Narayana
Guru was born in the year 1854 AD at Chempazhanthy, in the suburb of
the city of Trivandrum, the present capital of Kerala State, India. In
those days Trivandrum was the capital of a princely state called
Travancore. Before Travancore came under the hegemony of the Maharaja
Marthanda Varma there were eight feudal chiefs who were politically
powerful and opposed to the ruling prince. One such chief was of
Chempazhanthy. Narayana Guru’s father was Madan Asan and his mother was
Kutti Amma. He was the only son of his parents in the family of
Vayalvaram, of which a small cottage is still remaining next to a
Bhagavati Temple called Manakkal. Even though Madan Asan was not rich,
he was of moderate means. His title, Asan, shows that he was looked upon
with respect by his villagers. It is not known if he was a teacher. It
is likely that Nanu, as Narayana Guru was called by his parents, learnt
Tamil, Malayalam, and Sanskrit from his father.
In the days of Narayana Guru the most vital information everyone
wanted to know of another person was his caste. This may look ridiculous
to the present generation, but no one thought so in those days.
Everybody wanted to know caste and everyone revealed his caste also as a
matter of course.
Caste in Kerala
Even though Kerala is today treated as one ethnic unit, there are
many caste groups and local customs in Malabar or North Kerala, which
are not known to the people of the South, formerly called Travancore.
Hindus, Christians and Muslims live almost as exclusive communities.
Hindus had among them Brahmins and non-Brahmins. In the days of Narayana
Guru, non-Brahmins ranged from the most touchable to the least
touchable. No rational sociological norm is implied in this
classification. These castes have evolved and crystallized in relation
to hereditary trades and work opportunities. The caste in Kerala has
nothing or very little to do with what is popularly known as the
fourfold division of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra. Even among
the Brahmins there were sharp divisions based on their linguistic
origin. There were Malayali Nambudiris, Tulu Pottis, Telugu Iyengars or
Vaishnavaites and Tamil Iyers. Each one claims superiority over others.
Until recently Malayali Brahmins practiced the most heinous
sociological crime of keeping women of a certain section of the Hindu
community as concubines, without having the obligation of a responsible
husband or father. As Travancore, Cochin and Malabar were under
theocratic rule for a long time, these Nambudiris managed to keep the
Rajas of these states in a socio-political hypnosis and got large areas
of land and temples under their undisputed hegemony. They used the land
and the favor of the Rajas to give a social acceptance to their
illegitimate relationships which were known as sambandham.
Certain powerful Nair chiefs were ‘baptized’ by the Brahmins with a
hocus-pocus ritual of making them ‘Raja-designate’ to be symbolically
born out of a golden cow. The priest’s fee was the golden cow. Thus the
Kshatriyas of Kerala are homemade products. Nairs were a martial class.
They had gymnasiums conducted by Kurups, where they taught martial arts.
Besides Brahmins and Nairs, there were temple attendants such as
Warrier, Pisharadi, Marar etc. All of them enjoyed certain social
privileges that were not shared by the rest of the Hindu community.
There was also a large community who acted as a buffer group between the
touchables and the untouchables. They are known in Travancore as
Ezhavas, in Cochin as Choyas and in Malabar as Thiyas. The common link
between these three groups was their hereditary trade interest in
extracting coconut and palm wine and running breweries. This factor does
not exist any longer. Others now share this trade too. They show a
definite left-wing protest in their attitude towards relating themselves
to Brahmins. The price they had to pay was heavy. They lived more or
less as outsiders to the Hindu Society. In the coastal areas like
Tellicherry and Cannanore, they easily mixed with European adventurers
and Arab pirates. Thus we can see there, many fair-complexioned and blue
or brown-eyed Thiyas. Socially and economically they were
under-privileged. In this group there are a number of families who
remained as pockets of the last vestiges of the Buddhist culture. The
Pali language, Sanskrit and Ayurvedic Medicine distinguished these
families from others. Then there came the poorest of the poor, who were
real children of the soil–the Bhumiputras. They were branded as
untouchables. Kuravas, Pulayas, Pariahs and the tribals, all have their
own traditions reaching back to antiquity. Perhaps the first Mohenjodaro
drummer, Shiva himself, was a Pariah (para=drum).
In one of Swami Vivekananda’s letters, he writes of the despicable
caste system of Travancore as the most horrid experience he had in his
wanderings in India.
It was into this dark chapter of Indian history that Narayana Guru
came in the 1850s. His own caste is described as Ezhava. In his abundant
sense of humor, he once described the Ezhava as an unrecognized weed in
the garden of the caste scruples.
Harmonious village life
From the accounts of elderly people, it is presumed that the village
of Narayana Guru had very good communal harmony. Ezhavas and Nairs
jointly managed the Manakkal Temple of Chempazhanthy, and Nanu went to a
village school of a Nair teacher. We do not hear that the sun-burnt
peasants like the Pulayas shared this equality.
A ‘good’ slave accepts the norms of slavery and shows his worth by
making himself loyal to the creed of servitude. This was very true of
the feudal system of 19th century India. Communities insulated with
untouchability lived in relative peace. Narayana Guru’s uncles, Raman
Vaidyar and Krishnan Vaidyar were no exception, and indeed they cared
very much for the preservation of their own insulated tribal clan.
Nanu protests
It seems the child Nanu had a natural ingenuity in discerning right
from wrong and the essential from the non-essential. When Nanu’s parents
or uncles kept fruits and sweetmeats for divine offerings (pooja), he
did not hesitate to partake of it before the puja was performed. When he
was called to account for his action, his plea was that God would be
happy if he made himself happy.
