Context Recently, the Election Commission has postponed Punjab elections 2022 by a week to February 20 in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti which falls on February 16.
About Guru Ravidas
Ravidas, also called Raidas, of the 15th or 16th century, was a mystic, poet, saint of North Indian Bhakti movement
He founded the Ravidassia religion and compiled a new holy book, Amritbani Guru Ravidass Ji.
He was born in Varanasi into untouchable leather-working Chamar caste.
He valued the worship of a formless God.
Along with Kabir, he was one of the most noted disciples of Bhagat Ramanand.
41 verses of Bhakt Ravidas are incorporated into Sikh’s religious book, Adi Granth.
He was vocal against the varna (caste) system
He imagined an egalitarian society called Begumpura, means “land without sorrow”
His disciples came to be known as Ravidas-panthis and followers came to be known as Ravidassias.
He also mentioned ‘Sahaj’, a mystical state where there is a union of the truths of the many and the one.
