Saint Ravidas was a mystic poet, social reformer, and spiritual teacher

08/02/2023

Most Ravidasis follow Sikhism and believe in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. This sect of Ravidasis mainly resides in the Malwa region of Punjab. Teacher Ravidas was an Indian mystic, poet, social reformer, and spiritual master who contributed significantly to the Bhakti movement through devotional songs, poetry, and spiritual teachings. He also wrote 40 poems for the Adi Granth, the holy book of Sikhism. Guru Ravidas lived a very simple life as a cobbler, which was assigned to him by the Seva God. Guru Ravidas was one of the greatest spiritual teachers to have blessed India. He led a very simple life as a maker and repairer of shoes which he was assigned to him by the Seva God.
In the 15th to 16th centuries CE, Ravidas, also known as Raidas, was an Indian mystic poet-saint who led the Bhakti movement. He was a poet, social reformer, and spiritual figure who was revered as a guru (teacher) in the contemporary regions of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana. The particulars of Ravidas's life are disputed and unknown. He is believed to have been born around 1450 AD. He advocated the removal of caste and gender-based social barriers and encouraged cooperation in the pursuit of individual spiritual freedom. Devotional verses of Ravidas are found in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs. There are many poems of Ravidas in Panch Vani Shastra of the Dadu Panthi style of Hinduism. He is also the main character of Ravidasiya.
Very little information is available about Ravidas's life. According to scholars, he was born in 1450 AD and died in 1520 AD. Another name of Guru Ravidas was Guru Raidas. He was born in the village of Sir Gobardhan, which is close to Varanasi, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Sri Guru Ravidas Janmasthan is the present name of his birthplace. His mother was Mata Kalsi, and Santokh Das was his father. His parents belonged to the untouchable Chamar caste as they worked in the leather industry. Although he initially worked as a leather worker, he soon started spending most of his time engaging in spiritual activities on the banks of the river Ganges. After that, he spent most of his time with ascetics, sadhus, and Sufi saints. Ravidas had married Lona Devi at an early age. His son Vijay Das was born. One of the earliest biographies of many Bhakti movement poets, Anantadas Parakai, which is still in existence, discusses the birth of Ravidas. According to the medieval era, literature such as Bhaktamal, Guru Ravidas was a student of the Brahmin Bhakti poet Ramananda. He is generally considered a recent contemporary of Kabir.
Nevertheless, the ancient literature Ratnavali claims that Guru Ravidas received spiritual teachings from Ramananda and belonged to the Ramanandi Sampradaya lineage. During his life, his views and popularity grew, and writings indicate that Brahmin members of the priestly upper caste once bowed before him. He traveled widely, staying at Hindu temples in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and the Himalayas. He discarded the Saguna (with attributes, and images) forms of the Supreme Being and focused on the Nirguna (essence, without qualities) form. His creative hymns in regional languages that inspired others resulted in people from all backgrounds seeking lessons and mentorship from him. Most academics agree that Guru Nanak - the founder of Sikhism, met Guru Ravidas. The Adi Granth contains 41 poems by Guru Ravidas, and the Sikh doctrine holds them in high esteem. These poems are one of the earliest sources of his thoughts and literary works. The Sikh biography known as Prembodh is another important source of lore and stories related to the life of Ravidas.
He is listed as one of the Seventeen Saints of the Indian religious tradition in his work, which was written in 1693, more than 170 years after the death of Guru Ravidas. Chapters of Guru Ravidas can be found in both Anantadas and Nabhadas's Bhaktamal. From the seventeenth century. Most other written sources about Ravidas's life, including those by Ravidasis (followers of Guru Ravidas), were written in the early 20th century, or about 400 years after his death. Exceptions to this rule are the texts and texts of the Sikh tradition and the Hindu Dadupanthi traditions. Ravidas was one of the saints whose lives and poems were included in this work, also known as Parakas (or Parchis). Over time, new copies of Anantadas's Persian manuscripts were made, some of them in other regional Indian languages.
According to Vinnand Calvert, around 30 manuscripts of Anantadas's biography on Guru Ravidas have been discovered, in various places across India. These four manuscripts are dated respectively 1662, 1665, 1676, and 1687, and are all complete. The 1687 edition systematically inserts verses with caste-related statements at various places in the text, new allegations that Brahmins are persecuting Guru Ravidas, notes on Ravidas's untouchability, claims that Kabir imparted ideas to Ravidas, Ridicule of nirguni and saguni ideas, & other textual corruption: Anantadas's Cleaner Critical Form of Parsi indicates that the Bhakti movement has more commonality between the ideas of Ravidas, Kabir, and Sen than previously believed, according to Calvert, who wrote the 1676 edition. All these entries are from the critical edition of his biography of Ravidas. The textual sources on Ravidas have also been questioned by Khare, who says that there are no "readily available and reputable textual sources" on Ravidas's portrayal of Hindus and untouchables.
Two early sources of Guru Ravidas's writings are the Sikh Adi Granth and the Panchvani of the Hindu warrior-ascetic organization Dadupanthis. The Adi Granth contains forty poems by Ravidas, and he is one of 36 authors who contributed to this important Sikhism text. This collection of poetry from the Adi Granth addresses a variety of topics, including how to deal with oppression and war, how to end the war, and whether or not one is willing to give up one's life for the right cause. In his poetry, Ravidas addresses issues such as the definition of a just society, one without second or third-class citizens, the need for objectivity, and the identity of a true yogi. Many poems written by Indian poets of a later era have been respectfully attributed to Ravidas, although Guru Ravidas had nothing to do with these poems or the concepts contained in them, as with the authorship of other Indian Bhakti saint-poets and Western literature. some examples.
The themes of the Nirguna-Saguna Chakra, as well as concepts from the Nath Yoga school of Hinduism, feature in Guru Ravidas's lyrics. He often uses the term "sahaj", which refers to a mystical state in which the truths of the many and the one are united. Ravidas's poetry is filled with themes of boundless love and devotion towards God, who is depicted as Nirguna. The themes of Nanak's poetry are largely parallel to the nirguna bhakti concepts of Ravidas and other notable north Indian saint-poets in the Sikh tradition. According to Karen Pechilis, most postmodern scholars believe that the teachings of Guru Ravidas are a part of the Nirguna philosophy of the Bhakti movement.
There is a theosophical debate between Kabir and Ravidas on the character of the Absolute, specifically if Brahman (the ultimate reality, the eternal truth) is a separate anthropomorphic incarnation or a monistic unity, in several manuscripts discovered in Rajasthan and the north. Kabir supports the first position. On the contrary, Ravidas says that both are based on the second assumption. In these texts, Kabir initially wins and Ravidas accepts that Brahman is monistic, but Kabir refuses to accept the worship of a heavenly incarnation until the very end (Saguna Garbhadhana).
(Research Scholar in Political Science Poetess, independent journalist and columnist, Arya Nagar, Hisar (Haryana)-125003. Views expressed are personal)

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