Yogavidya September 2025

Kabir stands in the Indian imagination as a weaver of truth—threading the ordinary and the sacred into a single cloth. His songs don’t decorate the mind; they strip it back. What remains is the yogic heart: direct, spacious, awake.
From a practitioner’s lens, three notes sound through Kabir’s voice:

Silence – not muteness, but the ease that appears when breath settles and attention returns to its source. In that quiet, the witness shines without effort.
Simplicity – living light, speaking plain, choosing what nourishes. It is yama and niyama made practical: fewer demands, clearer seeing, kinder action.
Surrender – not resignation, but alignment. We act, yet we don’t clutch the fruits; we offer them. Then effort becomes prayer.

Sri M’s guidance in the Nath tradition meets Kabir here: inner refinement over display, clarity flowering as compassion, realization tested in conduct. When these three—silence, simplicity, surrender—steady our steps, the mystic and the everyday meet in each breath.

Hari Om Tat Sat.

In this insightful video, Sri M explains the Yogic Life

The Bhakti movement that spread across large parts of India from 7th to 17th century played a pivotal role in shaping the spiritual landscape of our country. It emphasised personal devotion to a chosen deity as the path to salvation. It challenged traditional religious practices, the caste system, and priestly authority, promoting equality and spiritual liberation for all, regardless of social status.

The Bhakti movement spread rapidly and had a profound impact on society, fostering religious harmony, promoting social reform, and inspiring a rich tradition of devotional literature and art.

Starting in the south around 600 AD with the Alvars & Nayanmars it spread across the country over the next 1000 years. Basava, Jayadeva, Nimbarkacharya, Gnaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram, Chaitanya , Mirabai and many more saints promoted the same ideology of Bhakti with a local flavour.

In North India the bhakti movement got impetus from Ramananda. He was based in Benares. He combined the teachings of Vaishnavism, Advaita and Nath Tradition. Kabir and Ramdas were amongst the 14 disciples of Ramananda.

Kabir did not become a sadhu, nor did he entirely abandon worldly life. Kabir chose instead to live the balanced life of a householder and mystic, a tradesman and contemplative.

Kabir was a revered saint celebrated for his poetry, which conveyed a rejection of external religious dogma in favour of profound inner experiences. He championed interfaith harmony, social egalitarianism, and spiritual enlightenment. As a 15th-century Indian mystic, poet, and social reformer, his teachings underscored the transformative power of love, unity, and a direct, personal connection with the divine. His seminal works, particularly his direct and hard hitting dohas (couplets), and bhajans continue to inspire and influence individuals from diverse faiths and backgrounds.

Some of Kabir’s verses are included in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhism, demonstrating the broad appeal and impact of his teachings.

“Bijak” meaning “seedling” or “the seed,” is a collection of poems and verses attributed to Kabir. It is a central text for the Kabir Panth, a movement following Kabir’s philosophy. The Bijak explores themes of Brahman, karma, and reincarnation, while also critiquing religious rituals and emphasizing the importance of a true guru and direct experience

Here are a few of his wonderful Dohas (Couplets)

“The world has become weary of reading scriptures, but no one has become a true Pandit (scholar). Only one who understands the two and a half letters of ‘love’ becomes a true Pandit.” It emphasizes the importance of love and understanding over mere book learning.

This doha critiques the superficiality of religious rituals, stating that chanting prayers with a rosary for ages won’t change the mind, and one should focus on purifying the mind instead.

“Slowly, slowly, everything happens. Even if a gardener waters a tree a hundred times, the fruit will only appear in its season.” It encourages patience and understanding of the natural process of growth.

This Doha reminds us of the teachings of the saint of Shirdi – Sai Nath. His core teachings were – Shraddha & Saburi (Faith & Patience). Many see similarities between them and consider Sai Baba an incarnation of Kabir.

Songs of Kabir is a 1915 book consisting of 100 poems of Kabir, translated to English by Rabindranath Tagore. In these poems Kabir has combined the philosophies of Sufism and Hinduism.

The teachings of the Bhakti movement are synonymous to what Lord Krishna proclaims in the Gita. Chapter 12 – Bhakti Yoga : Communion Through Loving Devotion is dedicated to explaining how bhakti and surrender are the easiest path to spiritual development.

The contribution of the Bhakti movement and saints like Kabir has been a bedrock in preserving our religion at a grassroot level when Islamic rule was fast spreading. Their teachings at unifying us are relevant today as they were then.

The Mystic Wisdom of Kabir is a timeless exploration of the poetry, philosophy, and spiritual insights of one of India’s greatest mystic saints. Kabir, a 15th-century poet-saint.

The book is a collection of couplets and can resonate across cultures and centuries. The verses cut through aspects like ritualism and dogma, urging seekers to look inward and realize the divine in everyday life.

