Guru Ravidas Jayanti
12 Feb, 2025
Wednesday
Guru Ravidas Jayanti on 12-02-2025
About Guru Ravidas Jayanti 2025
Who is Guru Ravidas
Ravidas was born in the village of Sir Gobardhanpur near Varanasi in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. His birthplace is now known as Sri Guru Ravidas birthplace or Janmasthan. His birthday is celebrated as Ravidas Jayanti and the important temple is Ravidas Temple. Mata Kalsi was his mother and father was Santokh Das. His parents belonged to the Chamar community of leather workers. Which was an untouchable caste. While his original occupation was leather working, he started spending most of his time in spiritual activities on the banks of the Ganges. Thereafter he spent most of his life in the study of Sufi saints, Spent in the company of sages and ascetics. At the age of 12, Ravidas was married to Lona Devi. They had a son called Vijay Das.
Ravidas's devotional verses were included in the Sikh scriptures known as “Guru Granth Sahib(गुरु ग्रंथ साहिब)”. The Panch Vani text of the Dadu Panthi tradition within Hinduism also includes several poems by Ravidas. He is also a central figure of the “Ravidassia(रविदासिया)” religious movement.
Medieval era texts such as Bhaktamal(भक्तमाल) reveal that Ravidas was a disciple of the Brahmin devotional-poet Ramananda. Traditionally he is considered a younger contemporary of Kabir. His ideas and fame grew during his lifetime, and texts show that Brahmins bowed before him. He travelled extensively, visiting Hindu pilgrimage sites in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Himalayas. He discarded the saguna with attributes, image forms of the supreme beings, and focused on the “Nirguna” means without attributes, abstract forms of the supreme beings. As his poetic hymns in regional languages inspired others. Therefore, people from different backgrounds sought his teachings and guidance.
