Kabir

Kabir  was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint. His writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement, and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das, and Kabir Sagar. Born in Varanasi in what is now Uttar Pradesh, he is known for being critical of organized religion and religions. He questioned what he regarded as the meaningless and unethical practices of all religions, primarily what he considered to be the wrong practices in the Hindu and Muslim religions.

During his lifetime, he was threatened by both Hindus and Muslims for his views. When he died, several Hindus and the Muslims he had inspired claimed him as theirs. Kabir suggested that "Truth" is with the person on the path of righteousness, considers everything, living and nonliving, as divine, and is passively detached from the world's affairs. To know the Truth, suggested Kabir, drop the "I" or the ego. 

Kabir's legacy survives and continues through the Kabir panth ("Path of Kabir"), a religious community that recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. Its members are known as Kabir panties. The years of Kabir's birth and death are unclear. Some historians favor 1398–1448 as the period Kabir lived, while others favor 1440–1518. Generally, Kabir is believed to have been born in 1398 (Samvat 1455), on the full moon day of Jyeshtha month (according to the historical Hindu calendar Vikram Samvat) at the time of Brahmamuharta. 

There is a considerable scholarly debate on the circumstances surrounding Kabir's birth. Many Followers of Kabir believe that he came from Satloka by assuming the body of light and incarnated on a lotus flower and claim that the rishi Ashtanand was the direct witness of this incident, who himself appeared on a lotus flower in the Lahartara Pond. A few accounts mention that Kabir, in the form of a child, was found at Lahartara Lake by a Muslim weaver called Niru and his wife Nima, who raised him as his parents.

Kabir is widely believed to have become one of the many disciples of the Bhakti poet-saint Swami Ramananda in Varanasi, known for devotional Vaishnavism with a strong bent to monist Advaita philosophy teaching that God was inside every person, everything. Early texts about his life place him in the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism and the Sufi tradition of Islam. According to Irfan Habib, the two manuscript versions of the Persian text Dabistan-i-Mazahib are the earliest known texts with biographical information about Kabir. The Dabistan-i-Mazahib states Kabir is a "Bairagi" (Vaishnava yogi) and states he is a disciple of Ramanand (the text refers to him repeatedly as "Gang").

Kabir's family is believed to have lived in the locality of Kabir Chaura in Varanasi (Banaras). Kabīr maṭha, a maṭha located in the back alleys of Kabir Chaura, celebrates his life and times. Accompanying the property is a house named Nīrūṭīlā, which houses Niru and Nima graves