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Work #1831 · Lifelong (the poems represent Kabir's entire career; the collection is posthumous)

Bijak

Kabir
c. 15th century (oral composition across Kabir's lifetime; collected and written down by disciples; the Bijak as a text dates from the 17th century) · Bhojpuri / sadhukkadi (a mixed vernacular Hindi)
Collection of poems, songs (pads), and couplets (sakhis) · North Indian bhakti / Sufi mysticism / Sant tradition

Neither Hindu nor Muslim — the fish in the water is thirsty: the divine is found within, and the seekers who look elsewhere are looking in the wrong direction

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Bijak (Lifelong (the poems represent Kabir's entire career; the collection is posthumous))
Time · Extent Both
Time · Ontological Status Emergent
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Cyclical
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Emergent
Space · Curvature not engaged
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Non-local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Emergent
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Non-local
Observer · Time Instance Multiple
Observer · Space Instance Multiple
Observer · Knowledge Extent Total
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Both
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Singular
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Cosmic-ordering
Observer · Moral Authority Experience
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Emergent
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Reversible
Information · Ontological Status Emergent
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Non-conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Bijak

The eternal divine and the temporal cycle of samsara; cyclical through the wheel of birth-death-rebirth that the devotee seeks to escape.

Space

Bijak

Emergent and non-local — "neither in temple nor in mosque." The divine is everywhere and nowhere in particular.

Matter

Bijak

Emergent from the divine; the material world is real but not ultimate. Kabir the weaver makes the thread itself a metaphor for divine creativity.

Observer

Bijak

The inner witness — the devotee who finds the divine within. Singular at the deepest level: the soul and the divine are non-dual. Cosmic-ordering agency: the nameless One beyond personality.

Energy

Bijak

The divine energy pervading all things; reversible through devotion — the soul can reverse its descent into samsara.

Information

Bijak

Inner knowledge of the divine as the only true information; cosmic information conserved; personal information non-conserved because the goal is dissolution of the separate self into the nameless One.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Bijak

The Bijak's textual situation is deeply uncertain: Kabir composed orally, and the written collections were compiled generations later by different communities with different theological agendas. The Kabir Panth Bijak, the Sikh Adi Granth Kabir, and the Kabir Granthavali do not always agree on which verses are authentic. The philosophical tension between Kabir's anti-intellectualism and the sophistication of his non-dualism — between the weaver who rejects all learned theology and the poet who articulates a subtle metaphysics of the formless divine — has generated a rich tradition of interpretive commentary from both Hindu and Muslim scholars.