When Nanu’s uncles were meticulous in enforcing the customary
convention of untouchability, the child wanted to show the silliness of
it by running around and embracing all who were tabooed as untouchables.
There is a touching story of Nanu’s childhood-reaction to injustice
which also reveals his consistency in opposing injustice with passive
spiritual force.
One day when Nanu was going to school with other village children, a
sannyasin with matted hair and clad in rags was also on the road. The
usual look of the mendicant intrigued the mischievous imps. They started
jeering and throwing stones at him. The sannyasin walked on as if he
was not aware of what was happening. When Nanu saw this, he burst into
tears. The sannyasin turned back and spotted Nanu walking behind him in
tears. The kind mendicant asked Nanu why he was crying. Nanu said that
he was crying because of his inability to stop the village urchins from
pelting such a good man with stones. Hearing this, the sannyasin lifted
the boy to his shoulders and brought him back to his parents. He blessed
Nanu and told that he would one day become a great man (mahatma).
Strange are the ways of picking up the threads of one’s future
affiliation and loyalty. The incident narrated above symbolizes hundreds
of other acts of injustice against which, Narayana Guru protested in
his life. He always employed a passive dynamism whereby he brought the
powers of the heavens to the earth to correct the ills of the world.
There is another episode of Nanu’s childhood, which indicates how he was
turned on to what can be described as the via negativa (nivrtti marga).
A death occurred in his family, when Nanu was of the age of six. He
was shocked by the grief of the relatives. A couple of days after the
cremation, the young Nanu was found missing. People searched for him
everywhere. Finally they found him sitting in a wood, lost in thought.
When he was questioned about this strange behavior, he said: “The other
day when a dear one died everybody was crying. I thought, ‘Now you will
be sorrowful forever.’ Hardly a day passed, and all of you started
laughing as if nothing had happened. It looked strange to me.” Of
course, nobody kept any record of what he said, but he might have said
something to this effect. What is important to note is his disgust for
relativism and how he preferred to turn away from it as a remedy to
correct the iniquities of social behavior.
Early education
Nanu’s first teacher was his own father, Madan Asan. He had formal
schooling in the village school of Chempazhanthy Pillai. Apart from
Malayalam and Tamil he learned by heart, as was the practice in those
days, Sidharupa, Balaprabodhana and Amrakosa. He was blessed with a
penetrating understanding and a sharp memory from very early childhood.
Although there were a few schools in Travancore and Cochin in those
days, Nanu’s circumstances were such that he had to satisfy himself with
what he received from his father, his uncle Krishnan Vaidyar and the
village schoolmaster.
A child of nature
Nanu in his adolescence experienced restlessness and engaged in
boyhood pranks which were characteristic of his inner untold merit and
growth. Home and relatives did not attract him. Being very sensitive to
moral and aesthetic values of a profound and universal order, he came
into conflict with the crude and unhygienic life-patterns of people. He
preferred to be alone or with his cows. Like the reputed cowherd of
Brindavan, Nanu was also fond of sitting on the spread out branches of
trees as his cows grazed in the green pastures below. Unlike Krishna,
who played his flute, Nanu composed hymns and sang them melodiously.
Once Nanu’s uncle, Krishnan Vaidyar, heard Nanu’s voice coming from the
foliage of a tree. He stood spellbound until the song was over, and,
then went near by and asked the shy boy, from whom he learnt that hymn.
When he realized Nanu himself composed it, he thought that it was a
serious mistake not to allow the young boy to go to a proper teacher.
During these years Nanu also took to gardening. It agreed with his
sensitive nature to see seeds germinating and plants bringing forth
delicate flowers and edible fruits.
Proper formation in Sanskrit and Vedanda
In 1877 Nanu was sent to the family of Varanapally to be further
educated under the guidance of a well-known scholar named Kummampilli
Raman PillaiAsan. It was a custom those days for rich families to
arrange for the higher studies of their sons, by honoring guest-teachers
who volunteered to teach deserving students and providing them with
free boarding and lodging. These teachers had no pecuniary motives.
Seeing his amazing ability to grasp and digest the hidden meanings of
Sanskrit classics, Raman Pillai Asan gave special permission to Nanu to
be present with him when he was teaching other students also.
Nanu was both studying and teaching himself. It was not difficult for
his teacher to know what was happening within him, Raman Pillai Aasan
gave special instructions to the chief of the Varanapally household to
give Nanu facilities to live alone and spend time as he liked in deep
meditation and self-discipline.
Even though Narayana Guru was blessed with a very critical and
analytical mind, he was also evenly balanced with a sense of deep
devotion. Mere logic chopping did not amuse him. He was capable of
silencing any argument with a thoughtful query or a witty remark.
However, he avoided arguments and spent long hours in meditation and
self-study He underwent a great mystical change in his vision of this
world. It was no more “out there” mechanically operating as a brute
fact. The inner world opened up many new avenues to him. He was
sometimes drunk with such inner ecstasy that he found it hard to
articulate it in words. One such state of ecstasy is echoed in a verse
he composed and sang in spontaneous exultation:
Released from the mundane worries of life,
The World re-absorbed in the real,
The sweet melody of the eternal world
dissolved away in silence,
The effulgence of the non-dual lamp is filled all around.
The curtain of Maya is raised,
Revealing the celestial stage
Where Krishna of radiant blue hue,
Glorious in his resplendent halo
And adorned with the Koustabha Jeweldances in divine festivity.
