The paathi sings the Bani of Sant Ravidas Ji...
Ka tu sovai jaag divana,
Jhooti ji’un satt kari jaana.
Ka tu sovai jaag divana,
Jhooti ji’un satt kari jaana.
THIS IS THE BANI of Param Sant Satguru Ravidas Ji. In Varanasi, after Kabir Sahib, Ravidas Ji emerged as a venerated Saint poet. Along with Kabir Sahib Ji, Ravidas Ji’s devotional songs are also included in the Guru Granth Sahib. He was born in a very poor family and He earned His livelihood by making footwear. But He never prayed to the Lord to elevate Him from His poverty. Raja Pipa and Chittor’s queen were also initiates of Sant Ravidas.
So, Mira Bai used to come to Varanasi to take the Darshan of Ravidas Ji. She was a queen, yet she used to visit Him, and people in the palace would taunt her for visiting because He was from a very poor family. She was quite fed up with this repeated taunting so, once, she took a very precious diamond and went to Him. She offered it to Him and pleaded with Him that He should accept that diamond. And with the proceeds of the sale of that diamond, He should build a good bungalow for Himself.
But He told her, “Look, I have got my liberation under this very hut and I'm not going to leave this hut. I'm not going to leave the occupation of making footwear.” So, He told her, “Look, if you are feeling embarrassed coming here, then don't worry. You don't have to come here. I shall give you Darshan every six months at your palace.”
But she refused to accept that and kept persuading Him to accept her offering. When He kept refusing, she finally placed the diamond on a shelf inside the wall. She told Him that she had left that diamond there and that, whenever He felt, He could sell it and make a better house for Himself.
After six months, when she went to visit Him again, she thought to herself, “By now, He may have sold the diamond and made a nice house for Himself and the environment will be so nice.” But when she reached there, she found the same hut and the same work of cobbler being done by Him. So, she bowed down and asked Him, “What happened to that diamond I gave you?”
He laughed and replied to her, “Child, I think it will be at the same place where you left it.” That diamond was exactly where she had left it, with a lot of dust settled on it.
She finally took it back thinking that it was of no use to Her Master. So, this way, in poverty, Ravidas Ji did His devotion and preaching. This is His Bani. What He says here is, “The God Almighty has sent you here and in this environment, you have started believing that this is reality.”
This human life has, in fact, been given to us for getting emancipated from the 8.4 million cycles of life and death. But, when we come into this life, we also get attached and entangled here. Mahatmas say that whatever we see and whatever we feel here is an illusion. It is not going to be lasting for long because we have come empty-handed and we will be going back empty-handed. However, during the lifetime, we get entangled in all of this.
So, He says, “This life, which was given to you to get liberated, you have come and you have gotten lost in this illusion.”
Ka tu sovai jaag divana,
Jhooti ji’un satt kari jaana.
Jin janam diya so rijak umdaavai,
Ghat ghat bheetar rahat chalaavai.
He points out that the God Almighty, Who has given you this life, He is also taking care of all your needs.
We often feel and believe that everything we are doing is what ‘we’ are doing. ‘We’ are doing this. ‘We’ are doing that. But the Masters say, “No, the doer is someone else.” In fact, God Almighty is taking care of all of those 8.4 million life forms.
Maluk Das has also said the same thing. He says, “A python and birds don't do any occupation, yet their stomachs get filled.” He says that a python is about a hundred and fifty feet long and it grows up to even ten feet in width, and it sits like a mountain. It cannot move. It does not go to work in any mill or factory. Yet, its stomach gets filled. So, though it cannot move about and it stays stationary where it is, yet God Almighty feeds it.
Also, the birds, when they wake up in the morning, they have no job or occupation to do. They fly in any direction without knowing whether they will get food in that direction. And they keep flying around. But, before sunset, God Almighty feeds them.
So, there are a great many animals, which are nocturnal, they come out in the night and God Almighty feeds them also before sunrise.
So, Ravidas Ji says, “God Almighty has sent you. He's also going to give you your food.”
It so happened that, once, after seeing and listening to the preachings of Kabir Sahib, the nearby sages and hermits got jealous and they decided to insult him. They printed and sent invitations. They sent them to hundreds of thousands of people inviting all to come to Kabir Sahib’s house for a luncheon.
