of Kabir in the Contemporary Age

Hardeep Kaur

Research Scholar

Panjab University (Chandigarh)

India

Abstract:

This paper will explore the writings of Kabir in context of its relevance to the contemporary

times of fragmented self and the developing discontentment amongst the masses. The

formulation of analysis will also include Nietzsche‟s philosophy in general. In a way, the

philosophy of Kabir will be showcased as a solution to the intricacies of postmodern

philosophy of fragmentation and nihilism, forming post existentialisti viewpoint. So, the

writings of Kabir do not remain fixated to the genre of Bhakti movementbesidesthis it can be

applied to the contemporary philosophy and that accounts to its non generic

form.Furthermore, by problematizing the notion of reality, the truth beyond virtual reality and

the limitation of human to the representation of signs will be examined in context of Kabir‟s

writings. His role as a poet, social reformer, a spiritual messenger and a radical iconoclastic

will be explored too.

Keywords: Bhakti, Kabir, Nietzsche, Nirguna, Post-existentialism, Postmodernism, Sarguna,

Subaltern


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Kabir was a renowned saint- bhagat belonging to the early fifteenth century and the

fact that his writings are studied in the contemporary timepoints towards its relevance in

today‟s „hyper real‟iiworld. The certainty of his rebellion against the prevalent hegemony of

religious orthodoxy and the choice to differ from the consented ideology of religion

establishes him as the Neitzschean hero (in the postmodern context). His „will to power‟

aspect dismantled the authority and questioned the decrepit religious practices of Hindus as

well as Muslims. As Vaudeville in his book on Kabir observes that, “for some people he was

the Indian Luther, and for others he was a Sufi mystic…for many people now he is the poet

and spokesman of the proletarian classes” (220).

To study the post-existential aspect of Kabir‟s poetry, the background of existentialism is to

be studied too. It was a literary and philosophical movement started in the early 20th

century

following the two world wars. The large scale destruction of lives also disrupted and shook

the faith of people in humanity or for that matter in God, the outcome causing dread termed

as angst and the hopeless despair that further leads to existential anguish. The philosophers of

this movement started exploring the cause of this dread and Sartre pinned it down to the

onslaught of capitalism supporting Marxism although he later abandoned this due to his

disillusionment with the Bolshevik revolution. Additionally the modernists pointed out the

cause of alienation of man to technology while the post modernists dealt with the after effects

of it and even denied the exact cause and celebrated the confusion. Contrary to these, Kabir

criticised the prevalent religious practices of his time and held it responsible for the onslaught

of masses. Also, as religion administered authoritarianism (similar to Neitzschean view), he

propagated the spiritual way to find the solution within one self.

Professor Purushottam Agarwal in one of his lectures on Kabir gives the instance of Marx‟s

Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 to relate it to the alienation caused by

religion. The Marxian concept of modification of work into labour, of becoming a

commodity in a capitalist society is comparable to the alienation of one‟s essence in the form

of religion, imposed by an outside agency. Thereby, he says that “…it is this spiritual essence

which is alienated through the agency of organised religion, and thus man alienated from his

own nature”(Agarwal, blog). Thus, whereas Marxism regarded „religion as an opium of

masses‟, Kabir preached about spirituality, which is beyond religion and is opium of bliss.

Moreover as existentialism emphasised the subjectivity of an individual and of finding their


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way through making a choice, another philosopher named Soren Kierkegaard offered the

solution through leap of faith in god and for Nietzsche the god was dead shifting the focus on

authenticity, in terms of being true to oneself. The philosophy of Kabir is significant, as it

distinguished between the role of religion and the spiritual quest of an individual. In other

words, the relation between the postmodernist aspects and Kabir‟s philosophy are to be

analysed only to be rejected further as the solution lies in the notion of bhakti which the saint

advocated.

The postmodernist feature of „language game‟iii

in relation to Kabir‟s philosophy is that of

deconstruction, which was coined by Jacques Derrida questioning the certainty of truth and of

demonstrating how statements related to text subvert their own meaning. Here, the term is

used for conveying the subversion of logic and rhetorical use of language. Through his

verses, Kabir questions the notion of reality on a deeper level and the concept of being and

existence is problematized. Through the use of „ulatbhasha‟, he tends to solve and at the same

time confuse the reader/listener. In Songs of Kabir, A.K Mehrotrastates that the “upside down

language is called „ulatbhamsi‟…its like children‟s riddle…ends in revelation…which is

disputable” (160). For instance, in one of the verses Kabir says, “Brother, I‟ve seen

some/astonishing sights:/A lion keeping watch/Over pasturing Cows;/…A tree with its

branches in the earth,/ its roots in the sky…This…is your key to the universe./if you can

figure it out (KG, 116). While Linda Hess avers that there are two ways of studying these

poems through tradition and intuition. And further says that the “Upside down language

„should‟ you feel like a fool: that is part of its function” (qtd. in Hess,135). In the book Kabir;

The Weaver’s Songs there is yet another instance of this techniquewhere the poet says,

“whoever maligns me, is my friend…the one who stops decrying me, is my real critic” (105).

Therefore, Hess states that, “Kabir‟s utterances act; they not only talk about non duality, but

embody it…in the genre of ulatbamsi” (27).The message put across is that the way to

salvation cannot be defined or structured and the nonstrategic position reveals the key to

knowledge of universe which is the inner self. Kabir relates that the inner reflects the outer

and vice versa, thereby the structure of universe comprising rivers, mountains, galaxy and the

other elements are similarly inside one‟s body structure in a miniature form.

Furthermore to elaborate the pre- deconstructiveaspect of language in Kabir‟s context, the

emphasis is laid on the spoken word over the written.Before the Derridean deconstructive

philosophy, the philosophers in the manner of Plato, Rousseau, Saussure, and Levi-Strauss


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laid emphasis on the spoken word as compared to the written word believing that the spoken

word expresses the mental experience, while the written mentions the already existing

symbols.Kabir emphasised the fact that god‟s manifestation is to be realised through one

word, the „shabad‟ which comprises the entire universe. And this is not to be realised through

intellect but devotion and complete surrender of the mind. This also relates to the similarity

between Kabir‟s teachings and the postmodernist belief of that of the critique of the intellect.

Hessnotes that “dividing and distinguishing is the chief activity of the mind and its most

powerful tool, likewise for Kabir, it‟s the chief barrier to our understanding things as they

actually are”, as he says, “is it two or one”? (Ibid., 22-23). The point is not about what the

mind perceives in addition it questions about how one perceives it and even one‟s

understanding is questioned by Kabir.

Roland Stahl in his essay quotesProfessor W. T. Stace‟s analysis of the intellect problem in

his book Time and Eternityconcluding that it is “impossible to translate symbolic religious

propositions into literal form”. He emphasises on its dissimilarity from non-religious symbols

not in context of concepts but experiences and points out that in the deeper analysis of all

religions, the common stance is that God is “ineffable”. Thereby, he cannot be known

through the intellect but intuition. Henceforth it is inexplicable as Kabir says “that which you

see is not, and for that which is you have no words”. (Stahl, 143-147). In one of the verses

Kabir compares the blissful state to inexplicability as being incommunicable through

language and hence compares it to a dumb person‟s inability to define sweetness. While the

post modernists denied the transcendent reality as well as moral values and thereby did not

believe in any universals.

Stahl further refers to Stace‟sapplication of Bergsonian concept that “intellect is the name

given to the process of understanding objects by means of concepts. Intuition is the name

given to the apprehension of the divine in mystical experience”. Thereby, he relates intuition

to its “actual participation in reality, while, the intellect tends to form concepts of perception

in expressible form” (144-6). Kabir compares the mind to an elephant, where he questions

about its entering the way to salvation, which is one-tenth the size of a mustard seed (WS,

176). Therefore, the mind is to be dismantled for attaining bliss. Machwe in his book Kabir,

observes that “Kabir constantly refers to a middle stage between the spoken and the

unspoken, between voice and silence” and in one of the poem he says “I am terrified to call

Him heavy, to call Him light would be an untruth; what can I know of Ram, never having


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seen Him with my eyes” (20). Furthermore Kabir mentions about the knowledge beyond

understanding and deconstructs the claim of knowing it. In a way, he problematises the

solution to despair and this humility is the key to salvation.

Coming back to the existential aspect in context of religion it criticised the „sarguna‟ form

of god, which is anthropomorphic in nature. While, Kabir advocated the „nirguna‟ form of

devotion, believing in a formless god discarding the role of priests as an intermediary and the

manifested godly forms in the idol worship. Moreover as the existentialists pointed out the

solitariness of an individual and hence the anxiety similarly Kabir emphasised that

solitariness and being alone is the fact as “a man‟s wife goes with him to the door,…at the

corpse-ground there‟s only the stretcher./after that, swan, you‟re on your own” (Hess 33).

Thereby, Kabir comes across as a post-existentialist being a believer of god beyond god

advocating the aftermath of dealing with the hopeless condition of manwhich is the

existential condition.

Kabir‟s mode of attaining salvation is different from the other bhagatsakinTulsidas or Mira

as they followed the Sarguna path of worshipping an anthropomorphic deity such as Krishna

while Kabir questioned the origin of Brahma, the Vedas and the source of soul pointing

towards the soul‟s ultimate journey to „baikunth‟, which is translated as heaven in English

although the real meaning is its position beyond heaven, which is experienced by the soul

through means of meditation. It is also referred to as „begumpura‟ in the AdiGranth. Hess

labels Kabir as a “dialectician” and to explicate it she quotes Stanley Fish, who in his Self

ConsumingArtifacts states that

a dialectical presentation…is disturbing, for it requires of its readers a searching and

rigorous scrutiny of everything they believe in and live by…does not preach truth but

asks the readers to discover the truth for themselves…the end of this experience is

nothing less than a conversion…” (20).

Fish postulates the transformation in consciousness due to dialectical process where “the

rational consciousness is stilled, for it has become indistinguishable from the object of its

inquiry”, which Hess notes is a “mystical experience… when the distinction between subject

and object disappears, the self disappears” (22).This is the moot point of Kabir‟s teaching.

Thereby, the term post-existentialist is apt for Kabir as he goes beyond the understanding of

the self.


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The problem of existentialists and the postmodernist‟s rejection of universals are limited to

defying the religious structure which structures morality. Nevertheless Kabir comes across as

a non generic philosopher not only because he was an iconoclast though also due to his

deeper message of spiritualism that defies any structure, practices or identity, he derogated

the mere practise of parroting the name of god saying that it‟s analogous to saying money and

becoming rich. Thereafter he disregards the mechanical reading of Vedas and by using

Baconian terminology says that the real bliss is found when one eats, chews and later digests

the knowledge that is gradually revealed. Moreover, he questioned the ritual of religion and

the shrine pilgrimage, in particular context to the popular religious belief in his time

discarding the necessity of yogic practises of shaven heads, forest dwelling and leading the

life of celibacy.He rather advocated the idea of treating the mind as Mecca, body as Kaaba

and thus treats the self as the supreme master (WS, 22).He further deconstructs every art of

attaining god of that of penance in forest, indulging in tantras and yantras, ritual sacrifices

and typical yogas of immersing oneself in water. The endpoint he states is that only bhakti

provides access to god.

Kabir comes across as a post existentialist as he has the solution to despair and

hopelessness which the existentialists project. The existential maxim is „existence precedes

essence‟, while Kabir‟s poetry questions one‟s existence and probes to find the essence of

life. In a way it questions the Descartian view of „I think, therefore I am‟, putting the „I‟

under scanner of doubt. In most of his verses the image of death is evoked as a hunter,

pursuing the being to knock it out in the moment of weakness. This is where he calls out to

wake up out of illusion before death strikes us. The technique employed by Kabir can be

related to the genre of post modernist style of „theatre of cruelty‟iv

. The listener is jolted out

of his senses in order to realise the crude reality of life which is the inevitability of death. In

Spiritual problems in Contemporary literature Stanley Hopper observes that

existentialism is a symptom of man‟s contemporary crisis…the progress from health

to sickness is a change of being, rather than a change in thought…so civilization is

sick, recovery will not come through any single set of ideas, or philosophy, but only

through a transformation of our whole existence…social, economic and religious

change” (140).


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Thereby, Kabir incorporates the larger aspect of spiritualism in which the focus is on shabad,

“the „Bijak‟ which literally means „seed‟, bija or mantra to reveal the mystery of existence,

the fundamental vibration” (qtd. in Hess, 27).

Existentialism made one aware of the happenings around one‟s being that also increased

the human difficulties making one face the crude reality of death, anxiety, guilt and

conscience as a condition and not a solution thereby, the despair (Hopper, 142-3). While,

Kabir emphasised the idea that it is within one self that the salvation is to be attained through

loving god while in existential philosophy though the focus is on an individual the deeper

analysis of inner being is missing. The west believes in the fact and tangible form of reality,

while east believes in indirect and incommunicable means of knowledge through intuition.

