Ramananda (14th century?)
Traditional references to him as the spiritual
teacher (guru) of poet-saints Kabir, Ravidas, Pipa, and others.
The Sants were a group of poet-saints from central and
northern India who shared a number of common traits, including a focus on
individualized, interior religion leading to a personal experience of the
divine, a dislike for external ritual, particularly image worship, faith in the
power of the divine name, and a willingness to disregard traditional caste
distinctions.
Ramananda was a prominent spiritual leader who was reported
to be a direct pupil of Ramanuja, a southern Indian philosopher who sent
Ramananda north to assist promote the devotional movement.
Given that the single passage incontrovertibly attributed to
Ramananda is contained in the Adigranth, the Sikh community's scripture, the
latter assertion is probably definitely untrue.
This poem indicates the impact of the Nathpanthi ascetics,
who emphasised yoga, rather than Ramanuja's Shrivaishnava tradition, in which
Vishnu is the major god.
Other lines attributed to Ramananda have been found in
subsequent sources, although their validity is disputed, and nothing is known
about his life.
Renunciant ascetics, worshippers of the deity Vishnu
(bhakta), who are by far the most numerous and influential of the Vaishnava
ascetics.
The Ramanandis believe that their order was created by
Ramananda, a religious teacher about whom nothing is known for certain.
For a while, the Ramanandis claimed that Ramananda was a
student of the southern Indian philosopher Ramanuja, and that their sect sprang
from Ramanuja's Shrivaishnava religious society, but this claim was falsely
denied following a disagreement during the Kumbha Mela event in Ujjain in 1921.
Ramananda is also claimed to have been the guru of a number
of northern Indian bhakti personalities, including Kabir, Ravidas, Pipa, and
Sen, however there is little strong historical evidence for this.
All of the anecdotes about Ramananda, on the other hand,
indicate to a guy who was steadfast in his dedication and eager to initiate
individuals from all areas of life.
Rama, as depicted in the Ramcharitmanas, a vernacular
version of the epic Ramayana penned by the poet-saint Tulsidas (1532–1623? ),
is the tutelary god for the Ramanandi ascetics.
The text's principal topic is the power of devotion, and
Tulsidas presents Rama as God incarnate, who has come to earth for the sake of
his believers.
Within the greater Ramanandi fold, however, there are
various diverse variants on practice that have little in common with one
another.
The tyagis, for example, emphasize renunciation and
austerity.
A second thread is that of the Nagas, who fought ascetics in
the past but whose military structure is now mainly prominent during the Kumbha
Mela bathing (snana) processions.
The fourth strand is that of the rasiks
("aesthetes"), whose religious practice is based on very intricate
vision patterns in which they see themselves in Rama's palace; this kind of
visualization was definitely adopted from Krishna devotion patterns in the Braj
area.
The rasik tradition is by far the most literate and
sophisticated; the tyagis and Nagas execute comparable ceremonies to other
ascetics, but their inter pretation and deity are unique to their order.
For further detail, read Peter van der Veer's 1988 book,
Gods on Earth.
