Why in news? The birth anniversary of saint-poet Guru Ravidas is celebrated on Magh Purnima called as  Guru Ravidas Jayanti on 5^th of February .

Highlights

• This year is marked as 646th birth anniversary of mystic poet and saint
• From performing aarti to taking a holy dip at the varanasi ghats of his birthplace, devotees mark Guru Ravidas Jayanti in a grand way.
• An event is organised every year at Shri Guru Ravidas Janam Asthan Mandir (Guru Ravidas’ birthplace) to remember him

About Ravidas

• He was an Indian mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement during the 15th to 16th century CE.
• His occupation was leather work(Cobbler )

Philosphy

• He mainly focused on the nirguna (without attributes, abstract) form of supreme beings.
• He is also the central figure within the Ravidassia religious movement.

Contemporary

• Nabhadas’s Bhaktamal, suggest that Ravidas was the disciple of the Brahmin bhakti-poet Ramananda.
• He is traditionally considered as Kabir’s younger contemporary.

Literature

• Ravidas’s devotional verses were included in the Sikh scriptures known as Guru Granth Sahib.
• The Panch Vani text of the Dadu Panthi tradition within Hinduism also includes numerous poems of Ravidas.
• Parchais text of Anantadas , has Ravidas among the sants whose biography and poems were included.