KABIR, HIS WIFE, AND THE SHOPKEEPER

KABIR, HIS WIFE, AND THE SHOPKEEPER

Sham S.Misri  

One day a holy man visited Kabir’s home. Kabir had no food to give to the holy man who came to his house. When Kabir’s wife saw the holy man she thought of borrowing some food from a nearby shopkeeper. When she approached the shop keeper to borrow some food he refused. On this Kabir’s wife promised the local shopkeeper that she would sleep with him that night if he gave them the food on credit. The shopkeeper obliged her by giving some food on credit. But, when she hesitated to keep her promise, Kabir carried her to the shopkeeper that night. It was a cold night as it was raining and muddy. When the shopkeeper learnt of this, he was ashamed. The shopkeeper fell at Kabir’s feet. He gave everything in his shop to the poor, and became a sadhu.  

This is also a story about the exploitation of women and the lower castes by men of the higher castes. Despite his casual attitude to his wife's loyalty in this story, Kabir often used a wife's impulse to commit force, in order to stay with her husband forever, as a positive metaphor for the worshiper who surrenders his ego to god. And he described Illusion [Maya) as a tempting and alluring woman to whom one becomes addicted and from whom one must break away. Women evidently meant several different things to him, Kabir preached in the vernacular, insisting, "Sanskrit is like water in a well; the language of the people is a flowing stream."