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Ravidas – from the Adi Granth 38
Identifier
017177
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Ravidas – from the Adi Granth 38
[extracted from Songs of the Saints of India – translated by Professor John Stratton Hawley and Professor Mark Juergensmeyer]
O well born of Benares, I too am born well known
My labour is with leather. But my heart can boast the Lord.
See how you honour the purest of the pure,
water from the Ganges, which no saint will touch
If it has been made into intoxicating drink -
liquor is liquor whatever its source;
And this toddy tree you consider impure
since the sacred writings have branded it that way,
But see what writings are written on its leaves;
the Bhagavata Purana you so greatly revere.
And I, born among those who carry carrion
in daily rounds around Benares, am now
the lowly one to whom the mighty Brahmins come
And lowly bow. Your name, says Ravidas,
is the shelter of your slave.