Passion for doing something , starting something which may seem nothing but your interest. Your heart wants to follow it not knowing whether there is some benefit in it , whether there is a purpose to it , can it serve higher interest who cares?. Those who start walking are bound to meet with so many destinations , its upto them to choose whether to stop here , whether to walk continuously , should some one else be included , is there anything meaning full to this ... If you would have thought ofthese questions I bet you would have never started that kind of journey which Ms Shabnam Virmani in Kabeer Project.
Kabeer is a mystic poet of 15th century from Northern India , he did not have much knowledge of scriptures or any holy book but seems he had the ultimate experience of true self and purpose of human life , he wrote small verses which contain elixir of life from daily living to highest meditation and very aptly such knowledge can not come from reading , such knowledge can come only fromexperience . Map his words to the most ancient hindu scriptures and it will match word by word be it about description of the lordwithout any form or be it about rituals vs simple meditation. Yet he symbolizes what I may say the most secular figure of Indian history , no wonder India is a secular state , It is land of Kabeer after all. Ms Shabnam Virmani now director of Kabeer project in bangalore started her journey to collect different shades of Kabeer across India, the question is why across India , what do you mean by different Kabeer? well the fact is Kabeer died leaving his work unstructured and unconsolidated , later when people started collecting it they realised there are so many other verses written by local people and credited it to Kabeer ( huh and they say web 2.0 and user generated content is discovered in 20 century after internet) So there is a kabeer who wrote in awadhi and typical north indian but there is one who wrote in Rajasthani and then other in gujraati and also in punjaabi with urdu influence . There can be only one explanation that all these Kabeers are a core idea followed by local people to generate their own Kabeer the one which they understand better , the one which talks in their language and gives example for their lives.
Thats why Miss Virmani found it a passion to explore local folk song artist who sing Kabeer , she did not have any idea of what this project will turn into but today her journey has taken her from bangalore to Malwa, Ayodhya, Kanpur, Jaypur, Karanchi, Lahore and guess what to Stanford where there are research on Indian literature and Kabeer at its pivotal.
Kabeer project today has a set of 4 movies which are screened for free in annual events at Mumbai, Pune and bangalore followed by a gala event of marathon classical and folk singers across border , talking about love, spirituality and boundrylessness. It publishes literature and translation from Kabeers verses and has launched DVDs .People now give ideas to Ms Virmani that she should enhance the projec to promote secular image , to bring Kabeer to urban youth and what not but what she has already achieved was beyond imagination and transformative
for her self and people associated with her . Kabeer is truly becoming an idea much larger than just being a historic poet.. thanks to the project Kabeer
Follow your heart and every time you do start with grass root :)
Kabeer project ORGANISING Kabeer festival in Pune , today being last day there is a concert in Symbiosis Vishwashanti bhawan !
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