The verses capture Kabir’s central message: the futility of external divisions—Hindu or Muslim, temple or mosque, ritual or scripture—when the true search lies within the heart. Through translations of his dohas (couplets) and exemplary commentary, the work brings out his emphasis on love, surrender and the importance of spiritual experience.

What makes the book especially powerful is its relevance to contemporary readers. In a world often divided by identity, Kabir’s voice stands as a reminder of oneness and compassion. His questions—“Where do you search for me, O seeker? I am closer than your own breath”—feel so apt in an age of distraction.

His words gently challenge you to examine your own tendencies toward judgment, ritualism, or distraction, and to return to what is simple and real: love, awareness, and presence.

Overall, The Mystic Wisdom of Kabir is not just a book to be read but to be contemplated. The beauty of this book is that you don’t need to read it in one stretch. Sometimes you could read just one doha in the morning, and it would accompany you like a quiet lamp through the day.

I would highly recommend this read to one and all willing to rise above differences and wanting to live with love and harmony.

Mystic Simplicity in the context of Kabir and the yoga life emphasizes a straightforward, profound approach to spiritual practice, focusing on inner awareness, simplicity, and direct experience beyond ritual complexity. Kabir, a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, advocated for a life centered on the essence of truth, love, and union with the divine, often rejecting elaborate ceremonies in favor of heartfelt devotion and self-realization. Integrating this philosophy into yoga practice means embracing simplicity, mindfulness, and the unity of body, mind, and spirit.

Philosophy Overview

Embrace simplicity in practice: focus on the core experience rather than external show.
Cultivate inner awareness and presence during each movement and breath.
Recognize the unity of all existence, reflecting Kabir’s teachings of oneness beyond duality.
Use practice as a path to self-realization and inner peace, not just physical fitness.

Why Tadasana?
Tadasana embodies simplicity and groundedness. It is a foundational pose that cultivates stability, balance, and presence, aligning the body and mind in a natural, effortless posture. This reflects Kabir’s teaching of returning to the essential, the natural state of being.

How to Practice Tadasana:

• Stand with feet together, big toes touching, heels slightly apart.
• Distribute weight evenly across both feet.
• Engage the thigh muscles slightly to lift the kneecaps.
• Lengthen the spine by lifting the crown of the head toward the sky.
• Relax the shoulders away from the ears.
• Let the arms hang naturally by the sides, palms facing inward or slightly forward.
• Close your eyes or keep a soft gaze.
• Breathe deeply and evenly, feeling the connection of your feet to the earth and the lengthening of your spine.
• Hold for 1–3 minutes, cultivating calm and centered awareness.

Why Nadi Shodhana?
This pranayama practice balances the energy channels (nadis) and calms the mind, fostering clarity and inner harmony. It aligns with Kabir’s emphasis on balance and the purification of the inner self, preparing the practitioner for deeper meditation and self-awareness.

How to Practice Nadi Shodhana:

• Sit comfortably with an erect spine, shoulders relaxed.
• Use the right thumb to close the right nostril.
• Inhale slowly and deeply through the left nostril.
• Close the left nostril with the ring finger, release the right nostril.
• Exhale slowly through the right nostril.
• Inhale through the right nostril.
• Close the right nostril again with the thumb, release the left nostril.
• Exhale through the left nostril.
• This completes one round.
• Continue for 5–10 rounds, maintaining slow, smooth, and even breaths.
• Focus on the breath flow and the subtle balance it creates within.

The special presence of the Creator in the human society has always been proved by the emergence of saints and sages, especially from among the common folk. Their life and message have contributed greatly to the ongoing reformation of the human society towards social harmony. One of the most significant of such great men was Kabir, who is known for pioneering the unique ‘saint tradition’. He was not merely a traditional icon of holiness but was a living legend of spiritual achievement and social renaissance.

Kabir, a 15th-century saint, was a devotional figure within the Bhakti movement who used simple, popular language to express spiritual ideas with a focus on devotion to God for liberation from the cycle of birth and death. While Sankhya provides a theoretical, analytical framework for understanding existence, Kabir’s philosophy emphasizes the personal, devotional path to spiritual truth and freedom.

Both Guru and Govind stand before me Whose feet should I touch first?
I surrender to the Guru Who showed me the path to Govind. This iconic, much-quoted couplet attributed to Kabir illustrates the central importance of the guru to the Bhakti traditions, and to Indian social fabric in general.
In the following couplet, one of his most significant Says Kabir,

Poetry was a natural medium for him in the process of his thought and expression. Poetry became an effective tool for Kabir in communicating the mystical experience. Thus Kabir became a living icon of spiritual poetry and poetical spirituality at the same time.

Kabir implies that realisation of God is of prime importance. Mere attainment of success in yogic exercise is of no avail to him. He will continue to remain in haze like the bullock of the oil mill.