Even simple incidents in his life are highly suggestive of the
Guru-in-the-making in Nanu’s youthful personality. There was a little
dog in the house where Nanu lived. When taking his noon-meal he always
used to give it a share. On most of the days when the little dog was
about to eat, a big dog came snarling and driving away the small pup,
and ate its morsel. Narayana Guru had great sympathy for the little dog
bullied and deprived by the big one, but he never stoned the bigger dog
or pushed it away from the food. Instead he looked at the little one and
said half to himself, “We are sorry. What can we do when its heart is
evil?”
According to some biographers, Narayana Guru was very devoted to Krishna
in his childhood image. S, However, in his later life he did not seem
to have any special preference for Krishna. In his several hymns to the
different deities of the Indian pantheon, most of his praises are
showered on Shiva, Subrahmanya, Devi and Ganesha, and only two on
Vishnu.
There is no one living now who can speak with any accuracy on how the
Guru conducted himself in his mystical frenzies. It is likely that the
early biographers have erred on the side of exaggeration, as they are
somewhat biased by the biographical studies of Sri Ramakrishna’s
mystical absorption’s. It is possible that Narayana Guru had profound
mystical feelings, but from all the reliable accounts we know he never
expressed any excessive emotion of affection, hatred, anger or
frustration. However, there are occasional references to the Guru being
moved to a deep and profound sense of sympathy and compassion whenever
he saw someone ill-treating a less-favored member of the society. His
compassion was also extended to animals. In this connection it is
appropriate to quote here one distinction between Narayana Guru and Sri
Ramakrishna recorded by Romain Rolland, who wrote the biography of Sri.
Ramakrishna in French:.
Glasenapp does not say anything regarding the new religious
manifestations in South India, which are not negligible. Such for
example is the great Guru Sri Narayana, whose beneficent spiritual
activity has been exercising its influence during the past forty years
in the State of Travancore on nearly two millions of his followers (he
passed away in 1928). His teaching, permeated With the philosophy of
Sankara, shows evidence of a striking difference of temperament compared
with the mysticism of Bengal, of which the effusions of love (bhakti)
inspire in him a certain mistrust. He was, one might say, a Jnanin of
action, a great religious intellectual, who had a keen living sense of
the people and of social necessities. He has contributed greatly to the
elevation of the oppressed classes in South India, and his work has been
associated at certain times with that of Gandhi. (Cf. the articles of
his disciple P. Natarajan in the Sufi Quarterly, Geneva, December 1928
and in the following months.)
The termination of Narayana Guru’s formal studies under Kummanpilli
Raman Pillai Asan was probably in 1881. It seems he suffered from a
severe attack of dysentery presumably caused by hemorrhoids. According
to one report Nanu gave an indication to some of his close associates
that he was going to make a still deeper plunge in his search for truth.
He did not want to escape from the realities or phenomenalities of the
world but he was keen to know the mysterious forces that governed the
life of man. It was his intention to make full use of that knowledge, if
in some measure he could make himself an instrument to correct the ills
of the world. Most people of his time experienced life as an
ill-functioning and disorderly arrangement, especially in the
socio-economic and politico-cultural set-up of the human species.
The great search
One of the later vedantic compositions of Narayana Guru is known as
Advaita Deepika. The metaphoric ideogram of ‘the flame of non-dual
knowledge’ implies the knower’s identity with the knowledge that is
illuminated. The same message was exemplified in the Guru’s own life
when he began his more serious search. He took upon himself the role of a
teacher. In this role he was a seeker, a seer, and also an illuminator.
His ‘one-teacher school’ was not to teach the ‘three R’s’, but to bring
into people’s lives the insight of the spiritual masters of the past
such as Vyasa, Valmiki, Sankara, and Tiruvalluvar.
The lonely flight of a seeker is not only not appreciated by the world,
but in most cases he is neither recognized as a seeker nor does the
world seem to know that there is anything to seek at all. The only
business of life is to wake up and sleep, to eat and mate and carry on
the ten thousand and one transactions of life. So it is no wonder that
the relatives of Narayana Guru thought that the best that they could do
for him was to arrange for a marriage. The conflict that ensued and the
way in which Narayana Guru circumvented the arrangement can be an
excellent study of the attitude of Indian people to spirituality when
sex-life and interpersonal relations are to be interpreted, especially
in the Victorian era. Although in actual practice there was a great
eroding of sexual restrictions, the professed adherence of the Indian
people to the old world norms were far removed from the medieval one.
There are different versions of Narayana Guru’s marriage. All
narrators agree that he did not present himself at the wedding ceremony.
It was conducted in proxy by his sister”8 All agree that he probably
had no physical relation with the woman whom his relatives brought to
his home and looked upon as his wife. Also there is general agreement
that he did not show any displeasure to this person who had the
misfortune of being treated as a wife though not having a meaningful
identity. The strange relation of the Yogi to his wife is presented in
The Word of the Guru by Nataraja Guru without any exaggeration or
spiritual embellishment.
Once he called another neighbor and asked him to take his wife to a
festival in a nearby Bhagavati or Kali temple to which she dearly wished
to go. With the Guru’s better ways, it was too crowded and noisy for
him, but the villagers praised its importance very highly. On another
occasion the Guru cured his wife who had fainted for some reason, and he
took some familiar green herb and squeezed the juice into her nostrils.
