Directions: This is a single-document exercise to help train you in analytical reading. Read through the document carefully and answer the following questions

1) Does this man tend toward orthodoxy or reform?

2) What is his attitude about inherited religious traditions? Social structures?

3) Tell me something about this man’s religious devotion.

4) How would most people of India accept this man?

Document

O servant, where dost thou seek me?

Lo! I am beside thee.

I am neither in temple nor in mosque.

I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash.

Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation.

If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see me,

Thou shalt meet me in a moment of time.

Kabir says, O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath.”

It is needless to ask of a saint the caste to which he belongs;

For the priest, the warrior, the tradesman

And all the thirty-six castes, alike are seeking after God.

It is but folly to ask what the caste of a saint may be;

The barber has sought God, the washwoman, and the carpenter-

Even Raidas was a seeker after God.

The Rishi Swapacha was a tanner by caste.

Hindus and Muslims alike have achieved that end,

Where remains no mark of distinction.

Poem of Kabir (1450-1518), a religious poet from India