Bhagat Dhanna Ji: the farmer whose bani is in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji

This day celebrates the birth of Bhagat Dhanna Ji, a farmer of the fifteenth century from Rajasthan, whose shabads are included in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. He is one of the fifteen Bhagats whose bani stands beside that of the Gurus, a sign that the Guru's scripture belongs to all who love the Divine, whatever their caste or birth.

The farmer of Dhuan

Bhagat Dhanna Ji was born in 1415 at Dhuan Kalan, near Tonk in Rajasthan, into a family of Jat farmers. He tilled the land all his life. Tradition holds that he was drawn to devotion by the example of the saints of his time and became a disciple of Swami Ramanand, the teacher also remembered for Bhagat Kabir Ji and Bhagat Ravidas Ji.

The stone and the simple heart

A well-known story tells that as a boy, Dhanna saw a Brahmin worshipping an idol and begged for one of his own. The Brahmin gave him an ordinary stone to be rid of him. Dhanna offered it food with such simple love, refusing to eat until it ate, that the Divine appeared to him. Sikh teaching tells this story not to praise idol worship, which the Gurus rejected, but to show that what reaches the Divine is sincere love.

His bani

The shabads of Bhagat Dhanna Ji are included in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, in Raag Aasa and Raag Dhanasari. One of them, sung in the evening Arti, is a farmer's simple prayer for the needs of a household. Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji, in his own bani, names Dhanna among the devotees who found the Divine through love.

How the day is observed

Sangats mark the day with kirtan of his shabads and with Ardas, and a gurdwara at Dhuan Kalan keeps his memory.