Tolstoy in his novel The Death of Ivan Illyich relates a similar kind of existential situation

through the protagonist Ivan who dies contented with the realisation that “the life he lived

was empty, futile and meaningless” that shows the alienation of an individual due to

modernity (220). Likewise it can be correlated to the contemporary alienation of individuals

due to technology, producing a real beyond the real world. Thereby the relevance of Kabir‟s

philosophy is imperative in the present times, where the spiritual emptiness amongst people

has led to unthinkable violence and discontentedness. Eliot in his Burnt Norton relates

mento“bits of paper”, “whirled by the cold wind…amid this general purposelessness of life…

set ourselves the task of recapturing the sense and the meaning of life” (143-144).

Furthermore the importance of body and its identity is completely shunned by Kabir as he

negates the corporeal aspect of being saying

brother why do you strut about, /so full of yourself?/ How come you‟ve forgotten/

those ten months/ when you were suspended/ upside down/ inside the womb?/when

the body is cremated/…its eaten by worms/ the body‟s a jar of unbaked

clay/containing water-/that‟s its greatest claim to fame (WS, 112).

Therefore he underplays the importance of body in context of its illusory form and its

inevitable end giving importance to soul whose main primeval goal is to find the eternal

within and to break the chain of rebirth and death and be free permanently which is the main

message conveyed by him. Even the west realised the transitory stage of human life evident

in Thomas Wolfe‟s opinion who mentions the “spiritual duplicity”, in terms of questioning


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“what is man? First, a child, soft-boned unable to support itself on its rubbery legs…this man:

a writer of books…a painter of pictures…abominable creature, a packet of decay…”

(Hopper, 158). Further he states that man is a “moth of time” and a “travesty of waste and

sterile breath” (Ibid.). This can be comparatively analysed that though the west dealt with the

same anxiety it only had the symptom and not the solution similar to the one found in eastern

philosophy. Purushottam Agarwal observes that “adhyaatma in Indian tradition does not

mean things pertaining to the other world…not the means to communicate with the

spirits…etymologically, it means to go beyond yourself”.

The dissimilarity between the Neitzschean view and that of Kabir can be adjudged from the

former‟s atheistic perspective that regards God as a constructed truth and a vanity or a

megalomaniac who desires to be worshipped and thereby, instills fear in mankind. While

Kabir states thatthe created universe is illusionary including its attributes and forms in which

humans engage in thinking it real whereas they are not constituents of god so they are unreal

(WS, p81). Nietzsche contends that it is we who created the image called „God‟, so as to

project our weaknesses against this frame and hence declares „God is dead‟. This projects

nihilism, an uncertainty regarding the objective of life being unsubstantial and is hence based

on a lie.Additionallythe distinction between master morality relating to strong willed and

slave morality of that of kindness and humility is again deconstructed by Kabir advocating

that in spiritual love, the Guru bows to „chela‟ (devotee). Moreover, the solution as put

forward by Nietzsche is through individual‟s „will to power‟ being a super human which

destabilises the role of any universal power. This is where the existential philosophy failed

and here is the need to go back to the ethical and spiritual values and the need to revise the

beliefs based on the utter rejection of universal power.

There are certain similarities too between these two different philosophers. The idea of

„herd mentality‟ of the common people who participated in the mass movements was

disapproved by Nietzsche as they lacked a sense of objective. He rather

valued individualism above all. Likewise, Kabir propagated that the solution cannot be found

through conformity saying, “you don‟t find/diamonds in storerooms…lions in flocks,/ holy

men in herds” (Bijak, 32). And Eliot in the essay “The Literary Artist and the Other Arts”

says that “our civilization, so-called, is a mob civilization…creates masses of men and

women-detached from tradition, alienated from religion…” (qtd. in Hopper, 5)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individualism


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The message conveyed by Kabir, hits home and one can comprehend and relate it with

one‟s own life due to its simple language. Moreover he conveys the message in human terms,

as in one of his verses he mentions about the necessity of food as only when one‟s stomach

and necessities are full thereupon he will chant the name of god. He being a subaltern from

the lowest socio-economic levels of 15th

century had no “education and spiritual initiation”

(WS, 24). Another crucial aspect of Kabir‟s life was that he emphasised on earning by his

own labour.He never abandoned his work rather assimilated it with the workings of god‟s

mechanism. It is also to be noted that the major proponents of the Bhakti movement were

from the lower strata of society, for instance, Ravidas, Namdev, Tulsidas and others. A critic

analysed this as “an ideological- philosophical protest by the toiling masses of India”,

revolting against the dogmatic power structure (Krishna). Due to their position of the „Other‟,

they had an entirely different perspective. Likewise, Kabir remained rooted to his role of a

weaver and never propagated the idea about renunciation in addition to assimilation of work

along with the path to salvation.

