BANI OF BHAGATS Complete Bani of Bhagats as enshrined in Shri Guru Granth Sahib Part II All Saints Except Swami Rama Nand And Saint Kabir Ji Dr. G.S. Chauhan Publisher : Dr. Inderjit Kaur President All India Pingalwara Charitable Society (Regd.) Amritsar-143001 Website:www.pingalwara.co; E-mail:[email protected] BANI OF BHAGATS PART : II Author : G.S. Chauhan B-202, Shri Ganesh Apptts., Plot No. 12-B, Sector : 7, Dwarka, New Delhi - 110075 First Edition : May 2014, 2000 Copies Publisher : Dr. Inderjit Kaur President All India Pingalwara Charitable Society (Regd.) Amritsar-143001 Ph : 0183-2584586, 2584713 Website:www.pingalwara.co E-mail:[email protected] (Link to download this book from internet is: pingalwara.co/awareness/publications-events/downloads/) (Free of Cost) Printer : Printwell 146, Industrial Focal Point, Amritsar Dedicated to the sacred memory of Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji Who, while compiling bani of the Sikh Gurus, included bani of 15 saints also, belonging to different religions, castes, parts and regions of India. This has transformed Sri Guru Granth Sahib from being the holy scripture of the Sikhs only to A Unique Universal Teacher iii Contentsss • Ch. 1: Saint Ravidas Ji .......................................... 1 • Ch. 2: Sheikh Farid Ji .......................................... 63 • Ch. 3: Saint Namdev Ji ...................................... 113 • Ch. 4: Saint Jaidev Ji......................................... 208 • Ch. 5: Saint Trilochan Ji .................................... 215 • Ch. 6: Saint Sadhna Ji ....................................... 223 • Ch. 7: Saint Sain Ji ............................................ 227 • Ch. 8: Saint Peepa Ji.......................................... 230 • Ch. 9: Saint Dhanna Ji ...................................... 233 • Ch. 10: Saint Surdas Ji ...................................... 240 • Ch. 11: Saint Parmanand Ji .............................. 244 • Ch. 12: Saint Bheekhan Ji................................. 247 • Ch. 13: Saint Beni Ji .......................................... 251 • Ch. 14: The Bhatts and their Compositions ..... 263 • Ch. 15: Baba Sunder Ji ...................................... 392 • Ch. 16: Rai Balwand and Satta, the Bards ...... 400 • Appeal .................................................................. 415 • Pingalwara—A Bird's Eye View ........................ 416 666 iv Preface Eleventh to fourteenth centuries were very disturbed times particularly in North India due to repeated invasions by the Muslim Tribes from the West. Indian spiritualism was being systematically destroyed, law and order situation was extremely poor, open loot and robberies were common. The public was crying in grief since economic and political activities were at very low ebb. The society was strongly divided into castes, high and low status, the rich and the poor, the landed and tenant communities etc. The spiritual activities were confined to ritual worship and the spiritual leaders were just a farce. In these difficult times, great saints like Swami Rama Nand, Kabir, Ravidas, Baba Sheikh Farid, Namdev, Trilochan and many others undertook to carry out a difficult task of reviving spiritual greatness and cultural heritage of India. They all did their best to destroy the distinctions of caste and status among their disciples and the society in general. Shree Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs is the only holy book which contains compositions of the followers of other religions. It contains compositions of the followers of the Muslim, Hindu religions apart from Sikh saints. Some of the saints include followers of diverse occupations, the so called inferior low caste occupations according to the culture prevailing at that time. The Brahmins would not have even touched those saints but Guru Arjan Dev has given them the exhalted status by equating their compositions with those of the Gurus. Thus, Shree Guru Granth Sahib and the Sikh Religion does not belong to any particular country or faith. It teaches universal brotherhood and that all humans are children of the same God and thus brothers and sisters. Shree Guru Granth Sahib contains compositions of 15 great saints who were not disciples of the Gurus and the sikh Bhagtas. The only common link between them is that they were all worsippers of Unmanifest God. Saint Jaidev was v from Bengal; Saints Namdev and Trilochan were from Maharashtra; saints Ramanand, Kabir and Ravidas were from Kashi or Banaras now in Uttar Pradesh. Saints Pipa and Dhanna were from Rajasthan. Sheikh Farid was from Pakpatan now in Pakistan. Most of the saints travelled over wide areas and spread the message of God. They belonged to different states and times, thus the languages used by them are mixed. But purport of teachings by all of them is same. The compositions included in Guru Granth Sahib have universal approach and are thus for everybody. Since God is Eternal, the teachings about Him are also Eternal and do not have to change with time. Guru Nanak Dev