So, early morning at five o'clock, about five or six people walked in, sages walked into Kabir Sahib’s house. And then, they asked him, “Is there a bhandara today in your house?” So, Kabir Sahib would seldom go out and he used to be at his house doing his work of making silk. When they asked him that, “Do you have a bhandara?”, he was completely unaware of all these invitations.
So, he said, “No, there is nothing that I have today.” They showed him that invitation letter also which, supposedly, invited them for a bhandara at his house.
Kabir Sahib felt that, so early in the morning, if five people have walked up, then during the day, there would be hordes of people who would be walking in. So, he prayed to God Almighty and said, “I don't know how this has happened. Now that it has happened, only You can take care of this.” And then he left his home and walked off for about three, four kilometers and he hid himself in some trees.
But God Almighty takes care of His disciples. And after Kabir Sahib left, He came in the form of Kabir Sahib. He brought with Him a bullock all laden with all food. And then He, with His powers, got all the food ready and there was quite a sumptuous lunch set out. It was ready by 10:30 AM and then He put up the tents also. People started coming in and by evening there were hundreds of thousands of people who had come and all had been fed.
So, there were some people who, after enjoying this food, were walking back and they were passing the same path on which Kabir Sahib was hiding. And, while they were passing by, they were saying ‘Dhan Kabir, Dhan Kabir’, praising the food that they had eaten.
So, he was wondering how come, in this wilderness, people were saying ‘Dhan Kabir, Dhan Kabir.’ So, he came out to find out. And he asked those people, “Why are you saying this?”
They saluted him and they said, “You are a really blessed soul and you have given such sumptuous food to all of us. Hundreds of thousands of people have eaten at your house. So, you are really blessed.”
Listening to this, Kabir Sahib was quite shocked and he went running back home. When he reached home, God Almighty, Who was working in his form, vanished. So, when Kabir Sahib saw the entire set up and he realized that it was God Almighty, he had tears in his eyes and he prayed to Him and he thanked Him and said, “You are really very gracious, because You have taken so much care of your devotee, and You have saved me from being humiliated.“
So, Ravidas Ji says, “God Almighty has sent you and He is going to provide for your needs. So, you do not worry about them.” You should be worried about your Simran and Dhyan. Kal has kept karmas as the essence and, therefore, he provides for everyone according to their fate, according to their karmas.
Jin janam diya so rijak umdaavai,
Ghat ghat bheetar rahat chalaavai.
Kar bandage chaarri mai mera,
Hriday kareem sambhaar sabera.
The God Almighty, Who has sent you here, He is worried about you and your needs. So, you should not get outwardly lost in these needs but, instead, do His devotion of NaamSimran and Bhajan.
We should leave our feeling of 'me' and 'mine', even in the family, for the children that are given to us. Each one has come with their own fate and each will be provided for by God Almighty. We are ignorant and we feel that everything that is happening is what ‘we’ have made, what ‘we’ have provided, ‘we’ are giving our children this and ‘we’ are giving our children that. So, it’s all our ignorance.
The Masters say, “No, they are getting what they are being provided by the God Almighty, according to their karmas.” So, He says, “You should leave all other worries and only be worried about doing Naam Simran, which will make your human birth successful.”
This is an old story. Once upon a time, in Punjab, there was a king who had three daughters. So, these daughters grew up. And once, the king was sitting quietly and the three daughters were also there. So, he called one of the daughters. He called the eldest daughter first, and then he asked her, “Daughter, whose food do you eat?”
She told him that, “I'm eating the food that only you are providing for me.” Listening to this, he was very pleased. So, then he called his second daughter and he asked her also that, “Whose food do you eat? Whose clothes do you wear?” She also replied to him that, “I eat the food that you are providing. I'm wearing the clothes that you are providing.” Then he called his youngest daughter and he similarly asked her, “Whose food do you eat?” She said, “Look, I am eating my own food. Whatever is there fated for me to eat, I am eating that.” So, when he heard his youngest daughter say that, ‘I am eating of my own food as fated’, he thought to himself that she is so egoistic. She is not respecting the fact that I am giving her all this food and I am providing for her. She is just saying that she is eating her own food. So, he felt quite upset with what she had said. Later, he got both the elder daughters married to very well off families in princely states. And, when it was time for the youngest daughter to get married, he summoned the pundit and he instructed him that, “Look, she is from a princely family, so you get some rich boy for her. But I want the boy to be diseased in the sense that he should have either leprosy or some sort of serious illness.”
