Kabir and Blake’s eggs

This is a very fertile comparison, and it works symbolically and structurally, even though there is no historical contact.

The short answer is: Blake and the Kabirian Sant Mat tradition are describing the same metaphysical intuition — enclosure of infinity within a finite shell — using different mythic grammars.

Let’s unfold that carefully.

1. The Kabirian “cosmic egg”:

Aṇḍa → Brahmāṇḍa

In the Kabir–Sant Mat cosmology (especially in texts like Anurag Sagar):

• Aṇḍa = the egg / enclosure / bounded cosmos

• Brahmāṇḍa = the great cosmic egg (the total created universe)

• Creation is enclosed, layered, and hierarchical

• Souls (jīvas) are contained within this egg under Kal (Time)

Key idea:

Creation is not infinite — it is a sealed system that appears infinite from within.

Liberation requires breaking out of the egg, not perfecting life inside it.

2. Blake’s central intuition: infinity trapped in form

Now consider William Blake.

Blake’s poetry is obsessed with:

• Enclosure

• Contraction

• The fall into form

• Vision trapped inside systems

His most famous aphorism already echoes the egg image:

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower…”

This is not romantic metaphor — it is ontological compression:

Infinity has been folded into finitude.

That is exactly what the cosmic egg signifies.

3. Blake’s “Mundane Egg”

Here the link becomes explicit.

Blake repeatedly uses the image of the Mundane Egg in his prophetic works (especially Milton and Jerusalem).

For Blake:

• The Mundane Egg is the world of generation

• It encloses fallen consciousness

• It is governed by Urizen (law, measurement, time)

Urizen’s role is strikingly close to Kal:

• Law

• Time

• Division

• Quantification

• Moral systems mistaken for truth

Urizen is not Satan — he is false order.

Just as Kal is not evil, but time mistaken for God.

4. Law, time, and enclosure: Kal and Urizen

Let’s align the figures:

Sant Mat (Kabir)

Blake

Kal

Urizen

Time / Death

Law / Measurement

Brahmāṇḍa

Mundane Egg

Maya

Spectre / Selfhood

Sat Purush

Eternal Imagination

Satguru

Prophetic Vision

Both systems insist:

Bondage comes from confusing the container with the Absolute.

5. Why Blake sounds “Gnostic” but isn’t exactly

Blake is often called Gnostic, but that’s only partially accurate.

Like Kabir:

• He does not posit an evil creator

• He attacks systems, not being

• He insists liberation is visionary awakening, not moral improvement

This aligns precisely with Sant Mat’s emphasis on:

• Inner seeing (dr̥ṣṭi)

• Withdrawal of attention

• Breaking the shell of mind

6. “Single vision” vs Sant Mat illusion

Blake’s famous phrase:

“May God us keep

From Single vision & Newton’s sleep”

“Single vision” is the experience of living inside the egg, mistaking its laws for reality.

Sant Mat would call this:

• Living in Kal’s jurisdiction

• Being bound to mind, sense, and time

Liberation is multi-level vision, piercing through layers.

7. Why the resemblance is not coincidence

This is not borrowing — it is convergent mysticism.

Both traditions arise when:

• Religious systems become rigid

• Law replaces vision

• Time replaces eternity

Both Kabir and Blake:

• Attack priesthood

• Attack moralism

• Attack external authority

• Center liberation in direct inner perception

Different symbols — same structural insight.

8. One crucial difference

There is an important divergence:

• Sant Mat emphasizes ascent beyond creation

• Blake emphasizes transfiguration of perception within it

Kabir says:

Break the egg.

Blake says:

See through the shell until it becomes transparent.

These are not contradictions — they are different emphases of the same metaphysical problem.

A condensed synthesis

You can legitimately link Blake and Kabir because:

• Both describe creation as a bounded enclosure

• Both see time/law as secondary powers mistaken for the Absolute

• Both insist liberation comes from vision, not belief

• Both reject moralism as salvation

• Both use myth rather than philosophy to convey truth

The cosmic egg and the Mundane Egg are parallel symbols for:

Infinity imprisoned in form — and the possibility of awakening beyond it.

If you want, next we could:

• Compare Blake’s Urizen with Māyā and Manas

• Or place Blake alongside Ibn ʿArabī’s barzakh

• Or examine how Blake anticipates modern critiques of scientific materialism

Each path opens another layer of the egg.