travelled extensively; from China and Tibet in the East to Mecca in the West and from Mount Kailash in the North to Sri Lanka in the South. During these journeys he met and discussed spiritual matters with the saints and then recorded the summary of discussions in his own compositions like "Sidh Gosht" and "Dakhni Oankar". He also collected the works of earstwhile saints from their successors as in the case of Kabir and Sheikh Farid. Some of the saints were followers of different religious schools in the beginning. Some worshipped Lord Krishna, some Lord Rama whereas some were Hath Yogis. With their spiritual progress, all of them became followers of Unmanifest God. Like Namdev used to worship Lord Vithal's statue in the beginning but later he saw Lord Vithal in every thing and everywhere. Thus all the compositions in Guru Granth Sahib are those which were composed after these saints became worshippers of Unmanifest God. Sri Parmahansa Ramakrishna has said, "A truly religious person should think that other religions also are paths leading to Truth. We should always maintain an attitude of respect towards other religions." In many places, the compositions are interpolated in the compositions of the saints. This has been done by Guru Arjan Dev to either clarify some point in more detail or to supplement the information to avoid any misunderstanding. vi The saints being very high souls, sometimes describe their own difficulties encountered in their spiritual practices. The worldly persons would have been discouraged after reading these. Guru Ji has assured the disciples that they need not go to the extent described by the saints and suggested practices within their capacity. The 11 Bhatts, Baba Sunder Ji and Rai Balwand and Satta were the disciples of the Gurus. They were very learned and Self- realized devotees. Guru Ji has included their compositions in Shree Guru Granth Sahib as these were also of very high spiritual value and explained intricate problems in the spiritual path to help the other devotees. To have an idea of the scale of compositions by different saints, the following table gives the details:- 1. Bhagat Sadhna 1 11. Bhagat Pipa 1 2. Bhagat Baba sundar 6 12. Baba Shaikh Farid 116 3. Bhagat Surdas 1 13. Bhagat Beni 3 4. Bhagat Sain 1 14. Bhagat Bhikhan 2 5. Bhagat Kabir 532 15. Bhagat Ravidas 40 6. Bhagat Jaidev 2 16. Bhagat Rama Nand 1 7. Bhagat Trilochan 4 17. Bhagat 11 Bhatts 123 8. Bhagat Dhanna 3 18. Bhagat Rai Balwand 9. Bhagat Namdev 61 and Satta 8 10. Bhagat Parma Nand 1 The total volume of these compositions being very large, at first "Bani of Bhagats" was published giving only the selected compositions and brief lives of the saints. The first book was published in 2006 A.D. by Ms Hemkunt Publishers (Pvt) Ltd. And the book sold through the market. The distribution of the book not being satisfactory, it was decided to distribute through All India Pingalwara Charitable Society (Regd.) Amritsar free of cost. The original book contained the text in Roman only. Sardar Mukhtar Singh Goraya Hony. Secy, Pingalwara suggested that it be made trilingual like Japji Sahib and Sukhmani sahib. This was done with the help of Sardar Mukhtar Singh Goraya and the book was again published by Pingalwara. vii Dr. Gurmukh Singh Retd. Director Languages Deppt. Punjab who takes great interest in publicity of Gurbani literature suggested that it would be better to translate complete Bani of Bhagats and publish it in trilingual form. Sardar Mukhtar Singh Goraya also agreed to this suggestion. With the Grace of God, this was completed and the work is being published in two volumes. The first volume contains Saint Kabir and Saint Rama Nand's works and the second volume contains the works of the remaining saints. This would make the books handy. Sardar Mukhtar Singh has very kindly taken great pains to add Gurmukhi and Devnagri scripts and get the publication done in general. May God bless them. Bibi Indarjit Kaur President Pingalwara has also given a lot of encouragement in this work. Our thanks are due to all of them. We are sure that these two volumes will help the readers to appreciate great service rendered by the saints of Bhagti movement to rejuvenate the Indian society which had been seriously damaged by the Western invaders. The saints have propagated universal brotherhood, love of God and have given great guidance to the devotees on the spiritual path by providing practical wisdom. The readers are requested to kindly advise us about any mistakes and any other suggestion. G.S. Chauhan New Delhi B-202 Shree Ganesh Apptts. Plot No. 12-B; Sector 7, DWARKA New Delhi-110075, Tel: 011-25086357 E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Meenakshi Rajan E-mail:[email protected] 666 viii Ik Onkar Sat Guru Parsadi Chapter 1 Saint Ravidas Ji Saint Ravidas ji was born in a suburb of Varanasi known as Manduadih near Varanasi cantonment in 1376 A.D. His father's name was Sri Mandas Raghu and mother's name was Smt. Karma Devi. Saint Ravidas was the disciple of famous Swami Rama Nand of Varanassi.