Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Priest or merchant, worker or warrior, poet or someone the world pushes to the edges — every single kind of person is welcome.
Each one becomes pure the same way: by keeping the One in their heart. And in doing so they lift up not just themselves but the families they came from.
Every kind of person becomes pure the same way.
Ravidas names the four groups of his society's caste system. Brahmins were priests. Kshatriyas were warriors and rulers. Vaishyas were traders. Shudras were workers. Then he names people pushed right out to the edges, the dom and the chandaar, whom society treated as outcasts. He also names the malaychh, a word people used for outsiders and anyone they called "impure." Here it simply means anyone the world pushes aside. It is never a name to call someone.
Ravidas puts them all in one line on purpose. Ho-ay puneet bhagvant bhajan tay — each becomes pure by remembering the One, not by birth. And their goodness lifts the families on both sides too. No one is outside the One's love.
Why do you think people invent categories of "better" and "worse," and what happens when we drop them?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI