In 15th-century South Asia, caste and class hierarchy permeated every aspect of life, much like today. Access to Divinity was regulated and gatekept, and only those with the 'proper' circumstances of birth were able to have an intimate relationship with the Divine. In pursuit of this relationship, those without the luck of particular caste-backgrounds were left to engage in prescribed rituals at prescribed times, to pay the proper middlemen, and to seek out middlemen. In this milieu, Bhagat Kabir, himself of the oppressed weaving caste, uttered his revolutionary compositions, disrupting paradigms with his signature humor and directness.

Today, we deal with those same paradigms and hierarchies. Today, we turn to Bhagat Kabir’s composition set in the rag or musical mode of Asa—a rag of hope and ambition that inspires its singers and listeners to cultivate the courage to do what must be done, and the determination to do things right.

In this context, Bhagat Kabir uses the imagery of the wedding procession and ceremony to disrupt popular cultural paradigms and communicate a larger message about the relationship between the individual seeker as the human-bride and IkOankar, the One, as the Groom. It is in these lines that we hear of a revolutionarily intimate love.

Bhagat Kabir says, Sing, O newly-married brides! Sing the joyful songs of IkOankar’s praises! King Ram, the Beautiful Sovereign, the dearest Bridegroom, has come into my heart-home.

The Bhagat, the devoted being, as the human-bride says, King Ram, the Sovereign and the Beautiful, has come into my home and dwells in my heart as my Bridegroom.

We pause.

We reflect.

In wedding ceremonies, we tend to do much to prepare ourselves—we beautify and adorn and clothe ourselves in vibrant colors. Bhagat Kabir expands this idea, saying, having made the body a vessel, I dye my mind again and again. For Bhagat Kabir, temporary adornment is replaced with the coloring of the body in love and devotion. That color does not fade.

Using the imagery of the ceremony, Bhagat Kabir says that the seeker has made their heart an altar of union. The seeker has uttered the mantra of IkOankar’s Wisdom. No Pandit, priest, or holy man is needed to complete the marriage task. There is a great disruption in this idea—that the human-bride themselves can conduct this marriage with the help of the Wisdom that colored them in love. There is great sovereignty and freedom in this union.

Marrying the Sovereign IkOankar is a disruption of all those systems in which there are only a few who can claim this relationship exclusively. Hierarchies of caste and status are disintegrated. The most important thing becomes the preparation of the self, dyeing the self in the color of love.

The intimacy in this composition disrupts the formalities and religiosities of existing paradigms that require a broker or an agent to facilitate even communication with the One. This is between Bhagat Kabir as the human-bride and the Sovereign Divine as the Groom. Bhagat Kabir’s certainty about this union is deeply revolutionary and intimately adoring. No one can keep him from his Beloved.

Are we pursuing this relationship with the same conviction?
Are we dyeing ourselves in devotion? Are we coloring ourselves in love?

May we emulate the certainty of the Bhagat who is so deeply in love.
May we wed the One we love.
May the Wisdom-Guru guide us.