The texture of religion of suggested by him included such simple treads like remembering the Higher Power, entertaining sentiments of faith in that power, singing bhjan or praises to the power, engaging in satsang (good company) or in acquaintances which are conducive to a divine atmosphere, rendering service to the other etc.

Kabir expresses his deep yearning for the Lord saying that he would put the Lord in his eye and cry for him like the papiha, bird calling ‘Piya’, ‘Piya’ for her love all the time, and wonders when he will see Him.

Kabir implores the ‘Lord to come inside his eye for once so that he would drop his eyelid making it impossible for the Lord to see anybody except him, and for him to see anybody except the Lord. He expresses his deep and earnest yearning for the Lord.

God is a matter of personal experience, as love is; one has to know Him for one self. Kabir proceeds to a mystical experience and tells the Lord: ‘pondering you again I became you; now there is nothing left in me’.

His experience of Divine reaches an exquisite culmination when he says ‘I am so full of Your presence; wherever I look You are seen’.
Kabir campaigned against evil forces like selfishness, hypocrisy, discrimination, exploitation, manipulation, suppression and fatalism. He was genuinely committed to reforming the society. He emphasized personal values like genuineness, honesty, sincerity, love, service and respect.

“I went in search of the bad, but found no one bad. When I searched my own mind, I found no one worse than myself.” This popular doha by Kabir emphasizes introspection, suggesting that faults often lie within ourselves, and that we should examine our own actions before criticizing others.

Without devotion for the Lord man is no more than a piece of stone, and his heart is full of poison. Nectar poured thereon will be sheer waste. Kabir implies that like any good seed thrown on infertile land, Nectar will go waste if administered to an unworthy man.

Kabir implies that man has many enemies in himself and one who has conquered them is the real hero.

There should not be any conflict of mind regarding the problem of life and death, says Kabir. On death the body mingles in the five elements of which it is composed. Where man does not attain salvation, the mind with the soul (jivatma) has successive rebirths. This recurring cycle of birth and death will not stop until the mind and the soul mingle in the Lord on attaining salvation.

Both the saint and the sinner cry for the mercy of the Lord, the saint for salvation, the sinner for protection. But only if the yearning is intense it can move the Lord. Kabir figuratively expresses such yearning as shedding tears of blood.

Amassed wealth is best spent on charity to the poor and needy. There is no use hoarding wealth with the hope of spending it later. After death one will have no chance to lay his hands on it.

Harsh words, like burning fire, burn to ash their target viz. the person addressed to, while sweet words please and cool and do not harass. Kabir has laid great emphasis on correct and balanced speech.

One should live quite unattached to anybody or anything on earth, implies Kabir. Though living in society he should be able to part company from the others in an unconcerned manner like travellers parting company at end of the journey. Non attachment will bring peace of mind which is essential for spiritual progress.

According to Kabir, contentment is the most precious wealth of man:

Kabir implies that with the help of the wise and gracious preceptor it was possible for him to gain the ultimate knowledge of the Lord, to acquire which it would have otherwise taken him not one but innumerable lives.

Kabir says to shut the nine exit doors of this bodily city and then try to decipher the puzzle. O Gyani, contemplate! Think how to view this body from inside. At least occasionally, do close your eyes and try to view the body from the inside too. Sit down on a mat, shut your eyes and see your own body with awareness. You are never aware of your own body. And your mind is forever ready to wander outside through the doors of the senses.

It is not necessary to live in a forest; you can learn yoga whilst staying in your home. If your mind gets attached to changeable things, then every time that thing or being changes, your mind will suffer. Kabir is saying to search inside for that which never changes, never dies. Who inside you is unborn, eternal,

Giving up wealth, or leaving a man (or woman) is no big deal. But it is difficult to remove envy from one’s mind and it is even more difficult to get rid of the desire for recognition, honour, or acclaim. Who doesn’t want to listen to his or her praise? It is verily difficult to be freed of this impurity. He is a sadhu who has achieved all these three feats,

The Lord is the source of all power and prosperity, but man runs after power forgetting Him. If he paid heed to Him, power and prosperity would run after him, Hasserts

When the mind is suffused in the hue of the beloved Lord, such a mind says: Why should I bother about others’ opinion of me, for it has become utterly meaningless now.
He says in a couplet, ‘I am keen to die, but at the feet of the Lord…’ People are afraid of death. But Kabir says “Death is appealing to me. Dying is an art. Those who die without learning this art, they don’t die, for they are re-born in a new body”

“when I realised my unity with the one reality, I found that death cannot touch that absolute essence.” And he is a Gyani, who realises this veritable Truth.

