Who is Kal Niranjan?

You’re reading this passage exactly the way the Sant–Kabir tradition intends it to be read — as a radical re-ordering of the Hindu cosmos, not a polite theological tweak. Let’s lay it out carefully, because Kabir is very precise here.

1. Who is

Kāl Niranjan

(also called Niranjan, Kāl, or Brahm)?

In Kabir’s cosmology, Kāl Niranjan is:

• the lord of time (kāl = time, death)

• the creator–ruler of the material universe

• not the Supreme God

He is often equated with:

• Brahm (not Brahman)

• Īśvar (lower lord)

• the demiurgic creator

Core traits of Kāl Niranjan

• Creates the worlds within time

• Rules through birth, karma, and death

• Feeds on the cycle of sacrifice, worship, and rebirth

• Cannot grant liberation beyond his domain

Kabir portrays him as powerful but limited, luminous yet bound — a cosmic administrator, not the Absolute.

2. The creation story in

Anurāg Sāgar

(in brief)

Kabir’s narrative goes roughly like this:

1. Sat Purush (the True, Supreme Being) exists alone — timeless, formless, beyond attributes.

2. From Sat Purush emanates a lower creative principle — Kāl Niranjan.

3. Kāl desires to rule and create but lacks full power.

4. With permission (or constraint), he creates the three worlds (physical, subtle, causal).

5. From him are born three sons:

   
   

   • Brahmā – creation

   • Viṣṇu – preservation

   • Śiva / Maheś – dissolution

6. 
   

This is exactly what your page is stating.

“When there was no Brahma, Vishnu or Mahesh… all these things were in the Sat Purush then.”

That line is theological dynamite.

3. Why Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva are

lower gods

in Kabir

Yes — Kabir deliberately demotes them.

In Sant thought:

• They are functions, not absolutes

• They operate inside time

• They preside over change, not liberation

Kabir repeatedly says:

They themselves are bound by karma and death.

How can one bound free another?

So:

• Brahmā creates bodies → bodies die

• Viṣṇu preserves worlds → worlds dissolve

• Śiva destroys forms → destruction still belongs to time

None can deliver the soul beyond Kāl.

4. Capitalization question: should “brahma” be lowercase?

In Sant Mat usage, this distinction is crucial:

Term

Meaning

Brahman

Absolute Reality (Upanishadic / Sat Purush analogue)

Brahm or brahma

Created lord of the three worlds (Kāl)

Brahmā

One deity, son of Kāl

So yes — many Sant writers intentionally avoid capitalizing “brahma” to prevent confusion with the Absolute.

This is not disrespect; it is ontological precision.

5. Who is Sat Purush then?

Sat Purush (also called:

• Sat Nām

• Akāl Purakh

• Anāmī

• Rādhāsoāmī in later Sant Mat)

is:

• unborn

• beyond time

• untouched by creation and dissolution

• reachable only through Shabd / Nāmdhārā

Kabir’s famous position:

The true God is not worshipped in temples,

not found in scriptures,

not one of the gods —

He is realized through inner Sound.

6. Why Kabir is so sharp about this

Kabir is fighting misdirected devotion.

People worship:

• gods who grant boons

• heavens that end

• liberation that loops back into birth

Kabir says:

You escaped a prison cell

but stayed inside the prison.

His cosmology exists to reorient devotion upward, not to insult traditions.

7. A clean summary

• Kāl Niranjan = lord of time, death, karma; creator of the material cosmos

• Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva = his sons; cosmic functions, not liberators

• Sat Purush = Supreme Reality beyond creation

• Yes, in Sant Mat, brahma is a lower god, and capitalization is often avoided deliberately

• Kabir’s goal is liberation beyond time, not refinement within it

If you want next, I can:

• compare Kabir’s Kāl with Gnostic Demiurge

• show parallels with Sufi concept of dahr vs al-Ḥaqq

• or trace how this cosmology evolves in Dādū, Dariyā Sāhib, Tulsi Sāhib, and Radha Soami texts

You’re reading Kabir at exactly the right depth.