The irritation set aright the circulation in her head and brought her
back to normality. These are all scanty remarks that the present writer
is able to make regarding the marital life of the Guru. His wife
continued to live in her parents’ house in accordance with the
matriarchal customs prevailing then in that locality. With the
ever-widening path of Guruhood that our hero began to tread as more and
more years went by, the question of his married life and the family
relations receded more and more into the background. It was thus
naturally and normally transcended. She died, and no children of the
marriage are known to have seen the light of day. Subjects such a
celibacy, Immaculate Conception, or virginity, etc., were points, which
were never raised in connection with either of them. The relation was as
neutral and mysterious as the Zero that we have spoken of
According to the biographer Mr. Moorkoth Kumaran, the Guru said more
or less in the following manner before breaking away completely from his
parental home: “We are all born in this world to serve some purpose. I
have my work to do and you have yours. Let me go my way; you go your own
way.” This has resemblance to what Ramaria Maharshi, an uncompromising
advaitin of this century once said, about himself. There is also the
famous existential prayer: “1 do my thing, and you do your thing. I am
not in this world to live up to your expectations. And you are not in
this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance
we find each other, it’s beautiful. If not, it can’t be helped.
There comes a time in the life of every seeker that he cannot any
longer carry on the transactions of the relativistic pattern of home
life without becoming hypocritical. In such a state, the true person in
the seeker undergoes a great stress. The crisis of such a person is
described differently in different books. The Mumukshu Prakarana of Yoga
Vasishtha, the breaking away of Prince Siddhartha from the palace of
Kapilavastu, the hidden life of Jesus Christ terminated by forty days of
fast and mental torture, the restless days of Prophet Mohammed in the
caves of Mecca before the visitation of Gabriel, and the graphic,
descriptions of the restlessness of the seeker in the Vivekachudamani of
Sankara, give sufficient descriptions of the spiritual seekers’ common
plight. Narayana Guru’s predicament was not different. He left his home
and wandered aimlessly in whichever direction he felt like going. Most
of his wanderings were either on the coastlines of Kerala or in the
interior villages of the present Tamilnadu. In Tamilnadu most cities and
villages are built around a temple of Shiva, Subrahmanya, Devi, Vishnu
or Vinayaka. Every temple has its own legend and the stories of the
saints who were devoted to these temples. As a result there are many
pockets of traditional psychology, magic, mysticism and alchemy in a
number of places, and Narayana Guru had the great advantage of relating
himself to those people who kept these traditions alive. As he had a
very high sense of personal discipline, which included a superior
personal hygiene, he must have been very selective in choosing his
spiritual practices. He had a very high critical acumen and did not
accept anything at its face value without experiencing and experimenting
with instructions in his own life to prove their verity to himself.
Sometimes it amounted to the torturing of his body or of his mind. His
love for truth was always uncompromising and he never liked to load his
mind with half-baked theories or unverified information.
Finding a soul mate
After wandering for some time he came to live with an old comrade of
his called Perunelli Krishnan Vaidyar. This gentleman was a very erudite
scholar in Sanskrit. Apart from being a poet of great merit, he was a
pioneer in the theatrical art of Kerala and spent most of his time in
presenting his own plays on the stage. He attracted a large crowd of
literary enthusiasts and art critics around him. Among them there was a
great genius that had an insight into the secrets of art and sciences.
He was an expert in the rhythmic art of drumming. In addition to this he
was conversant with all the rules implied in the rhetorics of the
Vedas. He could easily sketch people in their varied moods. He amused
himself by giving demonstrations of all the possible variations in
drumming. This unusual man is known by different names, but his original
name was Ayyappan. Officially he was Shanmughadasan. Afterwards he was
known as Kunjan Pillai. He was entrusted with the duty of a monitor by
his master and so was called Chattampi. As this gentleman wandered like a
recluse and lived a life of piety, he became popularly known as
Chattampi Swami.
In many respects Nanu and Chattampi Swami were very different. Nanu Asan
was a man of restraint. He spoke only scantily. He was both gentle and
dignified when he himself related to others. Being supersensitive to the
suffering of his fellow men Nanu Asan was seen most of the time
somewhat in a sad mood like that of Jesus Christ. This is not to suggest
that he did not know the uncontaminated bliss of the real self.
Chattampi Swami was outgoing and was even provocative in his humor and
argumentation. His critical acumen was very sharp and he did not allow
pretenders to escape his Scathing criticism.’ If Nanu Asan abhorred
erotics and the erotic company’ of women, Chattampi Swami approached
erotics with the ‘masterly mind of a poetic genius and he made little
difference of man and women in sharing his erudition and the wisdom born
of his keen observation.
In spite of these differences Nanu Asan and Chattampi Swami loved and respected each other as fellow-seekers.
In those days the frontiers of spiritual search were not very clearly
defined. Astrology, medicine, alchemy and Yoga were considered as
subjects of allied interest. Most Vedantins were also yogins. Nanu Asan
and Chattampi Swami also wanted to become proficient in Yoga. Chattampi
Swami who then was an adept in Yoga gave his friend certain instructions
on Yoga and Tantra.
Seeing Nanu Asan’s interest in Yoga, Chattampi Swami took him to his
Yoga teacher who was in the service of the British Resident in
Trivandrum. This Yogi was known as Thycattu Ayyavu his exact name is not
known. The fact that he is remembered today both as a Brahmin as a
Pariah shows that he might have lived a life that was beyond the
frontiers of caste prejudices. The relation of Chattampi Swami and
Narayana Guru with Thycattu Ayyavu is known to posterity only from the
accounts of their devotees. It seems both of them loved and respected
their teacher very much. Some people believed that Chattampi Swami
initiated Nanu Asan into an esoteric mantra. On that account they insist
that Chattampi Swami should be recognized as the spiritual preceptor of
Narayana Guru. Narayana Guru did not consider himself to be a disciple
of any particular person. He once said that his Guru was God and Man.
When the controversy on Narayana Guru’s relationship with Chattampi
Swami became heated up his own disciple Tampi (afterwards Nataraja Guru)
asked him of the rumored Guruhood of Chattampi Swami. He said’ he had
no objection to any one thinking of Chattampi Swami as his Guru.
