Guru Ravidass, a revolutionary sage who redefined bhakti and social order

Though Begumpura was utopian successful nature, it was not specified fantasy. It reflected Guru Ravidass’s captious knowing of the socio-economic and governmental conditions of his time. His perfect nine promoted harmonious living, escaped from fearfulness and economical deprivation, portion emphasising the dignity of labour.

Guru Ravidass besides introduced an alternate signifier of bhakti (devotion to a formless God), which went beyond worship and became a instrumentality of societal protestation against caste hierarchies and untouchability. Unlike conversion oregon sanskritisation, the fashionable models of societal mobility, his bhakti way neither required abandoning one’s religion nor renouncing accepted occupations similar leatherwork. Instead, it rejected temple-based rituals and advocated devotion to nirankar (the formless God) portion continuing one’s livelihood, challenging the stigma attached to definite professions.

In 1 of his astir celebrated couplets—“Man changa to kathauti maine Ganga” (If the caput is pure, the h2o successful a cobbler’s leather-soaking cookware is arsenic ineffable arsenic the Ganges)—he underscored the primacy of interior purity implicit ritualistic ablutions successful ineffable rivers. This reflected his content successful an egalitarian and conscionable divine order.

His bhakti exemplary besides defied societal norms by adopting the formal and symbols of the priestly class—dhoti (waist cloth), janeu (sacred thread), and tilak (forehead mark)—which were traditionally forbidden for little castes. This was not an effort to assimilate into the Brahminical bid but a nonstop situation to caste-based hegemony. He ne'er concealed his caste individuality oregon abandoned his profession. Instead, helium took pridefulness successful it, utilizing it arsenic a instrumentality of absorption against caste oppression.

Despite wearing the attire of priests, Guru Ravidass did not question to elevate priesthood oregon assertion superiority. His extremity was to exposure and situation the mechanisms of societal exclusion. By continuing his leatherwork portion dressing similar a priest, helium demonstrated that little castes could execute dignity and societal mobility without compromising their individuality oregon resorting to violence. His bhakti-based protestation was a almighty effect to the exclusionary tactics of the precocious castes.

What made Guru Ravidass astir revered among his assemblage was his unwavering committedness to self-respect and dignity of labour, arsenic good arsenic his devotion to a formless God, escaped from rituals and pilgrimages. His verses, immoderate of which are enshrined successful Sri Guru Granth Sahib, articulate this philosophy,

“Naam Tero Aarti Majan Murare, Hari Ke Naam Binu Jhuthey Sagal Pasaare” (Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 694)

(O God! Your sanction is my aarti (act of worship) and my ablution. All different activities are mendacious but the remembrance of Hari.)

In medieval India, bhakti was mostly confined to precocious castes, and little castes were often barred from practising it. Guru Ravidass, however, redefined bhakti arsenic an interior spiritual practice, autarkic of temple visits and pilgrimage. Through his imaginativeness of Begumpura and his ritual-free devotion, helium offered a non-violent yet extremist societal revolution—one that empowered little castes to asseverate their individuality with dignity, without conforming to oppressive taste norms.

(The writer is Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chair Professor, Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh.)