In teaching Kabir stands midway between the two religions, but leaning to the side of Hinduism. It is clear that this Hindu bias became stronger in his followers, but it is not easy to separate his own teaching from subsequent embellishments, for the numerous hymns and sayings attributed to him are collected in compilations made after his death, such as the Bijak and the Âdi-granth of the Sikhs. In hymns which sound authentic he puts Hindus and Moslims on the same footing.
"Kabir is a child of Ram and Allah," he says, "and accepteth all Gurus and Pirs." "O God, whether Allah or Ram, I live by thy name."
"Make thy mind thy Kaaba, thy body its enclosing temple,
Conscience its prime teacher.
Then, O priest, call men to pray to that mosque
Which hath five gates.
The Hindus and Mussulmans have the same Lord."
But the formalities of both creeds are impartially condemned. "They are good riders who keep aloof from the Veda and Koran."[655] Caste, circumcision and idolatry are reprobated. The Hindu deities and their incarnations are all dead: God was not in any of them.[656] Ram, it would seem, should be understood not as Râmacandra but as a name of God.
Yet the general outlook is Hindu rather than Mohammedan. God is the magician who brings about this illusory world in which the soul wanders.[657] "I was in immobile and mobile creatures, in worms and in moths; I passed through many various births. But when I assumed a human body, I was a Yogi, a Yati, a penitent, a Brahmacâri: sometimes an Emperor and sometimes a beggar." Unlike the Sikhs, Kabir teaches the sanctity of life, even of plants. "Thou cuttest leaves, O flower girl: in every leaf there is life." Release, as for all Hindus, consists in escaping from the round of births and deaths. Of this he speaks almost in the language of the Buddha.[658]
"Though I have assumed many shapes, this is my last.
The strings and wires of the musical instrument are all worn out:
I am now in the power of God's name.
I shall not again have to dance to the tune of birth and death.
Nor shall my heart accompany on the drum."
This deliverance is accomplished by the union or identification of the soul with God.
"Remove the difference between thyself and God and thou shalt be united with him....
Him whom I sought without me, now I find within me....
Know God: by knowing him thou shalt become as he.
When the soul and God are blended no one can distinguish them."[659]
But if he sometimes writes like Śaṅkara, he also has the note of the Psalms and Gospels. He has the sense of sin: he thinks of God in vivid personal metaphors, as a lord, a bridegroom, a parent, both father and mother.
"Save me, O God, though I have offended thee ...
I forgot him who made me and did cleave unto strangers."
"Sing, sing, the marriage song.
The sovereign God hath come to my house as my husband....
I obtained God as my bridegroom; so great has been my good fortune."