Chattampi Swami always looked upon Nanu Asan as an equal and made no
claim for himself as his Guru. Unfortunately devotees of both masters
made an ugly issue of this. Nanu Asan always referred to Chattampi Swami
intimately as ‘Chattampi’ and described him to others as a “veritable
Vyasa of our time.” The Guru even qualified Chattampi Swami as a sat
guru.
Even though Nanu Asan became proficient in Yogic discipline his thirst
for illumination was not quenched by what he derived from his experience
of Hatha yoga.
The final plunge
Narayana Guru was only concerned with two things in his life; one was
the in-dwelling Absolute that shines within all; and the other was the
woes of life to which man is exposed everywhere. It was not his
intention to make a hero of himself in the minds of others. He,
therefore, did not bother to tell anyone what difficulties he overcame
to achieve the fulfillment of his search. Nataraja Guru in his well
known book The Word of the Gurugives a beautiful description of Narayana
Guru’s search.
Leaving his home behind him, for years he had wandered from one man to
another, from one center to another, before he came to settle down, for
the time being at least, at this spot. During this period of restless
travelling he had sometimes walked three to four hundred miles with no
better provision than that of a mere mendicant. Sometimes he had to swim
across rivers or stretches of backwater on the coastline, but these
barriers could not hinder the spirit of search that had awakened in him.
Unknown to the millions, who only later began to adore him, he passed
from one village to another, sleeping at night on a cloth spread on the
stone slabs of some wayside rest house, with his stick as his only
companion beside him. Other vesper hours found him perchance in a
wayside verandah or some forsaken temple-yard where, with the leaves
rustling in a gentle evening breeze and sometimes with the moon shining,
he spent his night, famished perhaps, fatigued and forlorn, but at
least apparently in slumber: in reality inwardly awake with the ‘light
of the silent tabernacle’ of the mind.
It is generally believed that the Guru did the last phase of his
penance in a cave in Marutvamalai, which is not far from Kanyakumari.
How long he remained in this cave and how he managed to sustain himself
physically are all, at best, only guesses today. It is presumed that he
had his awakening during his solitary penance in the cave of
Marutvamalai. His reference of mystical experiences given in the
Atmopadesa Satakammust have direct bearing on what he had experienced in
Marutvamalai. We quote here two verses from the Atmopadesa Satakam
translated by Nataraja Guru, which allude to such an experience.
If an arid desert most expansive should become overflooded
By river water all at once, such would be the rising symphony
Falling into the ears, to open then the eye, do therefore
Daily become the best of sages, endowed with self-control
Like the dawn all together of ten thousand solar orbs
Wisdom’s function comes: such verily is that which
Tears asunder this wisdom-hiding, transient Maya-darkness here
And as the primal Sun prevails.
The great awakening bestowed upon the Guru an all-inclusive vision of
unity. A man who is seeing the one Absolute that transcends the
phenomenal may feel tempted to withdraw himself from the maddening crowd
of humanity into the silence of a cloister. But Narayana Guru
experienced the vision of unity in a very different manner. The immanent
and all pervading Absolute in its purest aspect is the Blissful
Awareness of Eternal Existence. But it very often occurs to us as an
ill-fed child, a crying mother, and a downtrodden man of the street or a
neglected member of an outcaste society. Paying homage to the Absolute,
in such a case, is by relating to such people with tears in the eye and
reverence in the heart. For this reason Narayana Guru decided to return
to the world from which he had withdrawn to seek the mystery of life.
It was not an easy task for him to get adjusted to the conflicting
worlds of the numinous beauty inside and the phenomenal ugliness
outside. It was not possible for Narayana Guru to return to the society
all at once. He therefore chose to live in a thick jungle on the banks
of the river Neyyar, a couple of miles away from the township of
Neyyattinkara. Like a molten gold in a smith’s furnace the Guru’s inner
psyche was in an ecstatic state of white heat. In his jungle abode he
was slowly melting into shape to become a Guru. It was necessary for him
to remain undisturbed in the solitude of the forest. The mystical
turbulence he had undergone in those wonderful days can be seen
reflected in the various hymns he sung in praise of Shiva, Subrahmanyaa
and Devi. We are tempted to quote here some of the very beautiful
passages from The Word of the Guru of Nataraja Guru, which throw light
on Narayana Guru’s mystical experience in those days.
This state of self-absorption increased soon after. Human company of any
sort became unbearable to him. When a curious passer-by stood and
watched him as he would a curious animal in the zoo (so he himself
described it) he would sometimes spring to his feet in resentment and
walk off to the neighboring hill-top on the summit of which, on a pile
of stones for a seat, he would sit cross-legged, erect and silent,
gazing at the vast panorama of hills that was visible from that point of
vantage. He sank deeper and deeper into oblivion of the affairs of the
world. The mind seemed to feed on itself and reap a strange happiness.
The emotional counterpart of this incessant search was so heavy as to
make even a sturdy supporter grown under its trials. The torrential
stream on the banks of which he sat was but an objective representation
of the state of emotion in his heart. Nothing can describe adequately
the trials he underwent. It would be vain to undertake the task.
It was as if he was drunk. The red fire of knowledge was beginning to
glow within him. It was as if his feelings were beginning to melt. It
was as if the ambrosial essence of his being was beginning to pervade
his mental horizon. This emotion made him call upon as his only
refuge–God, ‘whose tender feet dripped with the honey of compassion.’
