Life And Challenges In Poems By Ravidas
Ravidas may have come from poor environment, but he was a spiritually rich person; He was an outcaste, and through time he was acknowledge as “the great untouchable saint of north India”.
Born in the 15th century and lived in Varanasi/Benares which was considered to be one of the holiest cities in India. He was a saintly figure that never tried to change the caste system but chose to accept it. In the article Hawley stated that, “He often saw that there was nothing fundamental about the institution of caste”. Even though he never opposed the system, nor try to make a difference. The poem/hymns that he would preach would appeal to every hardworking Dalit. A poem he once said was, “In relation to god, every person is untouchable; yet because god is who he is, every person is touched”.
The challenges that Ravidas faced with his status as a Dalit was never an obstacle of who he was; He saw that the truth about everyone came more clearly into view from his lowly position. Ravidas was not only just an untouchable, but he was also a Bhakti, which trumps all social status of the hierarchy, but many Brahmin still opposed to him being a saint. Through his deep devotional nature with his poems and hymns; he was acknowledged by many. His poems that he preached were even praised by the King and Queens themselves; more importantly the charisma in his hymns were so powerful that some Brahmins not only came to watch him, but they also bowed before him.
He was a saint that spread the bhakti movement (the path of loving devotion), through his poems, he gained a large number of followers. Some Brahmin still sceptical of his saint status still chose to not accept him. He continued on with his journey and only spreading his love and devotion for god, he gained more notable followers, such as Mirabai and Jhali-lineage Rajput queen). Mirabai was a princess-saint, despite what her family thinks or say about Ravidas, she continued her journey to become his disciple. While the Jhali queen was forgotten in the fame of Mirabai; she left her city of Cittor to become Ravidas’ spiritual child to learn his ways. Along the journey of Ravidas it was said that he had met up with someone who the Sikh see as the tenth of faith, Guru Nanak, in Benares to learn from each other; regarding from who gained more knowledge solely depends on primarily who you follow more, Nanank or Ravidas.
To Honour the great Bhakti-saint Ravidas, some of his deep devotional poems and hymns that he would sing, are included in the Sikh scripture and, Prime Minister Jagjiven, build a temple that contains the major religion of India. With Ravidas in the middle of all religion it signifies that he illuminates all the other religion equally. Not only was the temple build for him, but the people of India today still celebrate his birthday anniversary every year.
