Shri Guru Ravidass Ji
Shri Guru Ravi Das Ji was born in the village Mandoor Garh, on the outskirts of Kashi (Benaras) in the year 1377 AD ie Bikrami Samvat 1433 (widely accepted by most scholars). His birthday comes every year at Puranmashi in the month of Magh. His mother's name was MATA KALSI JI and his father's name was BABA SANTOKH DASS JI.
Like many of his contemporaries, he travelled extensively preaching throughout India and had religious dialogues with reputed saint poets of the day. He is believed to have also visited Punjab and met with Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith, at least thrice. To whom he bestowed some of his writings to, eventually they were incorporated into the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Saheb.
Though historians of Indian religions tend to club Guru Ravi Das JI with the Bhakti movement, a pan Indian devotional cult, his ideas appear to be quite radical. He built his own utopia, a vision of an alternative society, articulated in his hymn “Begumpura”, a city without sorrows, “where there will be no distress, no tax, no restriction from going and coming, no fear”.
In 'Begumpura' he is not simply talking about his love for god and his limitless devotion. His utopia is quite “this worldly”, aspiring for a life without pain and not emphasising on “other worldly” peace or moksha. Equally important is the fact that his message is constructed by his contemporary followers in quite a modernist language where question of caste oppression and his fight against the prevailing structures of authority and Brahmanical caste order is fore-grounded.
Writing on the social milieu in which he was born, his biographer Sat Pal Jassi writes: “Since the advent of Vedic Age, the caste system and untouchability have been prevalent in India. In passage of time, the socio-religious inhibitions became more strict and cruel. The untouchables were given an ignoble place. They were debarred from acquiring knowledge, own property and worship of God…. These conditions prevailed in India for more than 3,000 years.”
It was in this “degenerated environment” that Guru Ravi Das Ji was born. What did he preach and propagate? Jassi continues: “He was a protagonist of equality, oneness of God, human rights and universal brotherhood….He was a suave socio-religious reformer, a thinker, a theosophist, a humanist, a poet, a traveller, a pacifist and above all a towering spiritual figure… He was a pioneer of socialistic thought and strengthened noble values.”
Guru Ravi Das’s utopia was also significantly different from some of the later writings on “a desirable India” produced by people like Gandhi. As Gail Omvedt rightly comments, Ravi Das…was the first to formulate an Indian version of utopia in his song “Begumpura”. Begumpura, the ‘city without sorrow’, is a casteless, classless society; a modern society, one without a mention of temples; an urban society as contrasted with Gandhi’s village utopia of Ram Rajya…..
Overtime Guru Ravi Das Ji became not only a prime mover but dominated a large part of the protest movement against the Brahmanical control over the social and religious life of the people and was accepted as a leader across the entire region. His identification with Guru Nanak, who was from an upper caste, clearly proves this point. As mentioned earlier, Guru Nanak added 40 of his hymns and one couplet into his collection of important writings of the times, which were eventually compiled into the Adi Granth by the fifth Sikh Guru.
It is said that Guru Ravidass Ji disappeared from the world, leaving behind only his footprints. Some believe that Guru Ravidass Ji lived in Banaras during his last days, dying a natural death at the age of 126 years.
