Guru Ravidas Jayanti Significance Celebrations is an important festival among Sikhs that is celebrated joy and fervor in the states of North India and particularly in the regions of Punjab. It’s a day celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas Ji.
Guru Ravidas was a 15th-century poet who followed the Nirgun Sant para or worshipping god in his formless divinity and was one of the main social reformers and leaders of the North Indian Bhakti movement. He had strong beliefs about God’s existence and that can be seen through his poems and numerous writings that have inspired many readers for ages.
He has called upon people to have Bhakti or devotion in God to attain oneness with him. In other words, the main path or route to one’s enlightenment is to have boundless devotion towards god and that’s how we can experience oneness with the lord.
The songs and poems that he has written are famous all over north India even to this day and people from many regions including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra worship him as their religious saint even to this day. His writings and poems are very popular in these regions and people have become greatly influenced by his teachings and songs.
When is Guru Ravidas Jayanti?
As per the Hindu calendar, Guru Ravidas Jayanti takes place in the Magh month on a full moon day. According to the Gregorian calendar, the eve falls in the month of February.
Early Life of Guru Ravidas
Guru Ravidas was one of the most renowned and influential saints who contributed a lot to the establishment of the Bhakti movement. Guru Ravidas was born in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh, India. He attained recognition as a learned Sikh guru who was a great thinker, reformist, traveler, spiritual leader, and poet.
Ravidas was born in 1377 A.D. in Varanasi. His parents were Santokh Dass and Kalsa Devi. His wife was Smt. Lona and had a son by the name of Vijay Dass. Ravidas belonged to the Harijan caste, which was considered a lower caste in society.
This led to him seeing much discrimination at the hands of upper caste people and his family was made to undergo many humiliations due to their caste. From a very young age, Ravidas was treated very badly in society when he encountered upper caste people and that led to him expressing his feelings in the form of writings and poems.
His poems convey the utmost devotion to God. From a very young age, he believed deeply in God, and his devotion is seen in all his writings. In the ancient days at Varanasi, the upper caste people, particularly the Brahmin community disliked Ravidas in spite of him showing so much devotion and faith in God, and that was all because of his caste factor.
They considered him an untouchable person in society as he was a Harijan and came from the downtrodden sections of the society. His father was into the shoemaking business and they were often looked down upon due to their profession.
Importance of Guru Ravidas Jayanti
Guru Ravidas Jayanti is celebrated on the full moon day of the Magh month of the Hindu calendar. The next date in 2023, when this auspicious day would be celebrated falls on 31st January. On this day, many eminent persons deliver lectures on Ravidas.
They take forth his teachings, deliver it to people through lectures, talk about his works, and conduct special aartis for him. This day is specially celebrated in the region of Varanasi and it almost resembles a function with which the day’s proceedings take place.
People gather in large crowds and take part in a procession event going through the streets of the town chanting his songs and poems. Many people at the home worship the saint after taking a holy dip in the Ganges and also do special offerings for him.
People flock to this temple town during this time to offer their worship and show utmost devotion to the person who taught them devotion as a way of life.
Why Do Celebrate Guru Ravidas Jayanti?
Guru Ravidas Jayanti has vital significance for those who have immense belief and trust in the ideologies of Ravidas religion. He established the Bhakti movement and raised his voice against the Indian caste system and passed a message of equality among all, He was regarded as one of the first Gurus who raised their concern and put efforts to attain freedom from the oppression of the caste and creed system. He forwarded a message of equality and demanded an equal set of basic human rights for all. A number of people regard Guru Ravidas as their spiritual guru and thus follow his ideologies and celebrate the day with great enthusiasm.
Message from Guru Ravidas Ji
Ravidas sacrificed his life working for social causes that had plagued society. Society had become a breeding ground for caste systems and upper caste people were almost always seeking chances to undermine and pull down lower caste people.
Ravidas questioned the beliefs of caste systems and asked people what they really achieve in ill-treating people just because they believe they are from an upper caste. Ravidas had a strong belief in the faith of God which led him to think that every human is the same in the eyes of God, irrespective of his caste, creed, color, religion, status, etc.
He was distressed to see people fighting amongst themselves and the absence of love and peace between human beings influenced him to write strong, inspirational quotes to change people’s mindsets.
People struggled to get a glass of drinking water since they were considered untouchables by the upper caste people. Ravidas saw that people were living in torn huts that did not have even the basic amenities and the poor conditions of people forced him to spread messages of what really god loves.
Ultimately, he believed in devotion towards God as the only way to achieve success in life and that is what he has stressed in all his poems. He considers love and devotion to God as essential factors that bring happiness to the mind and create a beautiful city or town.
People can achieve oneness with God and see prosperity in their lives only if they attain true devotion towards god and not by merely following religious practices with an intention to impress him.
His views were totally different in matters of practicing and preaching and he always made sure to understand the sentiments of people and speak in their benefit. A great social reformer, through his writings, Ravidas was a legend of sorts in ancient India and Guru Ravidas Jayanti is celebrated with much belief and faith all over Varanasi.