God was to him the pearl of perfection, the dancing center of his life,
the lotus that sprouted in the silence of his heart caught in the center
of which, buried among the petals, like a bumble bee having its fill of
honey, his soul in the form of a radiant child planting his foot in the
center of a glowing radiance, had devoured within his being the light
of the sun and the moon. It was as if this radiant form was dancing and
swaying at the center of his being, mounted on the back of a peacock
with outspread feathers of green and gold. It was as if a lamp shed its
steady light in the silent house of the mind .
It was an experience beyond words; and the volume and force with which
images such as these surged up within his mind, richly breaking through
barriers of rhyme and metre in some of his prayers written at this
period, throw ample light on its nature.
This new experience was not in the nature of an event. It was an
experience that changed for him the meaning and import of all events, so
called. He waited no more for events that would bring him pleasure or
pain. He inwardly smiled at the events that others round him attached so
much importance to. The events that disturbed or frightened others
round him, making them put on grave faces and speak to one another with
hidden hatred seemed to him child’s play. Death had lost its bitter
meaning to him and the unknown had lost its mystery.
It was as if he had come into possession of a rich heritage. A
veritable ball of radiance had come into his possession. Its light
seemed to heave, with every breath reaching beyond the bounds of the
three worlds. Sounds seemed to fill the sky. The eye was filled with
beauty. Music and rhyme burst forth unpremeditated in his voice. Tears
of compassion and pity stood ready, at the least little demand, to
overflow into action. He became a changed man with a strange silence in
his ways, both the subject and the object of utmost compassion.
Undivided and uncramped with trivial events, time to him became
richer and richer in inner meaning, while the ponderable aspect of time
became of less import. Past,present and future merged into a continuous
whole and he forgot weeks and months as they glided freely by without
affecting him. The joy of the state into which he had fallen was
alluring him deeper and deeper into his own conscious-ness. Controlling
with an iron will the domination of one set of emotions over another,
upright as a bolt, established firmly in that kind of reasoning which
concerned itself with the most immediate realities of a simplified
world, he soon entered into a distinct phase in his life. The hunger of a
simple villager who carne to visit him became a matter of greater
concern to him than theological disputation or the establishment of a
new religion. He began to live in a present which was the result of an
endless and pure experience of the past and the most far-reaching
expectation of the future. The result was that his duties became clear
as daylight to him at every step. Philanthropy became a natural hobby to
him. Philosophy gave his actions a detached motive, and poetry gave him
the means of natural expression.His life and ambitions were simplified
and the foundations of a career of benevolence and prosperity were laid
in his personality.
At this time Narayana Guru must have been in his middle thirties.
Most probably he might have been 36, When Narayana Guru was undergoing
the emotional upheavals of his mystical frenzies a young sannyasin was
wandering from Kanyakumari to the north of India. He was none other than
Narendranatha Dutt who became famous afterwards as Swami Vivekananda.
The rigid caste prejudices and cruel oppression to which the sun-burnt
working majority were subjected made Swami Vivekananda write a wrathful
letter to a devotee in Calcutta. In that letter he described the
princely state of Travancore (now part of kerala) as a lunatic asylum of
caste bigotry. When the Swami visited Mysore the Maharaja of Mysore
received him with great love and he was introduced to all the important
people working under him. Among them was Dr. Palpu from Travancore. Dr.
Palpu was the head of the Public Health Department. He was also the
durbar Physician. Even though he was the first in his community to go
abroad and take a medical degree from England, he was not given a
position in the service of the Travancore Government on the plea that
such an appointment was against the caste tradition in India, He did not
consider it as a personal insult. To him this insult was symbolic of
the injustice shown to the several millions of downtrodden people in
India. He disclosed his grief to Swami Vivekananda. The prophetic vision
of Swamiji could easily see what was going to happen in the southern
regions. He advised the doctor to seek the blessings and guidance of a
spiritual Guru hailing from Kerala itself. In the meanwhile something
was happening also to the young yogi who was meditating in the jungles
of Aruvipuram. A lad of sixteen saw a man sitting on the solitary bank
of the river Neyyar. Something in that man had drawn him to the yogi.
The yogi requested the lad not to publicize his presence there. However,
the boy became a constant visitor to the yogi, and he even brought
fruits and boiled tapioca to his Guru. This young man was destined to be
the first disciple of Narayana Guru. He became later known as Sivalinga
Swami. In spite of the promise of secrecy, news had leaked out to the
public and soon there was a flow of people to the hermitage. The
Conservator of Forests in that area was very unhappy that he had no
children. As was usual they looked upon the newly found yogi as a
benevolent siddha who would grant them the boons they wanted. The
Conservator of Forests asked his people to clear the jungle and make a
footpath to the hermitage of the yogi. As was normal the Guru blessed
the man and his wife, and a daughter was born to them. She became
afterwards a good legislator and a social worker. Her name was Narayani
Amma. More and more devotees gathered for worship and it became
necessary to have a temple for the visitors.
