Originally published in 1976, with more than 75,000 copies in print, this collection of poems by fifteenth-century ecstatic poet Kabir is full of fun and full of thought. Columbia University professor of religion John Stratton Hawley has contributed an introduction that makes clear Kabir's immense importance to the contemporary reader and praises Bly's intuitive translations. By making every reader consider anew their religious thinking, the poems of Kabir seem as relevant today as when they were first written.

"Few major achievements of world literature are as little known to Americans as the great ecstatic poetry of the Hindus and Sufis, as exemplified by the work of the 15th century master, Kabir. Irreverent while being intensely religious, Kabir seems incredibly playful in his taunting of the sacred dogmas of his time--to readers accustomed to the solemnity and ideological fidelity of most Western religious poems. Kabir has been translated into English only once before, by Rabindranath Tagore and Evelyn Underhill. Unfortunately, Tagore's Victorian English was simply not equal to Kabir's directness, spontaneity, and irreverent humor. Working from the Tagore-Underhill translation, Bly has done much more than retranslate into American diction. A noted poet himself, he has breathed new life into the work of a fascinating poet"--From back cover.

Kabir was a 15th century Indian spiritual master who left a legacy of extraordinary poems which continue to capture the imagination of a diverse audience today. The poems downplay the importance of ritual and austerity, and teach that God is not confined to centers of worship or places of pilgrimage but found everywhere in creation. Most importantly, God is within us and this is where we must meet him. Kabir elevates us into the realm of the spirit - a world of beauty, majesty, even romance, where the relationship between lovers is a recurring metaphor for our relationship to the divine.For the last century, Rabindranath Tagore's classic translation, "Songs of Kabir," has been the standard, but over the years it has suffered the ravages of time. In "Kabir Says," David Masterman has reworked Tagore's translation and breathed new life into it for the 21st century reader. But this edition goes beyond merely updating language and style; it considerably enhances the poetic form and flow of the English translation, and a new introduction and appendix have also been added to add depth to the reader's understanding.

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.

Kabir was an extraordinary oral poet whose works have been recited by millions throughout north India for half a millennium. Thousands of poems are attributed to Kabir, but only a few written collections have survived over the centuries.

Kabir was a great iconoclastic-mystic poet of fifteenth-century North India; his poems were composed orally, written down by others in manuscripts and books, and transmitted through song. Scholars and translators usually attend to written collections, but these present only a partial picture of the Kabir who has remained vibrantly alive through the centuries mostly in oral forms. Entering the worlds of singers and listeners in rural Madhya Pradesh, Bodies of Song combines ethnographic and textual study in exploring how oral transmission and performance shape the content and interpretation of vernacular poetry in North India. The book investigates textual scholars' study of oral-performative traditions in a milieu where texts move simultaneously via oral, written, audio/video-recorded, and electronic pathways. As texts and performances are always socially embedded, Linda Hess brings readers into the lives of those who sing, hear, celebrate, revere, and dispute about Kabir. Bodies of Song is rich in stories of individuals and families, villages and towns, religious and secular organizations, castes and communities. Dialogue between religious/spiritual Kabir and social/political Kabir is a continuous theme throughout the book: ambiguously located between Hindu and Muslim cultures, Kabir rejected religious identities, pretentions, and hypocrisies. But even while satirizing the religious, he composed stunning poetry of religious experience and psychological insight. A weaver by trade, Kabir also criticized caste and other inequalities and today serves as an icon for Dalits and all who strive to remove caste prejudice and oppression.

This is a Kriya Yoga book intended to be read and practised by everyone, with/without initiation. Every word uttered by a Yogi has a special meaning that is totally unintelligible to even the highly intellectual people. This book is written in such a way that everyone can follow it up while trading the path of Kriya. People think that they are very intelligent, but if they try to understand very seriously, they realize perfectly that nothing is happening according to their intellect. Only those whose breath is not blowing in the left or right nostril are intelligent in this world. When breathing is faster, then in one day and one night respiration can flow up to 113,680 times. Normally during the same time, the figure is 21,600 times. During a day and night, if respiration is faster than usual, the breath can flow in and out 113,680 times. Normally, in the course of a day and night, there are 21,600 breaths. This figure is reduced by Kriya practice to 2,000 times. So, breathing 1,000 times in the day and 1,000 times in the night, in a normal course, provides greater Tranquility to a Yogi. One of his breaths takes about 44 seconds. Such a Yogi is matured in Kriya practice. Thoughts are inseparably related to breathing. So, when the number of breaths is reduced, thoughts are reduced proportionately. Eventually, with the tranquilization of breath, thoughts are dissolved. Thereby, the seeker can attain the After-effect-poise of Kriya, or eternal Tranquility, which is Amrita, nectar proper.