The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1976 page)

The demon king of Lanka and leader of the
r
k
asas
. He is the antagonist of
R
ma
, and is represented in
Ram
y
a
as the embodiment of evil.

 
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(14th–15th cent.).
Indian saint-poet. Nothing is known of his life except that he was a Ban
ras leatherworker and reputedly, but implausibly, a disciple of
R
m
nanda
. The
di
Granth contains forty of his
hymns
. For the 20th-cent.
d
Dharm
or
Ravid
s
movement, Ravi D
s, venerated as
Gur
, is a focal, cohesive symbol.
Ravi D
s’ poetry advocates total surrender to an absolute God beyond all attributes (
nirguna
), whose grace and love save all kinds of beings, not just those who practise austerities (
tapas
) and repetition (
japa
). This grace comes through the guru or saint.