A stroke of revolution
From Rameswaram to Kailas there are thousands of temples dedicated to
Shiva. In most of them the deity installed is sivalinga. But when
Narayana Guru picked up a stone from the river Neyyar and installed it
on a pedestal with a silent prayer, it made a land-mark in the social
and spiritual history of India.” This sivalinga is more ‘talked about
than the sivalinga of Rameswaram installed by Sri Rama himself. It is
probable that the caste tradition was not so rigid in the days of Rama
so that no Brahmin questioned the right of a Kshatriya to install a
sivalinga. Narayana Guru’s transgression of the convention which had
persisted for over 3000 years was not at all acceptable to the
caste-people of India. Not only was the Guru not a Brahmin, he was not
even a, shudra. He came from a community which was totally outside the
four-fold varnas of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras. Like
Sankara, he was also a dravilasisu In the words of Nataraja Guru the
great event of the installation of the temple took place in this manner:
A group of women and children, more sun-burnt than the rest of the
crowd, sat segregated from the others. They were poor peasants, who,
after a day’s hard work, had come in search of consolation to the
festive scene. For ages these poor laborers and their ancestors had
tilled the soil for the richer people who took advantage of their
goodness. On the basis of their caste, these people had been condemned
to age-long suffering, and were segregated and spurned. The Guru’s
watchful eyes lighted on the group He asked the orators to wait a
moment. He asked the crowd if these people should be segregated. Why
should they not come and feel equality with the others The Guru arranged
that two of the boys from the crowd be brought on the platform, and
seated them, after kind questions, One on either side of him. “They are
God’s children as much as the others”, he murmured, and tears of
compassion more eloquent than speeches carried home his silent message
to, the crowd. Even they who would have growled at such a “departure
from tradition, could not resist the winning power of the Guru’s eyes.
They crouched, innocent of the axe, which the Guru aimed at the dead
root of tradition. Statesmanship or subtle diplomacy was employed. It
was the simplest manifestation of humanity, welling up in the heart of
the Guru that won the case forever. Thus the first victory of the Guru
was won. The boys were later admitted, as members of the hermitage; and
they and many such, remained near the Guru, wherever he went, until the
day of his passing away. While others Spoke and became excited over the
past or the future, striving for hours to direct the popular mind, the
Guru sat silent, and acted. His silence, when judged by its effect,
marked the high-water mark of oratory. In winding up the proceedings of
this memorable day, the Guru had merely a few simple words to say. These
he put in the form of a motto, which one of those present proclaimed to
the crowd. It read:
Devoid of dividing walls
Of caste or race
Or hatred of rival faith,
We all live here
In Brotherhood,
Such, know this place to be!
This Model Foundation!
Such, then, was the manner and such the character he gave to his work.
It soon overflowed the limits of the province and spread its seeds far
and wide.
The local enthusiasts formed a committee to manage the temple and there
was an arrangement for the gathering of devotees on all nights of the
new moon and full moon. When Dr. Palpu visited his parental home in
Trivandrum, he came to know of a young yogi called Nanu Guru who was
attracting thousands of people to his hermitage. On hearing this he
remembered the prediction of Swami Vivekananda that the redemption of
the toiling millions of Kerala will come only through a Guru. So he went
at once to Sree Narayana Guru. When they saw each other it was like the
Ganges coming to the ocean. Dr. Palpu dedicated himself entirely to the
cause of the Guru without any reservation. The Guru took up the
challenge of redeeming India of the scourge of casteism and
untouchability. This led to the formation of the Sree Narayana Dharma
Paripalana (S. N. D. P.) Yogam.
Publicly accepted as a Guru
From 1884 to 1904 Narayana Guru’s headquarters was mostly at
Aruvipuram. The S. N. D. P. Yogam, founded with the blessings of the
Guru, became a powerful mouthpiece of all the socially and economically
oppressed people of Travancore. The call for justice and equality made
by the Yogam also began to be echoed in other parts of Kerala and Madras
State (now Tamilnadu).
Narayana Guru was a parivrajaka and he never stayed in one place for
more than a fortnight. Even in those days when there were no roads, he
walked on foot to almost every village in Kerala and the then Madras
State. This enabled thousands of people to relate to him personally. His
ideals and mode of life influenced them. From all the accounts, he
roamed about in South India, healing people of their physical and mental
maladies and inspiring everyone to live a clean life of love and
co-operation. Since those days these accounts have become legendary and
therefore it is hard to separate fact from fiction. However, his life
had a close resemblance to that of Jesus Christ who wandered in Judea,
Jordan, Galilee and Syria healing people and giving sermons. In 1901 the
State Census Manual of Travancore recorded Sree Narayana as a Guru and
an erudite Sanskrit Scholar. A sharp drop in the statistics of the
commission of crime was also alluded to as a result of the correcting
and moralizing influence of Narayana Guru on the society.
Affinity with the Tamil culture
Narayana Guru knew Tamil even in his boyhood days. Before going to
Marutvamalai and even after settling down in Aruvipuram, he was in close
contact with several Tamil scholars and the well known ashrams and
adheenams in Tamilnadu In the ashrams of the Saivites in Karaikudy,
Madurai, Kumbhakonam and Tiruchendur the Guru was always received with
great honor. The Sannyasins of the Kovilur mutt in Karaikudy even now
remember him as a Guru of their spiritual hierarchy. Narayana Guru was
very thorough with , Sivapuranam and all the works of Pattanathu
Pillayar, Manicka Vachakar, Appar, Sundaramurti, and Tirujnana
Sambantar. He even translated part of Tiruvalluvar’s TiruKural,
Ramalinga Swamikal, who became very famous in Tamilnadu as an advocate
of integral vision (samarasam) and social equality (‘samerase suddha
sammirga nilai), was like an elder brother to Narayana Guru.
Taimanavar’s hymns such as Sukhavari must have influenced Narayana
Guru’s composition of hymns and psams. The Guru was, however, critical
of Taimanavar’s sentimentalism. Narayana Guru was not in the habit of
writing compositions in his own hand. He always sung them for his
devotees and only very few of such compositions were recorded by people.
Among these are three Tamil works, which have been recovered from the
fast disappearing records of those days. One Such work entitled Tevaram
has been recently published by Dr. T. Bhaskaran of the Malayalam
Department of the Kerala University. To understand · the Malayalam
compositions of Narayana Guru, one should have a fairly good familiarity
with the myths and legends popularly sung in Tamilnadu and also should
know some of the basic terms used by the followers of Saiva Siddhanta
and Sivadvaita.
