Guru Ravidas

Guru Ravidas Latest News

The Prime Minister recently inaugurated the Adampur Airport in Punjab and renamed it after Sri Sant Guru Ravidas Ji in a bid to honour the revered saint and social reformer on his birth anniversary.

About Guru Ravidas

• Guru Ravidas (1377-1527 C.E.) was a renowned saint known for his contributions to the Bhakti movement.
• His devotional songs and verses made a lasting impact upon the Bhakti Movement.
• Guru Ravidas is also known as Raidas, Rohidas, and Ruhidas.
• Ravidas was born in a village called Sir Gobardhanpur, near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India. 
  • Today, his birthplace is a special place known as Shri Guru Ravidass Janam Asthan.
  • His birthday is celebrated as Ravidas Jayanti.
• Ravidas is traditionally seen as a student of the bhakti-poet Ramananda. 
• He is also thought to have lived around the same time as Kabir, another famous poet-saint.
• He was a well-known poet. His poems, written in local languages, inspired many people.
  • 41 of his devotional songs and poems are found in the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib. 
  • Many of his poems are also in the Panch Vani text of the Dadu Panthi tradition within Hinduism. 
• Philosophy and Teachings:
  • The core of Guru Ravidas’s philosophy was the rejection of the caste system and the promotion of human rights and dignity. 
  • He envisioned a society called ‘Beghumpura’ (a city without sorrow), where there is no suffering, no fear, and no discrimination.
  • He also became a symbol of opposition to untouchability in society by the higher caste people for the lower caste people.
  • He emphasised the philosophy of spiritual freedom.
  • He abandoned the saguna (with attributes, image) forms of supreme beings and focussed on the nirguna (without attributes, abstract) form of supreme beings.
  • Meera Bai, a revered figure in Hindu spiritualism, is said to have considered Guru Ravidas as her spiritual Guru. 
• Ravidassia religion:
  • The Guru’s teachings now form the basis of the Ravidassia religion.
  • Ravidassias believe that Guru Ravidas should be treated as a saint just like the other gurus, as he lived before the first Sikh Guru, and his teachings were studied by the Sikh Gurus.
  • The Ravidassia community adopted the Amrit Bani Guru Ravidass as its holy book and established its own symbols and rituals.

Source: IT

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