Since the birth of our country in India, several great saints were blessed to be born here and which is why India is named a world guru. Several great philosophers and gurus have taken birth on the soil and preached the way of peace. Among the great saints, Saint Guru Ravidas Ji / Sant Guru Ravidas Ji comes as a great social reformer, poet, and moral supremacy of the 15th Century.
Sant Ravidas is not a new name to any one of us who has read about his preaching. We all have been a part of his teachings at the elementary school level.
Birth Of Sant Ravidas
Guru Ravidas Ji, the great sage, was initially born in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Gobardhanpur village. His father used to design shoes in the village. Ravidas Ji, due to his devotion to his conduct, was well versed in the influence of Sadhu Santo since childhood. Since childhood, Emotion has been full of kutcus, but Ravidas used to believe in his devoted work because his father had a job of making shoes.
His mother was Mata Ghurbinia, and Raghuram was his father. Although his first job was leatherwork, he started to spend much of his time spiritually on the banks of the Ganga river. He then lived with Sufi saints, sadhus, and aestheticism most of his time.
Ravidas Life During 15th And 16th Century
During the 15th to 16th centuries CE, Ravidas was coming up as a mystic Bhakti poet-saint. The devotional songs of Ravidas have had a lasting impact on the bhakti movement. He got revered as Guru (teacher) in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. He was a saint-poet, a reformer of society, and a spiritual figure.
Sant Ravidas ‘s life details are uncertain and disputed. Scholars believe he was born in 1371 CE in a family that manufactured leather products with dead animals’ skins. To find in the texts of medieval culture and era, Ravidas was one of the followers of St Ramananda’s Bhakti and a contemporary of St Kabir, a bhakti poet.
Life Journey Of Sant Ravidas
The Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib, included Ravidas’ devotional songs. Several rapids’ poems also appear in the Panch Vani text of Dadupanthi tradition within the Hindu. Ravidas taught how to eradicate social caste and sex distinctions and encouraged harmony in search of personal spiritual liberties.
His thoughts and famousness developed over his Life, and texts say that Brahmins bowed before him. He visited the Hindu pilgrimage sites of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and the Himalayas on lengthy journeys. He abandoned the saguna of the supreme beings (with attributes, picture), and focused on the Nirguna of the supreme creature (without attributes, abstract). Since his poetic hymns in regional languages inspired others, his teachings and guidance got sought by people from different backgrounds.
Ravidas On His Meeting With Guru Nanak Dev Ji
Most scientists believe Ravidas met the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Within the religion of the Sikh, he gets revered, and the Adi Granth includes 41 of Ravidas’ poems. These poems are one of his ideas and literary works’ oldest proof source. The biography of the Sikh tradition called Premambodha was another significant legends and story about Sant Ravidas ‘s lives.
The Bhaktamal of Nabhadas from the 17th Century and the Anantadas of Parcases both contain Ravidas excerpts. The scripture and texts of the tradition of the Sikh and Hindu Dadupanthi got composed in the early twentieth Century or around 400 years after his death, most of the written sources on Ravidas’ lives, including Ravidas.
Literary Works Of Sant Ravidas
Two of the oldest attested origins of Sant Ravidas’ literary work are Adi Granth of Sikhs and Panchvani of the Hindu warrior ascetic community of Dadupanthis. The Adi Grant, which includes 40 of Ravidas ‘s poems, is one of 36 contributors to the essential canonical Sikhism Scriptures. This poetry compilation in Adi Granth answers, among other things, problems relating, war and revolution, and the desire to give Life to the right cause, to confront conflict and tyranny. The poems of Ravidas deal with topics such as defining a just State where there are no unequal people of the second or third class, the need for dispassion, and who is a real Yogi.
Ravidas And Teachings On Symbolism
In these biographies, which stretch between Ravidas ‘s battle with Hindu Brahmins and his war with Muslim Sultan Sikander Lodi, there are no historical facts to check the historicity. The stories reflect the social dynamics that influenced composers during the 17th to 20th centuries. Friedlander states There are stories where the triumph of Saint Ravidas is because God has interacted with miracles, such as floating a stony in water or making the Ganges river flow back and forth.
Philosophy Of Ravidas
Ravidas ‘s songs discuss the themes of Nirguna-Saguna and ideas, which are at the foundation of Nath Yoga’s Hindu philosophy. He also discusses Sahaj, a sacred state in which the realities of many and one get unified.
Saint Ravidas had a pure voice, and he did not fear his humble heritage and his real caste; he did overcome the spiritual doubts of those who kept discussions with him. Furthermore, the Bhaktamal text states that Ravidas ‘s teachings agree with both the Vedic and old scriptures, subscribe to non-dualism, discuss with everyone including Brahmins, spiritual ideas, and philosophy, without discrimination of sex or caste, and reflect a highly ascetic individual.
Ravidassia is a spin-off religion of the Sikhism, founded by the followers of Ravidass’s teachings in the twenty-first Century. It got established following the killing in Vienna of its cleric Ramanand Dass in 2009, and it became a religion entirely removed from Sikhism. The movement proclaimed itself. A new holy book, Amritbani Guru Ravidass Ji, was written by the Ravidassia faith. It includes 240 hymns based entirely on Ravidas’ writings and teachings.