CHETANA & RAKESH AATHUR
Kharalgarh a village in the Punjab state consistent to Kashi in UP, a religious city of UP from where Ravi Dass moved towards it and did a hard penance for four years, two months and 11 days. In order to put- off the bias of inequality of race, caste ,color and religion it was a major step taken by this holy saint, who later became well known for the uplift of people belonging to the lower castes.
As someone had rightly claimed that some people are born to rule and others are born to slave. The same so was prevalent in the society of that very age of time on the soil of Punjab and some other parts of the India. Punjab is known as land of saviors where equality has major role in all over the world. But the king ruling at that time there in the region known as Kharalgarh namely Bain Singh who was the father of Mira Bai, was also of the same belief.
When Ravi Dass did arrive here and started his holy penance the people surrounding the Kharalgarh region within some duration passed came to know about him and his holiness. Soon he started to attract the people belonging to higher castes as his disciples including Mira Bai. When this news reached to the king who was his father in relation, he could not resist himself and rushed to the spot where Ravi Dass was mundane- up in his holy penance and he watched that a Sudhra has started to convert the people of higher rungs as his disciples, he cannot sustain it so more and so he promptly ordered his men to tie him into chains. This shows that penance doing by a Sudhra in that age was an act of punishment considered by the rulers of that time.
He was blatantly intervened from doing so and ordered to produce in the king’s Dubar. He was scolded to face the rage of his ministers and given a heavy task of running the Atta- Chakki while tied up in the chains. It was not so simple as this was the task done by the animal power then traditionally for skimming the flour. It was a difficult task for a common man to move it while tied -up in the chains, but Ravi Dass calmly accepted this challenge and without uttering a single word from his tongue he again started his penance. But as he started his again the Atta-Chakki spontaneously moved and started skimming the grains into flour. While seeing this angel the king got astonished and coerced to render him disciple for his future life.
Aftermath of this incident, he stayed there for more than four years and now-a days there occurred a Gurudwara building , which is built-up in the sweet memory of his memory, said to be in 15th century. It is made-up of two houses of his disciples whom on being gratifying towards the iconic deed of Ravi Dass they had offered their houses for constructing this Gurudwara and preaching the congregations. Since then it has been rendered a sign of religious monument and sign of victory of good over evil.
Then after sometime there had occurred a condition of prolonged drought, prevailing there in the area due to which people of the surrounding areas faced acute scarcity of water. So they all compelled him to do something for this dire problem. As one day he was travelling through a Khad consistent to Kharalgarh, they all flocked around him and started praying to solve this menace of dryness. On being stressed by the people, he put-off a stone with his right foot’s thumb underneath of which there sprout-up a spring, which soon after turned into a perennial source of water. It is prevalent now-a- days in the shape of a local river being prevalent there. With his mystic congregations and religious themes he had fully enlightened the lives of Khralgarh people.
By doing so, he once again put-off the bias of the people belonging to the higher rungs or hierarchy that Bhakati/ penance is not ascribed as one’s ancestral property, whereas it is an achieved trait to which any person can perform at any moment, at any place or at any time. Means, one may be from any caste, creed, color, etc can adept so, and similar had happened in case of Ravi Dass. Such example had also happened in the Mahabharta Era, when Achet Singh had adopted the Bhakti method and he was challenged by Daryodhana, the ruler of the Kourva destiny then. In other words we can say that Bhakati cult has never been relinquished, whereas it had accepted number of challenges in past and present era.
In the same way, Kharalgarh history of penace had assumed us within the purview of Ravi Dass’ teachings, who was an authentic and religious saint which is still present as a blessing in the kind of Indian Constitution being drafted with the help of B.R Ambedkar, who was his staunch follower. In addition, he had given the message of brotherhood, sincerity, fraternity and communal harmony for a peaceful society. He had delivered the message of world peace and harmony due to which he is regarded as Masiha of poor and downtrodden sections of the people. Due to his secant approach through his Bhakti movements he stressed for improving the education standard of the lower castes and it has been proving a boon in the present era. Since then there occurred a major improvement among the people belonging to lower rungs and their educational standard has been at very enhancing rate. Ravi Dass was the only saint who advised the people belonging to the lower rungs of the society to improve their educational standard any way in order to get their fundamental rights.
In other words we can understand that Kharalgarh is the only place in Hoshiarpur District of Punjab state from where Ravi Dass started his religious journey. He preached the people all over the nation and world with his congregation and Bhakti movements. Since then Kharalgarh in Punjab had attained its red- lettered identity and also famous all over the world for its religious and functional
purposes.
