The Bijak of Kabir [Hardcover]

Kabir (Author), Shukdev Singh (Translator), Linda Hess (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195148754 | ISBN-13: 978-0195148756 | Publication Date: April 18, 2002

Kabir was an extraordinary oral poet whose works have been sung and recited by millions throughout North India for half a millennium. He may have been illiterate and he preached an abrasive, sometimes shocking, always uncompromising message that exhorted his audience to shed their delusions, pretentions, and empty orthodoxies in favor of an intense, direct, and personal confrontation with the truth. Thousands of poems are popularly attributed to Kabir, but only a few written collections have survived over the centuries. The Bijak is one of the most important, and is the sacred book of those who follow Kabir.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Hess has liberated this fresh and stunning voice from centuries of pious encrustation on the Indian side, and decades of unwitting conventionality on our own Parabola

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hindi

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195148754
• ISBN-13: 978-0195148756
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,823,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring study of the wild and crazy side of Kabir, July 14, 2006

By 

Brian Hines (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bijak of Kabir (Bijak of Kabir, Paper) (Paperback)

Most other books that I've read about Kabir emphasize the devotional (bhakti) side of Kabir. Hess and Singh have done a great service by showing us his wild and crazy side. The rough side. The tell it like it is side.

Kabir decried remaining within rigid religious boundaries. God is beyond. And more: beyond beyond. Yet organized religions such as Sikhism and the Sant Mat movement have tried to make Kabir one of their own. This book demonstrates the impossibility of confining Kabir in any theological structure.

Hess' Introduction is marvelous. This academic can write clearly and passionately, while still preserving high scholarly standards. I've read most of the English books about Kabir. After finishing "The Bijak of Kabir" I finally feel like I've been given an honest glimpse of this great mystic who fearlessly urges us to experience the wild Mystery that transcends all attempts to cage it within religious conceptual systems.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I give this book 100 stars.., August 12, 2003

By 

Susan Fensten (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bijak of Kabir (Hardcover)

Kabir was an extraordinary oral poet whose works have been sung and recited throughout North India for half a millennium. He may have been illiterate ("I don't touch ink or paper, this hand never grasped a pen.") and he preached an abrasive, sometimes shocking, always uncompromising message that exhorted his audience to shed their delusions, pretensions, and empty orthodoxies in favor of an intense, direct, and personal confrontation with the truth.

Thousands of poems are popularly attributed to Kabir, but only a few written collections have survived over the centuries. The Bijak is one of the most important, and sacred book of those who follow Kabir.