Bhagat Ravidas of The Guru Granth
by Hardev Bahri & Harjinder Singh
Today, January 30, is the birth anniversary of Bhagat Ravidas ji [1450 - 1520, estimated]
Ravidās, poet and mystic, was born to Raghū and Ghurbiniā, who lived near the city of Vārāṇasī, in present day Uttar Pradesh, India.
Not much biographical information about him is available but, from what can be made out of his own compositions, he belonged to a hindu 'low-caste' (chamār - leather worker/ cobbler ) family. He followed the family profession of tanning hides and making shoes.
Gradually he started spending most of his time in the company of saints and sādhūs and built himself a thatched hut wherein he received and entertained wandering ascetics. Many stories became knownt about his simplicity and piety of nature. He became famous as a Vaiṣṇava saint in the tradition of Rāmānand.
In the course of his spiritual quest, he reached a stage when he discarded images and idols and turned to the worship of the Supreme Being. He wrote deeply impassioned devotional verses and left his mark on Hindi literature for the fusion of religious sentiment with the vernacular medium.
Forty of his hymns have been incorporated in the Sikh Scripture, the Gurū Granth Sāhib. Accordingly, he is accorded deep respect by Sikhs as his compositions form part of our Living Guru. He is therefore accorded the high honorofic of "Bhagat" - literally, God's Devotee - by Sikhs, as are the other non-Guru contributors to the Guru Granth Sahib.
The sect of Bhagat Ravidas Panthis that follows him honour him as "Guru Ravidas".
He travelled fairly widely and visited Rājasthān, Gujarāt, Āndhra Pradesh, Mahārāshṭra, besides a number of places in the northern India such as Prayāg, Mathurā, Vrindāvan, Haridvār, Guṛgāoṅ and Multān. At most of these places, there are monuments honouring his memory. In his lifetime, he had thousands of followers, including members of the higher castes, among them being Mīrābāī, the Rājput princess.
The hymns of Ravidās included in the Gurū Granth Sāhib fall under rāga - Sirī (1), Gauṛī (5), Āsā (6), Gūjarī (1), Soraṭhi (7), Dhanāsarī (3), Jaitsarī (1), Suhī (3), Bilāval (2), Gauṇḍ (2), Rāmkalī (1), Mārū (2); Kedārā (1), Bhairau (1), Basant (1) and Malhār (3). One of the hymns in rāga Mārū is the same (with a few minor changes) as included in rāga Soraṭhi.
Ravidās acknowledged the unicity and omnipresence and omnipotence of God. According to him, the human soul is only a particle of the Divine : the difference between the two is like the difference between the gold and the ornament, the water and the wave (GGS:93).
He rejects distinctions between man and man on the basis of caste or creed, for, as he says, in the world beyond no such differentiations will be acknowledged (GGS: 345). To realize God, which is the ultimate end of human life, man should concentrate on His Name, giving up mere forms and ritualism (GGS: 658, 1106). Birth in a 'low caste' is no hindrance in the way to spiritual development. The only condition required is freedom from duality; all else including pilgrimage to and bathing in the sixty-eight hindu centres is in vain (GGS: 875).
BHAGAT RAVIDAS PANTHIS
by HARJINDER SINGH
In view of the recent tension between Sikhs and the followers of Bhagat Ravidas I want to clarify the position between us Sikhs and the followers of Bhagat Ravidas. Forty sabads of Ravidas are included in the Guru Granth.
‘Guru' Ravidas
The followers of Ravidas call him Guru, which means ‘teacher' or ‘bringer of light into darkness'. For Sikhs the word Guru has a specific meaning, but we should not pick a fight with those who use the term in the more general Indian way. The shabads of Ravidas that are included in the Guru Granth are part of our eternal Guru, and as such Ravidas is part of the Sikh Guru.
The teachings of Ravidas are perfectly in tune with those of the Guru Granth Sahib.
Sudras & Jutts
The followers of Ravidas and Kabir tend be people of low caste. When I visited a friend of mine in a village near Hoshiarpur whose family were of so-called 'low caste', the Sikhs from the local gurdwara dominated by 'jutts' would not greet me, as I was staying with Ravidas panthis, who were deemed to be of a 'low caste'.
Saying to each other that our Guru teaches unity of mankind is not relevant for the Ravidas panthis, as long as Sikhs do not practice what the Guru teaches. When we start practicing the Guru's teachings we can reach out to the Ravidas panthis and share the sabads of our eternal Guru.
Guru Granth Sahib
Because of our ‘respect for the Guru Granth' Sikhs love to fight with those groups that do not give the same importance to the Guru Granth Sahib as we do. Instead of being happy that non-Sikhs read the Guru Granth and see it as an important source of teaching and inspiration, we want to take the Guru Granth away from Ravidas or Námdhari Gurdwaré / temples.
I am very happy that we do not set out to convert others in the way that Christians and Muslims do. But the attitude of many Sikhs is not very open-minded either. The Guru speaks to everybody, the Guru considers everybody who is a serious student of the Guru to be a Sikh. The way of life set out in the Guru Granth Sahib can be followed by all of all ‘dharams'.