Kabir refers to the union of the soul of man (Jivatma) and the Supreme Soul (paramatma or God). The soul is part of the Supreme Soul, and on the salvation, it mingles completely in the latter and the two cannot be distinguished from each other however much one tries.
He says “Whatever I do, becomes selfless service Sleep too has become divine prostration. this dwelling in transcendence has revealed That exalted state, beyond all pleasure and pain Wherein I remain eternally absorbed… The day the Guru’s grace manifested within, this effortless samadhi continues endlessly……..”

Pure milk turns to poison in the stomach of the venomous snake. Kabir implies that if one is evil by nature he will turn even a good thing to evil but one who can turn evil to good is rare indeed.

Kabir points out that God dwells in the heart of man like fragrance in the flower and musk in the navel of the deer, but man seeks Him elsewhere than his own heart like the deer seeking the musk all over the forest instead of turning to his own navel.
Kabir laid great emphasis on purity of the mind, Man then becomes as simple as a child. And then God Himself runs after him and fulfils all his desires, including salvation. He considered purity even more rewarding than devotion. Says Kabir,

Kabir, a 15th-century mystic poet, embodies the principles of a yogic life through his teachings on silence, simplicity, and surrender. His philosophy, often expressed through paradox and metaphor, aligns with the core tenets of yoga beyond physical postures, focusing on the internal journey towards union with the divine. The sangha, or community, that follows his teachings often centers its practice on these three themes.

Silence: The Inner Sanctuary
For Kabir, true silence isn’t the absence of sound, but the quieting of the mind’s incessant chatter. He believed that this internal silence, or maun, is the fertile ground from which spiritual insight can emerge. In this state, the self-talk, judgments, and desires that obscure our inner truth fall away, creating a space for a deeper, more direct experience of reality. This concept is fundamental to yogic practices like meditation and pranayama, which aim to still the “vrittis” or fluctuations of the mind. By cultivating inner silence, one can hear the “anahat nad,” the unstruck sound, a metaphorical representation of the divine presence within.

Simplicity: The Path of Detachment
Kabir’s life and poetry were a testament to the power of simplicity. He lived as a weaver, a common person, rejecting the elaborate rituals and social hierarchies of his time. He argued that true spirituality doesn’t require complex ceremonies or expensive offerings, but rather a simple, sincere heart. This echoes the yogic principle of aparigraha, or non-possessiveness. By shedding material desires and attachments, one frees up mental and emotional energy, allowing for a clearer focus on the spiritual path. Simplicity, in this context, is not about poverty, but about living a life free from the burdens of excessive desire, where one can find contentment in the present moment.

Surrender: Merging with the Divine
The ultimate goal for Kabir, as in yoga, is surrender, or ishvara pranidhana. This is the act of letting go of one’s ego and personal will, and merging with the universal consciousness. Kabir’s poetry is full of calls to surrender to the “Ram” or “Hari” (names for God) within. This isn’t a passive act of giving up, but an active trust in a higher order, a recognition that the individual self is a part of a much larger whole. Through silence and simplicity, one weakens the hold of the ego, making it possible to surrender. This final step dissolves the illusion of separation, leading to the ultimate state of union, or samadhi, where the individual soul and the divine become one.

After undergoing the Teacher Training Course at Bharat Yogavidya Kendra, my personal practice became well rounded. I incorporated stretches for the whole body, Pranayama, bandhas learnt from the Teacher Training Course. I found Sukshma Vyayama to be most impactful for me, my body feels lighter and energetic on days I do the full body stretches. I feel I can confidently share my personal experiences and insights on how doing yoga has improved my health and life to people. Now, I am focussing on my personal practice, growth and health.
–Balaji Kumar

Kabir a mystic poet and saint who lived from 1398 to 1518 – 120 years had a huge influence in that era. This influence is still relevant now. Saint Kabir’s philosophy tackles both social and spiritual aspects of human life. Harmony, equality and devotion (Bhakti) are all important themes in Kabir’s philosophy.

Kabir’s philosophical views on health emphasize a holistic approach where spiritual purity and mental well being are paramount, transcending physical health.

However, Ayurveda which is a veda as knowledge of life or “ayuh” emphasizes a holistic approach to attaining the highest goal in life – spiritual oneness with the supreme. In the context the physical health becomes an important milestone. Kabir’s doha “काल करे सो आज कर, आज करे सो अब” (Kal kare so aaj kar, aaj kare so ab) is something that aliens with Ayurvedic principles of timely action and avoiding lethargy.
In Ayurveda timely action is associated with maintaining a healthy life style and preventing imbalances in the body’s energies known as “Doshas” (vata, pitta & kapha).

Ayurveda advocates following a disciplined daily routine (Dinacharya). Procrastination goes against this & leads to a chaotic approach to work, disrupting natural rhythms.

Preventing Illness:
Over working due to a backlog of tasks or the stress of procrastination can lead to mental & physical exhaustion – contributing to illness.
The timely completion of tasks a Kabir’s saying suggests, helps prevent such outcomes.

Thank you for reading