Swami Ramananda: Varanasi, c.1400–1470
In Varanasi: With the holy city and Ganges River behind him, Swami Ramananda presses his hands together in worship of Rama and Sita, whom he takes to be the universe entire.
Ram, Ram!” Swami Ramananda is often hailed as the guru of a galaxy of saints—including Kabir, Ravidas, Sena, Pipa and Dhana. He played a crucial role in the cultivation of poet-saints and the propagation of bhakti in late 14th- or early 15th-century North India. As with countless Indian saints, little is known with certainty about his life, but devotees and historians have put together key details. According to Bhagwan Prasad Rupkala, an early 20th-century Ramanandi monk, the saint was born in ancient Prayag as Ramadatta. In his youth, he became a disciple of Raghavananda, who gave him the Ram mantra and initiated him as Ramananda. According to legend, as a youth Ramananda went on pilgrimage to South India and returned as a follower of Sri Vaishnavism in the line of the renowned philosopher-theologian Ramanujacharya, though he disagreed with that tradition’s strict ritualistic guidelines and caste exclusivity. Some Ramanandis, such as Rupkala, disassociate their founder from the South Indian Vaishnavas. Another influence in Ramananda’s teachings is that of the Nathpanthi ascetics.
After his travels, Ramananda settled in Varanasi, on the banks of River Ganga, to preach in local dialects his liberal ideas of egalitarianism, selfless devotion, and making bhakti truly accessible to all people.
A famous story details Swami Ramananda inadvertently initiating weaver-saint Kabir on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi. While walking up the ghat steps one morning, he tripped over Kabir who lay prone on the step, waiting for Ramananda. As he stumbled, Ramananda exclaimed the name of the Lord, “Ram!” Kabir took that as his sought-after initiation. From then on, Kabir, like his guru, sang the glories of the Lord. In another version, Kabir goes to meet Ramananda and requests initiation. The guru initially sends him away; but later, once convinced of Kabir’s sincerity and wisdom, he initiates the persistent seeker. Scholars over past decades have questioned the historicity of this relationship due to the conflicting dates attributed to the two poets, but Ramanandis and Kabir Panthis retell the story often, valuing it as an important puzzle piece in their enigmatic biographies. Stories narrate that another poet-saint, Ravidas, a leatherworker of Varanasi, also received his spiritual mantra from Ramananda, while other versions say that Ravidas’s guru may have been Kabir. In any case, several of the well-known North Indian bhakti saints are considered spiritual descendants of Swami Ramananda.
The Ramananda Tradition Today
A pioneering force of bhakti in North India, Saint Ramananda is also the inspiration behind the Ramananda Sampradaya, an ascetic Hindu order. Its sadhus (saint-practitioners), often called Ramanandis or Vairagis, adhere to vows, discipline and austerities. They are considered the largest monastic order in North India, the parent of numerous subgroups. Ramanandis who choose to get initiated in additional vows of austerity become Tyagis (renunciates), and Mahatyagis, undertaking even more stringent vows. Disciplines include restrictions in food, clothing and lifestyle choices. With bhakti as the core of all Ramanandi practice, two ways of interacting with the Divine emerged: one that savored “saguna” (God with form) worship towards Lord Rama and His consort Goddess Sita, and the other “nirguna” (formless Divine), deeming Rama as the ineffable supreme Reality. Poet-saint Tulsidas extolled the saguna philosophy with his Shri Ramcharitmanas, a devotional text at the heart of the Ramananda tradition, while Kabir was a leading voice of devotion to the formless divine with his dohas and bhajans (couplets and songs). Today, Ramanandis live throughout western and northern India, predominantly in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, the Ganges basin, the Himalayan foothills and Nepal.
Testimony from Dr. Ramdas Lamb
“Swami Ramananda opened up Ram bhakti to the masses like no one else. During my time as a vairagi in India, it was always so refreshing to be in satsang with those for whom devotion was both the means and the goal, the process as well as the product. Swami Ramananda played a pivotal role in the individualization and personalization of the bhakti tradition. One of the sayings commonly heard within his order with respect to who is qualified to follow the path is Jati pati puchha na koi. Jo Hari ko bhajan, so Hari ka hoi. He taught anyone who had an interest in learning the path of devotion, including females and males, Hindus and non-Hindus, those of any caste, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. Living at a time when Sanskrit was considered by many as the religious language, he encouraged his followers to sing, write and teach in vernacular languages that listeners could understand and relate to. Undoubtedly, his best-known direct disciple was Kabir, and by far the best known of the members of his lineage is Tulsidas. For both, love of God transcends all limitations (jati pati).
“In the contemporary world, far too many seek to emphasize our differences with each other, whether it be caste, class, ethnicity, ideology, physical appearance or ability. However, those differences are so temporary and thus so meaningless. For Ramananda, and ideally for all his followers, Ram and Sita together are the essence and the manifestation of all reality. Thus, seeing and serving that Universal Divinity in all should be the ultimate goal for all of us. Tulsidas presents this idea and approach to life in the two verses from his manas (presented in the sidebar at right).”
Did You Know?
Guru and God are both highly regarded in Hinduism. Ramananda’s fame spread due to his illustrious disciples, especially poet-saint Kabir. A popular couplet of Kabir, translated by Linda Hess, goes thus:
Guru and God are before me. Whose feet should I touch?
I offer myself to the guru who showed me God