Kabir: The Everest of Consciousness

A man of Consciousness has no enemies at all because he has no fear in his heart. Such a man alone can sing songs of love.

Kabir, the great mystic saint of India, was a real rebel. He sang songs of love and devotion, which did not appeal to the scholars because Kabir was not educated. He has the ultimate experience of self-realization, the godliness. He blossomed into a unique individual. Kabir sings the songs of going alone on the path of truth.

He says: "One who walks alone, he alone finds truth." The real spiritual growth happens when one is capable of going alone. It is a flight of the alone to the alone. It is a journey of hansa (swan) to the maan-sarovar, the highest peak. It is not lonely on the top but one shines in aloneness, in full glory on the ‘Everest of Consciousness’. This is what happened to the mystic Kabir.

Kabir shared his wonderful songs with the people, but the pundits were afraid. They became his enemies, but as far as Kabir was concerned he knew no enemies. He couldn’t have any enemies, because there can be an enemy only as long as there is fear.

A fearless consciousness knows no enemies. And when one has no enemies, everyone is a friend. Your friends are not true friends; your friendship is a political device. Your friends are friends because of some self-interest, because of some selfishness. When you die they will not accompany you. When you are in misery, well, they will be nowhere to be found.

The real test of friendship is in times of crisis. Life is so generous that it offers such critical opportunities in abundance that the friendship has to pass through a fire test. Friendship blossoms in unconditional love.

Mulla Nasruddin once told his wife that 50 per cent of his friends had abandoned him because he was on the verge of bankruptcy. His wife asked, verge of bankruptcy. His wife asked, “and why haven’ the other 50 per cent gone too?” The mulla replied, “ They do not know about it yet. Only those who know have left.”

Your friends stay with you in your prosperity. When they find thee are no more dinner parties, that you have become penniless, they will throw you away just like a stick of sugarcane from which all the sweetness has been sucked. What use is such friendship?

A sufi fakir who always prayed to God saying, “O Lord, I shall settle things with my enemies myself, but please save me from my friends.” Friends are also secret enemies. But Kabir is not using the word in this sense when he says the whole world has become his friend.

As soon as fear leaves you, the whole world is your friend. As soon as you cease to fear death, the whole world is friendly. Until this happens there’s no such person as a real friend. Until then some people are bigger enemies, some lesser enemies. Some are close enemies, some are distant enemies. Some enemies are your own people, others are strangers—but all are enemies because they all seem to be destroying your life.