Think about these three definitions : 1) a ‘Sikh' is someone who is a serious student of God. 2) A ‘Sikh' is someone who recognises the leadership of the Guru Granth and Guru Panth as ordained by Guru Gobind Singh. 3) A ‘Khalsa' is someone who is totally committed to Guru's teachings and as a sign of that commitment has taken amrit and wears the 5 Ks.
I have been trying to find out what exactly happened in the Ravi Das Gurdwara in Vienna, but neither I nor the people charged to do this by a meeting at the Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Southall, London, U.K., succeeded in this. It is clear that people were wounded and killed, but it is not clear whether the ‘men of violence' were Sikhs, Ravidas panthis or both.
Babé, our common problem
The baba involved is controversial amongst the followers of Ravidas. I heard that the majority of the Ravidas Gurdwaré in the U.K. do not like this baba (which of course is no excuse for killing or wounding him or his cronies).
We have to recognise that we have common problems. Fake holy men can be found amongst all traditions in South Asia, even amongst Muslims in West Panjab or amongst Syrian Christians of Kerala.
I do not want to start a rant about sants, but I do think that Ravidas panthis and Sikhs of good will should join forces and take a stand against the plague of the fake saints.
Caste, the scourge of the sub-continent
I was disappointed by most of the Sikh reactions to the news from Vienna. It is true that a Ravidas Gurdwara is not a mainstream Sikh place of worship, and caste is not part of the teachings of the Sikh Gurus. But Sikhs do not fully realise that Ravidas is part of the Sikh Guru and do not want to admit that caste still plays an important negative part in the ‘Sikh' community.
Caste in some shape or form is practiced amongst followers of almost all religious traditions on the subcontinent. Many of our brothers and sisters of Punjabi background fail to translate ‘seeing God's presence in all' in treating all as equals.
Equality is also a problem in the U.K., where we struggle with the legacy of its rigid class structures and with the present situation where many people are doing quite well, but where there is a growing ‘underclass'.
Sikhs, in the light of Guru's teachings, should see people of low caste, from sink estates, gypsies and travellers or any other group as their sisters and brothers.
If we really practice this we will become better Sikhs and there would be no more need for Ramgarhia or Ravidas Gurdwaré. It is now more than five hundred years after Guru Nanak taught us about One God and One Humanity, are we actually going to adopt these teachings in 2009 ?
[Courtesy: The Encylopaedia of Sikhism and The Man in Blue]
January 30, 2010
by Hardev Bahri & Harjinder Singh
Today, January 30, is the birth anniversary of Bhagat Ravidas ji [1450 - 1520, estimated]
Ravidās, poet and mystic, was born to Raghū and Ghurbiniā, who lived near the city of Vārāṇasī, in present day Uttar Pradesh, India.
Not much biographical information about him is available but, from what can be made out of his own compositions, he belonged to a hindu 'low-caste' (chamār - leather worker/ cobbler ) family. He followed the family profession of tanning hides and making shoes.
Gradually he started spending most of his time in the company of saints and sādhūs and built himself a thatched hut wherein he received and entertained wandering ascetics. Many stories became knownt about his simplicity and piety of nature. He became famous as a Vaiṣṇava saint in the tradition of Rāmānand.
In the course of his spiritual quest, he reached a stage when he discarded images and idols and turned to the worship of the Supreme Being. He wrote deeply impassioned devotional verses and left his mark on Hindi literature for the fusion of religious sentiment with the vernacular medium.
Forty of his hymns have been incorporated in the Sikh Scripture, the Gurū Granth Sāhib. Accordingly, he is accorded deep respect by Sikhs as his compositions form part of our Living Guru. He is therefore accorded the high honorofic of "Bhagat" - literally, God's Devotee - by Sikhs, as are the other non-Guru contributors to the Guru Granth Sahib.
The sect of Bhagat Ravidas Panthis that follows him honour him as "Guru Ravidas".
He travelled fairly widely and visited Rājasthān, Gujarāt, Āndhra Pradesh, Mahārāshṭra, besides a number of places in the northern India such as Prayāg, Mathurā, Vrindāvan, Haridvār, Guṛgāoṅ and Multān. At most of these places, there are monuments honouring his memory. In his lifetime, he had thousands of followers, including members of the higher castes, among them being Mīrābāī, the Rājput princess.
The hymns of Ravidās included in the Gurū Granth Sāhib fall under rāga - Sirī (1), Gauṛī (5), Āsā (6), Gūjarī (1), Soraṭhi (7), Dhanāsarī (3), Jaitsarī (1), Suhī (3), Bilāval (2), Gauṇḍ (2), Rāmkalī (1), Mārū (2); Kedārā (1), Bhairau (1), Basant (1) and Malhār (3). One of the hymns in rāga Mārū is the same (with a few minor changes) as included in rāga Soraṭhi.
