Recently, members of the Ravidassia community gathered in Punjab to renew calls for a longstanding demand of the creation of a separate “Ravidassia religion” category in the Census.
About Ravidassias:
The Ravidassias are a Dalit community which follows spiritual path based on the teachings of Shri Guru Ravidas.
They live in the Doab region of Punjab, which includes districts such as Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshar and Jalandhar.
Key Features ofRavidassias Community
Holy Book: The Ravidassia community adopted the Amrit Bani of Guru Ravidas as its holy book which contains 200 hymns of Guru Ravidas.
Concept of Begampura: It is an ideal concept given by Guru Ravidas which explains a city without sorrow, fear, or inequality.
Sacred Site: Seer Goverdhanpur in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) is one of the most important pilgrimage locations of the Ravidassia tradition.
Who was Guru Ravidas?
Guru Ravidas (1377-1527 C.E.) was a renowned saint known for his contributions to the Bhakti movement.
Guru Ravidas is also known as Raidas, Rohidas, and Ruhidas.
Ravidas is traditionally seen as a student of the bhakti-poet Ramananda.
He is also thought to have lived around the same time as poet Kabir
Philosophy and Teachings:
The core of Guru Ravidas’s philosophy was the rejection of the caste system and the promotion of human rights and dignity.
He envisioned a society called ‘Beghumpura’ (a city without sorrow), where there is no suffering, no fear, and no discrimination.
He emphasised the philosophy of spiritual freedom.
He abandoned the saguna (with attributes, image) forms of supreme beings and focussed on the nirguna (without attributes, abstract) form of supreme beings.
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