Celebrating a 15th Century Indian poet who broke all the shackles through poetry
By Sachin Gupta
Bhala hua meri matki phooti,
main to paniya bharan se chhooti re.
(How wonderful that my earthen pot has broken;
I am freed from the daily burden of fetching water.)
With characteristic simplicity, Kabir could turn something as ordinary as a broken earthen pot into a metaphor for liberation. His poetry repeatedly invites people to look beyond ritual, social divisions, and outward appearances and search instead for a more direct experience of truth.
More than five centuries later, that voice continues to resonate.
The Kabir Society of America brought Kabir’s poetry alive through music and dance at its 5th Annual Kabir Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the Greater Boston area on Sep 13, 2026. Despite a day of persistent rain, more than 100 people gathered for an evening that brought together professional musicians, dancers, academics, engineers, educators, students, and families.
Kabir, the 15th-century Indian mystic poet traditionally associated with Varanasi and the weaving community, spoke in the language of ordinary people. Rather than confining spiritual thought to scriptures or institutions, he drew his imagery from everyday life including the loom, clay pots, water, cloth, homes, markets, marriage and death. Through these familiar images, he questioned social hierarchies and religious divisions while speaking of devotion, equality, self-reflection and the shared human condition.
It is this continuing relevance of Kabir that lies at the heart of the Kabir Society of America, founded in the Boston area to promote awareness of Kabir’s literary works and message through different media and platforms.
Passing Kabir to a new generation
Perhaps appropriately, the festival began not with established performers but with children. Priyal, Aarishka and Zuri, elementary-school students from Boston Study Group families, opened the program with a performance they had learned under choreographer Amrapali. Their presence carried a symbolism of its own: centuries-old words being handed to another generation, thousands of miles from the land in which they were first spoken.
The musical program then moved across generations, professions, musical traditions and geographies.
Harsift Kaur, known as Siffty, a Punjab-born musician who grew up in Nigeria and is currently studying at Berklee College of Music, opened the vocal performances. Veteran Hindustani musician M. M. Rama Rao, an All India Radio A-Grade artist, then joined his students and fellow performers in presenting Kabir vani.
Among the voices heard during the evening were professionals whose everyday lives lie far beyond the concert stage starting from financial professional Girish Satpute, cybersecurity engineer Shilpa Dangde, educator Ammara Khan, professor and associate dean Naresh Agarwal, engineer Amandeep Singh, and singers Sonia Sharma, Kamal Chadha and to Mohini Duke Singh.
Together, they sang words such as:
Rehna nahin des biraana hai,
Biraana hai re, begaana hai;
Yahaan rehna nahin, des biraana hai.
(We are not meant to remain in this foreign land;
it is strange to us, it is not truly our own.
We are not meant to remain here—this is but a foreign land.)
In the context of an immigrant community gathered in Massachusetts, the words acquired yet another layer of meaning. Kabir’s “foreign land” is spiritual and metaphorical, yet the language of belonging, home and impermanence inevitably carries additional resonances when sung among people whose own lives span countries and cultures.
Kabir through music, dance and ghazal
The festival also demonstrated how Kabir’s poetry can travel across artistic traditions.
Jeyanthi Ghatraju, a Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer and teacher based in Westford, Massachusetts, interpreted Kabir through classical dance, giving physical expression to words usually encountered through song and poetry.
Hindustani classical vocalist Sonali Tambe, a disciple of Pandit Dr. Vikas Kashalkar of the Gwalior Gharana, presented one of Kabir’s best-known compositions, Mann Laago Mero Yaar Fakeeri Mein, a declaration of the heart’s attraction to a life detached from material possession and status.
Anjali Dhodapkar, who has been singing for two decades and continues her training in Hindustani classical music, performed Nirbhay Nirgun Gun Re Gaaunga meaning “Fearlessly, I will sing of the One without attributes.”
The evening also carried a distinct cross-border Southasian character. Nadeem Mirza, a poet and musician from Lahore trained in Indian classical music by his father, Ustad Nasiruddin Mirza of the Delhi Gharana, presented Kabir in a ghazal style. Among the verses he sang was:
Range ko na-rangee kahein, chalte ko gaadi,
Aur bane doodh ko khoya;
Is jag ki ulti reet dekh Kabira roya.
Kabir observes a world in which names and realities seem strangely reversed and responds by questioning the contradictions around him. It was an apt reminder of what makes Kabir remarkably contemporary: he does not simply offer spiritual consolation; he asks his listener to question.
The featured performance of the evening came from Shivani Joshi, a Portland-based artist trained in Bharatanatyam, Kathak and vocal music who now teaches music at Lewis & Clark College while pursuing doctoral work in dance. Her performance included the celebrated lines:
Kabira jab hum paida hue, jag hanse hum roye;
Aisi karni kar chalo, hum hanse jag roye.
(When we were born, the world laughed while we cried;
live such a life that when you depart, you smile while the world weeps.)
The singers and dancers were supported by accompanists Yogesh Karale and Yash Naik on tabla and Hirak Modi on harmonium, helping weave the evening’s varied musical traditions into a continuous celebration of Kabir.
The significance of the evening was perhaps most clearly visible not only on stage, but among the audience.
Journalist Farhan Reza, visiting from Indiana with his wife, educationist Huma, described the evening as rejuvenating. What particularly struck him was the representation of Southasia and the sense of cultural connection the gathering created.
For Imtiyaz Ali, a PhD student in Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston, listening to Kabir was an emotional experience. He reflected on how relevant Kabir’s words remain to the present moment.
This relevance may help explain why a poet from 15th-century North India could bring together such a varied audience in 21st-century Massachusetts.
Kabir belongs to no easy category. His compositions have been preserved and sung across Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and other devotional traditions. His words have travelled through oral traditions, classical music, folk music, bhajan, Sufi performance and now contemporary stages around the world.
The festival, therefore, was more than a musical evening. It became a small representation of Kabir’s own refusal to remain inside boundaries.
The event was organised by volunteers, including myself, and community leaders like Jaspal Singh, Hardip Maan, Pradeep Shukla, Heman Chavan, Sanjay Jain. Sangeeta Prasad, President of the Kabir Society of America, hosted the program.
Perhaps the spirit of the evening returns us to the broken pot with which Kabir began.
Bhala hua meri matki phooti…
The breaking of the pot appears at first to be a loss. Kabir turns it into freedom. This reversal is characteristic of his poetry: what society teaches us to preserve, he sometimes asks us to break; what we are taught to distinguish, he asks us to see together; and where we construct identities and boundaries, he repeatedly points toward something more fundamental.
Five centuries later, on a rainy evening near Boston, people from different professions, generations, regions and traditions gathered to sing those words again.
The pot may have broken long ago. The voice, evidently, has not.
Sachin Gupta is a physicist, educator, and writer from India who recently completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Massachusetts Boston, specializing in quantum physics. He currently teaches physics at the University of Massachusetts Boston and volunteers for Kabir Society of America.
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