Yogi: Sant Ravidas birthplace beautification on
Chief Minister pays tribute to the sant on his birth anniversary
LUCKNOW : Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said his government had started working on the beautification of the birthplace of Sant Ravidas in Varanasi. Yogi Adityanath said this as he offered floral tributes to Sant Ravidas here. The chief minister requested the Sant Ravidas Seva Samiti members to draw up an action plan so that the memories of Sant Ravidas could be cherished.
Offering homage, he said, “The saint gave the immortal message of ‘Mann changa to katauti mein Ganga’ and his birth in Kashi 645 years ago gave a new dimension to the tradition of Sanatan Dharma in India.”
Addressing an event organised at Sant Ravidas temple in Lucknow, the chief minister stated that spiritual practice resulted from a pure mind and Guru Ravidas was the biggest example of this.
Quoting the lines of former Prime Minister the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Yogi Adityanath said, “Aadmi na chhota hota hai, na bada hota hai; aadmi to aadmi hota hai (a man is neither big nor small, man is just man). Guru Ravidas perfectly demonstrated how a person achieves greatness through his deeds and how one should be revered.”
The chief minister said, “Whenever I go to Kashi, I get the privilege of visiting the temple of Sant Ravidas Ji.”
Stating that “religion is considered a duty” and describing Guru Ravidas as an icon of this principle, the chief minister narrated an incident related to him.
Adityanath said that Sant Ravidas used to regularly take a holy dip in the Ganga.
But due to some work, unfortunately, one day, he could not manage to do bathe in the Ganga and asked his friend to offer Re 1 to the Ganga.
As soon as Ravidas’s friend offered the donation in the river, “Ganga Maiya” (Mother Ganga) herself came out of the river and accepted the donation, he said.
“His friend later shared the complete incident with Ravidasji, responding to which Ravidasji replied, “Mann Changa to katauti mein Ganga” which means our body needs to be holy by soul, not by just taking bath in the pious river.” Thanking the members of the committee, he said it had been working to propagate the teachings of the seer.