Sant Ravidas (Raidas)

Sant Ravidas (or Raidas) was a Bhakti movement era’s saint, poet, and philosopher in 15^th century. He is widely venerated in North India.

He was born in Sir Gobardhanpur village of Varanasi and his grandfather and father used to make shoes. His father was a Sarpanch of in Raja Nagar Mal’s kingdom. He received education from a renowned local teacher Pandit Shardanand at his Pathshala (school). Since he was a brilliant student so noticing his talent his teacher Pandit Shardanand had predicted that he would be spiritually enlightened.

His father wanted him to seriously pursue has family occupation whereas he was more socially oriented and spiritually inclined. Thus, his father married him, but he did not change. Finally, his father separated him from his house and refrained from giving him any material assistance. That made him even more spiritual.He became a disciple of the Vaishnav saint Ramanand as his Guru. He acquired spiritual enlightenment from Ramanand.

During his time Islamic invaders were ruling India and coercively expanding Islam. They had forbidden the idol worship which forced the Hindus towards worshiping and remembering their God (Ishwar) through poems (Bhajan) etc. A famous Muslim Sadna Peer approached him with a proselytising agenda. He wanted Ravidas to convert to Islam as that would help him to convert many of his followers as well. He used various tactics ranging from enticement to coercion, but Sant Ravidas did not budge from his stand and remained a staunch Hindu till his death.

He had many Hindu saints, elites, and royal Hindus as his disciples. Meera Bai was also one of his disciples.