Spiritualism is not the only major issue Kabir was concerned with besides this he was also

engaged in criticising the social vices such as untouchability, gender discrimination and the

religious symbolisms. These issues are a representation of sign indicating the working of

social structure, which in a way replicates the capitalist design. In other words, pertaining to

the caste system the lower classes worked for the higher ones, while by subordinating the

women their role in terms of economy was ruled out and hence their dependence. And in

religion, the priests fed on other people‟s wealth in terms of devotion. Thereby, it indirectly

supported capitalist structure. Moreover, he punctures the concept of „purity‟, by saying that

everything is impure-the origin of birth, the life and its process, and the only pure are those

cleansed in thinking (Adigranth, shabad 7). As Nabhadas in hisShribhaktamal observes that

Kabir didn‟t honour the world‟s conventions, such as caste, the four stages of

life…sang of a faith that opposed bhakti as a non-faith…showed that yoga, ritual

sacrifice, fasting and charity were trivial and base without devotional worship…his

words did not belong to a faction (qtd. in WS, 20-23).

Kabir also condemned the caste system and religious bigotry by questioning, “were the

creator/concerned about caste,/we‟d arrive in the world/with a caste mark on the forehead./ if

u say you‟re a Brahmin/ …was there a special canal/through which you were born?” (SoK,


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p11-12). In other words, he considered caste as irrelevant for attaining liberation as the goal

was spiritual not economic or political.

Thereafter with the onset of bhakti movement a new kind of person or persona came into

being, flouting the social conventions and emphasising the fact that the “Lord sings through

one” (SoK, 164-5). The critique of gender biasness is evident in one of the verses asking

“who‟s man” who‟s woman...it‟s all one skin and bone/, one piss and shit…who‟s Brahmin?

Who‟s shudra?” (Ibid.). Though some critics have accused Kabir of being a misogynist, it is

to be noted that the real message which he puts across is not to be limited to any gender

discrimination save to one eternal soul without the tangible form of body.

Thereby, Kabir‟s role as a poet is significant too as he deliberately employed vernacular

language, regarding them as flowing river water which is a mix of Punjabi, Hindi, Persian

and Urdu. Thereby, he rejected the elite language of Sanskrit, regarding it as „kupajal‟

(stagnant), pointing towards its limited access to the elites of society (Machwe, 36). A critic

has compared Kabir‟s verses towriting beat poetryin hindi, pointing towards its flouting of

social conventions in the face of oppressive regime. The Beat generation of the 1950‟s were

the post second world war American writers which included figures like Jack Kerouac, Allen

Ginsberg and others who believed in Dionysian kind of life. They experimented with drugs,

rejected materialism and believed in spontaneous creativity. Their intake of drugs shows that

they were too faced by the despair of human life and hence channelized their confusion

through this medium. Also, they later became incorporated into the hippie counter culture.

In theessay “Sociology and the Literary Artist”, Lukacsobserves about how far the poet is

influenced by the society he lives in, “to think about the idea of destiny, with which the

human being is in conflict…as he says epics are disappearing due to oncoming of technology

in contemporary age”. Though, he also emphasises that “poetry is beyond the horizon of

society” (Hopper, 19-24). So, the role of Kabir is influential yethis teachings are not

regarded significant due to the fast forward scientific age of today‟s time. The self reflexivity

in the field of arts is visible in the works of PaulGauguin, a French artist by the end of the

19th

century, who abandoned the western civilization to live in Tahiti. The pressing concern

of the soul and the angst within the artist led him to create a masterpiece painting named

“Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” This expresses his deep


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emotions and his dilemma of human existence, which is the key point of existentialist

philosophy. Hereby, one is born without one‟s choice and dies without one‟s will, so the

human weakness is what Kabir‟s teachings are concerned about at the same time advocating

the farther way through love.

