BENI, BHAGAT is one of the fifteen saints and sufis some of whose compositions have been incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib. Very little is known about his personal life except that he spent most of his time in prayer and contemplation. Nabhaji`s Bhagatmal, which includes him in its roster of well known bhaktas or devotees, narrates a popular anecdote about how Beni absorbed in meditation often neglected the household needs and how the Deity himself intervened and physically appeared to help him. Bhai Gurdas (Varan, X. 14) has referred to Bern`s single pointed meditation in solitude enriched by moments of spiritual edification. Bern`s three hymns in the Guru Granth Sahib are marked by an intense spiritual longing.
DHANNA, BHAGAT (b. 1415?), one of the medieval saints whose bani has been incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib, describes himself in a hymn, in Raga Asa, as an ignorant Jatt and explains how he was attracted to the worship of God by the examples of Namdev (a calicoprinter), Kabir (a weaver), Ravidas (a cobbler) and Sain (a barber). Nabhadas, Bhaktamal, includes Dhanna among the twelve disciples of Ramanand (1299-1410), though it has been questioned if all the twelve did indeed live at the same time. Max Arthur Macauliffe fixes AD 1415 as the year of Dhanna`s birth, but his name nowhere appears in the writings of Kabir (f7. 15th century) or Ravidas (fl. 15th century).