So, that pundit started looking out for a rich boy who met these requirements. And a year passed by. The second year he found someone meeting these criteria. So, he brought a rich boy, and the king got his daughter married to that boy. That boy had leprosy; his fingers and all were deformed. So, with a lot of pomp, the marriage ceremonies were carried out.
Now, this boy was a prince of a kingdom and nobody noticed the deformities so much because he was wearing shoes. And his fingers, which were deformed, could not be seen. So, the marriage took place.
Later, when the girl went there to the boy's house, she realized this. But then she did not complain to her father. She just prayed to the God Almighty that, yes, it was in her fate that such a boy was to marry her. So, she accepted the marriage.
After a few months, she decided that she should do something for this suffering of her husband. She felt that they should embark on a pilgrimage.
So, she took her husband and they went out on a pilgrimage. She built a small cart, which had wheels, and there was a basket that was fixed on the cart. And then she pulled this boy, who was sitting in that because he could not walk these distances. So, in this way, they went on the pilgrimage.
She was hoping that on the pilgrimage the deeds would possibly get redeemed. She would cover about eight to ten kilometers a day. She would visit gurdwaras, she would visit temples, and then, towards the evening, she would go and get some chapattis orpuris and some vegetables. And then she would eat it and give it to her husband to eat also. So, she used to go and ask for this food. And, when she went, she would go to the shops, the sweet shops. They would see that this lady, who was asking for this food, looks honorable, and they did not mind giving her the food. So, that way, she visited a number of gurdwaras.
After about three to four months of travel like this, she reached Amritsar. When she went to Amritsar, she visited the Golden Temple that had newly been constructed. When she entered it, there was a small tree there. It was a tree having berries.
Now, today, this tree has grown and it's a really big tree now. But then, it was a small tree.
So, she had her husband sit and rest there. And she went to ask for food. Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj was there during this time. The foundation of this temple was laid by Guru Ram Das Ji and Guru Arjan Dev Ji completed this construction.
So, the boy, the husband, sat there in that cart and he was observing what was happening there while she had gone to fetch the food. And, while he was observing some crows, it appeared to him that those black crows, which would dip in that pond in the reservoir there, would come out white. He saw this thing happening and then he felt, “There must be some power in this water. These black crows, which I'm observing, are becoming white.”
And so, then, he slowly crawled to that water and bathed in it. By being immersed there, when he stepped out he realized that his skin and form had been restored and he was back in his original form. Then he got up and went back to the place where he was sitting. Only, now, he was all wet and he was quite transformed.
So, when she brought the food back, she saw this different person sitting in that cart. And she was wondering where her husband was. So, she asked him that, “What happened to the person who was sitting here? He had leprosy.”
He told her, “Look, it is me only!” So, she said, “No, no, no, he had leprosy. You are looking very strong and fit. I hope you have not thrown him somewhere!” So, he explained the whole thing. How he saw those crows, those black crows, becoming white, and how he had taken a bath in that same pond. And there was some special thing about this pond where his karmas were redeemed and he was transformed. So, he tried to explain all this to her.
She refused to believe him completely and the argument went on. It got to a point where then they were both escorted to Guru Arjan Dev Ji. And then Guru Arjan Dev Ji explained to her that, “No, what he is saying is right.” So then, she returned back to her state with him. And then, the parents felt very happy with this and he became the king of that place. He ruled the kingdom well and things turned out very well for both of them.
She became the queen and he, as a king, was running that state. And, after some time, she felt that she should meet her father also because he had not met her for a very long time. So, she sent a horse cart to fetch him. And she sent a brahmin with that horse cart to fetch her father.
Now, meanwhile, what had happened was, her father was repenting on what he had done. He felt, “Just because she had said this once, I judged her wrongly and I think I made a very big mistake by doing what I have done.” So, when that brahmin came with the invite, he was quite pleased to meet him.
When her father arrived, he was treated very well. And, with all respect, he was brought in. He was made to sit on a throne.
Then both of them, the husband and wife, met her father and the father was weeping all this time.
He told her that, “Look, why are you doing all this? Why are you honoring me so much, when I have actually destroyed your life?”
She replied to her father that, “Look, it is not your fault. Don't take it on yourself. This was all my fate. There was some mistake in my fate that it all happened like that. And it is with the devotion of the God Almighty that we have been redeemed of that fate. So, you please don't blame yourself.”
So, therefore, He says God Almighty sends everyone, He provides for everyone, nobody eats anyone else's food and nobody gives someone else’s food. Everyone comes and eats his own and is provided for as per their respective fates. It is only our ego, which creates this illusion of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ and moves us away from God Almighty.
Kar bandage chaarri mai mera,
Hriday kareem sambhaar sabera.
Jo din aavai so dukh main jaa’I,
Keejai kooch rahyo sach naahi.
He says the day that comes, also goes. And everything that comes has to go. If we look back, we shall also realize how many days have passed and how they have passed so fast. So, we should respect time, because time never waits for anybody.
Kabir Sahib also says, “I beat the drum and I say that with every breath that we take, we are losing the worth of three worlds.”
So, we should make the most of each and every breath that we are taking and spend that in the devotion of the God Almighty.
Jo din aavai so dukh main jaa’I,
Keejai kooch rahyo sach naahi.
Sang chali hai hum bhi chalna,
Door gavan sir oopar marna.
Ravidas Ji says, “We have not brought anything with us and we are not going to take anything back with us. And, one day, this body that we have is also going to be left behind.”
We have to tread a very long path after death, where the soul carries a huge burden of the karmas. Nothing else is carried back by the soul. The soul, thus, accumulates karmas incurred in this human life and adds to all the karmas from its previous human lives. Some of these karmas are extracted to be redeemed, which determine our next life, and that’s how all our lives across the 8.4 million life forms are determined. The law of karmas is very difficult. All the other things for which we do karmas stay here. Only our karmas, or our deeds, go with the soul after death for reckoning. All that we take with us after death are the good and the bad deeds.
God Almighty has given the freedom to a human being. He can do the devotion and redeem himself and get liberated, or he can incur more karmas and go back into the 8.4 million life forms.
Jo kachhu boya luniye soi,
Ta mein pher phaar kas hoi.
Chaarriye koor bhajai hari charna,
Tako mitai janam aru marna.
Ravidas Ji says, “Whatever you sow, you will reap the same.” Therefore, Ravidas Ji says, “So leave all this filth, this world, and its attraction and start doing the devotion of the God Almighty.”
Aage panth khara hai jheena,
Khande dhaar jaisa hai paina.
Jis upar maarag hai tera,
Panthi panth sanvaar sabera.
Guru Ravidas Ji enlightens us that whatever has come in this world has to go. If we have come, we shall have to go. If we have taken birth, we have to die. Whatever is constructed, it will get destroyed. Whatever is born, will perish. This world is called the world of the dead.
In this body, we are also like a traveler. We also don't know when our breath will stop and we shall have to leave. So, therefore, use the time that you have and spend it in the devotion of God Almighty and make a success of this life.
Kya tain kharcha kya tain khaaya,
Chal darhaal deevana bulaaya.
Sahib toh pai lekha lesi,
Bheer pare toon bhari bhari desi.
What we eat here, or what we get here, is not what we take with us. We only carry the good and bad karmas with us, and the Lord of Judgment, when he sits for judgment, he doesn’t see the rest. He only sees that in this life given to you, what deeds you have done, what good or bad deeds you have done.
Janam siraana kiya pasara,
Soojhi paryo chahun disi andhiyaara.
Kah ravidaas agyaan divaana,
Ajahoon na chetain duni phand khaana.
Ravidas Ji awakens us saying, “Do your work fast because, so long as there is a day, you should do your work. When night will fall, one never knows.” So, when night comes, you will not be able to do anything. By ‘night’ He is talking about going into the cycle of life and death of the 8.4 million life forms. So, once you get into that lifecycle, you will not be able to do anything. Therefore, do your devotion in the day. This day is your life, your human life. Use this for devotion, because everything that you are seeing is an illusion and everything is destructible.
So, therefore, Masters speak about the Truth and They warn us to use this time well. Use it for the devotion of the God Almighty. Use it to focus your attention at the Feet of the Masters and make your life successful.
Ravidas Ji is addressing the human being as a mad person because, like a mad person, he is spending his time in delusion and getting away from the Truth for which he has been given this life. The end outcome of this is repentance.
Therefore, He says, “Wake up! Get working on what you have been sent here for. Do your devotion to God Almighty.”
Janam siraana kiya pasara,
Soojhi paryo chahun disi andhiyaara.
Kah ravidaas agyaan divaana,
Ajahoon na chetain duni phand khaana.
Radhaswami.