Ravidās acknowledged the unicity and omnipresence and omnipotence of God. According to him, the human soul is only a particle of the Divine : the difference between the two is like the difference between the gold and the ornament, the water and the wave (GGS:93).
He rejects distinctions between man and man on the basis of caste or creed, for, as he says, in the world beyond no such differentiations will be acknowledged (GGS: 345). To realize God, which is the ultimate end of human life, man should concentrate on His Name, giving up mere forms and ritualism (GGS: 658, 1106). Birth in a 'low caste' is no hindrance in the way to spiritual development. The only condition required is freedom from duality; all else including pilgrimage to and bathing in the sixty-eight hindu centres is in vain (GGS: 875).
BHAGAT RAVIDAS PANTHIS
by HARJINDER SINGH
In view of the recent tension between Sikhs and the followers of Bhagat Ravidas I want to clarify the position between us Sikhs and the followers of Bhagat Ravidas. Forty sabads of Ravidas are included in the Guru Granth.
‘Guru' Ravidas
The followers of Ravidas call him Guru, which means ‘teacher' or ‘bringer of light into darkness'. For Sikhs the word Guru has a specific meaning, but we should not pick a fight with those who use the term in the more general Indian way. The shabads of Ravidas that are included in the Guru Granth are part of our eternal Guru, and as such Ravidas is part of the Sikh Guru.
The teachings of Ravidas are perfectly in tune with those of the Guru Granth Sahib.
Sudras & Jutts
The followers of Ravidas and Kabir tend be people of low caste. When I visited a friend of mine in a village near Hoshiarpur whose family were of so-called 'low caste', the Sikhs from the local gurdwara dominated by 'jutts' would not greet me, as I was staying with Ravidas panthis, who were deemed to be of a 'low caste'.
Saying to each other that our Guru teaches unity of mankind is not relevant for the Ravidas panthis, as long as Sikhs do not practice what the Guru teaches. When we start practicing the Guru's teachings we can reach out to the Ravidas panthis and share the sabads of our eternal Guru.
Guru Granth Sahib
Because of our ‘respect for the Guru Granth' Sikhs love to fight with those groups that do not give the same importance to the Guru Granth Sahib as we do. Instead of being happy that non-Sikhs read the Guru Granth and see it as an important source of teaching and inspiration, we want to take the Guru Granth away from Ravidas or Námdhari Gurdwaré / temples.
I am very happy that we do not set out to convert others in the way that Christians and Muslims do. But the attitude of many Sikhs is not very open-minded either. The Guru speaks to everybody, the Guru considers everybody who is a serious student of the Guru to be a Sikh. The way of life set out in the Guru Granth Sahib can be followed by all of all ‘dharams'.
Think about these three definitions : 1) a ‘Sikh' is someone who is a serious student of God. 2) A ‘Sikh' is someone who recognises the leadership of the Guru Granth and Guru Panth as ordained by Guru Gobind Singh. 3) A ‘Khalsa' is someone who is totally committed to Guru's teachings and as a sign of that commitment has taken amrit and wears the 5 Ks.
I have been trying to find out what exactly happened in the Ravi Das Gurdwara in Vienna, but neither I nor the people charged to do this by a meeting at the Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Southall, London, U.K., succeeded in this. It is clear that people were wounded and killed, but it is not clear whether the ‘men of violence' were Sikhs, Ravidas panthis or both.
Babé, our common problem
The baba involved is controversial amongst the followers of Ravidas. I heard that the majority of the Ravidas Gurdwaré in the U.K. do not like this baba (which of course is no excuse for killing or wounding him or his cronies).
We have to recognise that we have common problems. Fake holy men can be found amongst all traditions in South Asia, even amongst Muslims in West Panjab or amongst Syrian Christians of Kerala.
I do not want to start a rant about sants, but I do think that Ravidas panthis and Sikhs of good will should join forces and take a stand against the plague of the fake saints.
Caste, the scourge of the sub-continent
I was disappointed by most of the Sikh reactions to the news from Vienna. It is true that a Ravidas Gurdwara is not a mainstream Sikh place of worship, and caste is not part of the teachings of the Sikh Gurus. But Sikhs do not fully realise that Ravidas is part of the Sikh Guru and do not want to admit that caste still plays an important negative part in the ‘Sikh' community.
Caste in some shape or form is practiced amongst followers of almost all religious traditions on the subcontinent. Many of our brothers and sisters of Punjabi background fail to translate ‘seeing God's presence in all' in treating all as equals.
Equality is also a problem in the U.K., where we struggle with the legacy of its rigid class structures and with the present situation where many people are doing quite well, but where there is a growing ‘underclass'.
Sikhs, in the light of Guru's teachings, should see people of low caste, from sink estates, gypsies and travellers or any other group as their sisters and brothers.
If we really practice this we will become better Sikhs and there would be no more need for Ramgarhia or Ravidas Gurdwaré. It is now more than five hundred years after Guru Nanak taught us about One God and One Humanity, are we actually going to adopt these teachings in 2009 ?
[Courtesy: The Encylopaedia of Sikhism and The Man in Blue]
January 30, 2010