Saint Ravidas
About
- Saint Ravidas, also known as Guru Ravidas or Bhagat Ravidas, was a mystic, poet, social reformer and one of the most renowned saints of the northern India Bhakti movement.
- Born in the late 14th century in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Guru Ravidas belonged to a family of leatherworkers, traditionally regarded as a lower caste.
- He strongly opposed social discrimination and believed that all human beings are equal, regardless of wealth, caste or status.
- His teachings focused on the concept of one formless (nirguna), attributeless divine reality.
- He rejected ritualism and external markers of caste and social hierarchy.
- Ravidas’ devotional songs were included in the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhism’s holy book.
- One of his famous disciples was the saint Mirabai, a 16th-century Hindu mystic poet and an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna.
- Among Ravidas’s moral and intellectual achievements was the conceptualization of “Begampura”, a city that was free from caste, class and sorrow.
Why in News?
- The 650th birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas is being commemorated nationwide.