Conclusively, this paper has tried to relate the limitations of existentialism to that of post

existentialist aspect of Kabir‟s teachings. The term post existentialism has been put forward

asan aftermath of failure of existentialism to provide solution and direct the despaired

consciousness. And it is also to be noted that the poetry of Kabir is a writerly one, which is

open to various interpretations on the part of reader/ listener. As Dharwadker says that, the

Kabir tradition tells “there are many kabirs as there are leaves in a tree and the discourse of

kabir is infinite” (134). However, in the early 20th

century, the dharamdasi branch of

Kabirpanth published works such as „anuragsagar‟, and diverted his real message by reducing

it to a political one. ThereforeKabir‟s message is not to be appropriated with any specific

agenda or theme.However, one can relate to his philosophy in the contemporary times, as he

seems to address us directly, which immediately demands one‟s attention towards his

message. And as Eliot realised that one needs to turn to the Eastern philosophy and follow the

path of „Shantih‟, we being the easterners have neglected our valuable veteran philosophers.

So, the aim is to revisit our past tradition of Bhakti and to incorporate its teachings into our

lives.

Abbreviations used:

SoK- Songs of Kabir

WS- Kabir; The Weaver’s Songs

KG- KabirGranthavali


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Works Cited

Agarwal, Prof.Purushottam. "My personal and political Kabir." Koi Sunta Hai – A Festival

of Kabir in Bengaluru. Kabir Project at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology,

28 Feb. 2009. Web.

Dharwadker, Vinay. Kabir; The Weaver’s Songs. Trans. New Delhi: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns. Burnt Norton. London: Faber and Faber, 1943. Print.

Fish, Stanley. Self-ConsumingArtifacts. University of California Press, 1972. Print.

Hess, Linda, and Sukhdeo Singh. The Bijak of Kabir. Trans. New Delhi: Oxford University

Press, 2002. Print.

---. “The Cow Is Sucking at the Calf's Teat: Kabir's Upside-Down Language”. History of

Religions, Vol. 22, No. 4, (May, 1983), pp. 313- 337. Web.

Hopper, Stanley Romaine. Spiritual Problems in Contemporary Literature. Ed. New York,

London: The Institute for Religious and Social Studies, 1952, Print.

Juergensmeyer, Mark, and John Stratton Hawley. “Songs of the Saints of India”. Rev. Hugh

van Skyhawk. The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Nov., 1993), pp. 1054-

1056. Web.

Krishna, Ram. "Kabir: A hard hitting poet and a social reformer." GhadarJari Hai.

LokAawaz Publishers, 20 Oct. 2008. Web.

Kumar, Sehdev. “Kabir: Communicating the Incommunicable”. India International Centre

Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2, (June 1983), pp. 206-215. Web.

Machwe, Prabhakar. Kabir. New Delhi: SahityaAkademi, 1968. Print.

Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna. Songs of Kabir. Trans. New Delhi: Hachette, 2011. Print.

Mulligan, Martin. Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. Trans. Moscow:

Progress Publishers, 1932, Web.

Shah, Ahmad. The Bijak of Kabir. Trans. New Delhi: Asian Publication Services, 1911. Print.


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Stahl, Roland. “The Philosophy of Kabīr”. Philosophy East and West, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Jul.,

1954), pp. 141-155. Web.

Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Illyich. Guildford: White Crow, 2010. Print.

Vaudeville, Charlotte. Kabīr; Vol. I. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1974. Print.

Endnotes:

i The term post existentialism has been used as an after effect of existential philosophy,

providing solution to the angst ridden consciousness amongst humans. The philosophy of

Kabir allies with some of the tenets of existentialism; thereby the tag of post existential

philosopher has been employed for the renowned saint.

iiIn today‟s age of mass technology, where there are tremendous images and their copies

around us, (Baudrillard), the man has lost the access to one self. The idea is that, in the

contemporary sense, Kabir urges one to find one‟s image within the soul, as the tangible

image of man, is an illusion of „Maya‟.

iii In Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein introduced the concept „language game‟, as

he says that reality when communicated through language is influenced by it. Thereby,

language distorts reality and not just conveys the message in it, acquiring instrumentality. In

this context, Kabir plays with the words to convey a hidden meaning, thereby, deliberately

distorting it.

iv Antonin Artaud coined the term „theatre of cruelty‟, being influenced by the East. He felt

that “the role of the theatre must be to shake us out of complacency and our delusion of

security”. (source: “Artaud‟s „Theatre of Cruelty”, http://suite101.com/article/artaud-theatre-

of-cruelty-a66384.html.

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