The sanskrit background of the Guru
We have already mentioned that the Guru had a very systematic and
very good training in Sanskrit grammar, rhetoric, poetry and Vedanta
philosophy. His understanding of other Darsanas was also precise and
profound, Unlike the traditional uncritical acceptance by students of
the commentaries and notes given by previous Acharyas like Sankara, he
was critical. Even though, by and far, he was an Advaitin and a good
defender of Sankara, he was very sympathetic in giving his attention to
the arguments of Ramanuja and Madhva directed against Sankara. We will
have occasion to discuss this in a later chapter where we have to
compare Narayana Guru’s stand with Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva.
The Guru mostly relied on his own experiences, which were in perfect
res3nance with the original teachings of the Upanishads. Outside
thePrasthanatraya the only other books he had accepted were
Yoga.Vasistha Ramayana of Valmiki and the Yogasutras of Patanjali. He
had, however, his own reservation in accepting all that is given in
these works, as the last word on yoga.
The Guru at Aruvipuram
Nobody knows when exactly Narayana Guru left his hermitage in the
Marutvamalai and came to a forest on the banks of the river Neyyar at
Aruvipuram. In those days it was a thick forest full of wild animals and
nobody dared to go there. It is possible that he spent a considerable
time in a cave on the river bank until he was located by a young lad who
was combing the forest in search of his cow that was missing. Although
the boy promised the Guru not to tell anyone of his presence there, the
news leaked out that a saint was living in the forest, Curiosity was
aroused, and soon he became a center of attraction.
Guru and the S.N.D.P. Yogam
The fate of Narayana Guru did not seem to be very fortunate at this
time. The historical events of his time to which he gave his sanction
and benign blessings are today looked upon as his own historical acts.
As a result of such an interpretation the passions and prejudices of his
followers have come to cast their shadows on the historical personality
of Narayana Guru.
The S.N.D.P. Yogam was founded and registered by a group of
enthusiasts headed by Dr. Palpu and Kumaran Asan’ According to the
biography of Narayana Guru written by Moorkoth Kumaran, the founding of
the Yogam was in M. E. 1078 Dhanu 23. Its first General Secretary,
Kumaran Asan, read out the constitution and byelaws of the S. N. D. P.
Yogam to the Guru. The Guru objected to the definition of the word
‘community’ (sarnudayarn) that was given in the constitution. It was
limited to those communities known as Ezhava, Thiya, Billava and Nadar.
He wanted it to be changed into the community of the human family His
follower’s thought it was not pragmatically feasible to have such a
global basis for their organization. When he saw that they were not
prepared to have such a wide vision, after cautioning them of how it
would adversely affect their purpose he agreed to give his blessings,
probably with the hope that some day they would realize the narrowness
of their tribalistic affinity.
The Yogam engaged itself in the laudable efforts of eradicating
untouchability and voicing the fundamental human rights of the working
class. These efforts actually paved the way for many of Guru’s followers
to accept later the Marxist interpretation of socialism as their most
acceptable ideal. Under the aegis of Dr. Palpu, Kumaran Asan, T. K.
Madhavan, C.V. Kunjuraman, Moolur Padmanabha Panickar and others,
several drastic changes were brought about in the social structure and
texture of the Kerala community The role that Narayana Guru played was
only of a catalyst and not as a fighter in the front lines. To others he
set an example by his own personal life. His high dignity and sense of
oneness with mankind did not allow him to give vent to anger or
protestation against any particular person or community. He believed
that there was only one caste for man and that was humanity. In this
attitude he was uncompromising.
When a place became filled with activities and the concerted action of
several people, the Guru always left such a place to the people
concerned and went out to look for new avenues and pastures.
Shifting his headquarters to Varkala
In the year 1907 Narayana Guru left Aruvipuram and came to live on a
hillock which was not far from the temple of Janardana. Eighteen years
after the founding of the S.N.D.P. Yogam in Aruvipuram, Narayana Guru
consecrated a temple at Sivagiri and dedicated it to Sarada, the goddess
of wisdom Within this period the Guru traveled extensively and founded a
number of temples such as in Anjengo and Perungottukara (1904), Trichur
(1910), Cannanore (1907), Tellichery (1908), Calicut and Mangalore
(1910).
The new headquarters and Sarada Temple founded in 1912 implied in it a
secret gesture of the Guru that he wanted a more open place and a
fertile field for the incubation of global ideals that are worthy of
human wisdom and dignity. He personally administered the center and
initiated several spiritual aspirants into the sacred order of sanyasa. A
cross section of the Kerala community could be seen among his sanyasin
disciples. His first sanyasin-disciple was Sivalinga Swami. He was a
Nair. His other well known disciples were Swami Sathyavrata (Nair),
Bodhananda (Ezhava), Sree Narayana Chaitanya (Nair), Swami Amritananda
(Namboodiri), Swami Govindananda (Ezhava), Swami Dhalma Tearthe (Nair),
Swami Ananda Teertha (Shenoy), Swami Sankarananda (Ezhava), Swami Guru
Prasad (Thiya), Swami Vidyananda (Ezhava) and Swami Atmananda (Ganeke).
Sanyasins are never considered to belong to any caste or tribe. We have
deliberately mentioned here their caste background only to show that the
Guru was very eager to have a spiritual fraternity that could transcend
the frontiers of caste. The Guru even gave sanyasa to an Englishman by
name Earnest Kirk . The Guru advised Kirk to continue in his western
mode of clothing and to retain his own Christian name. In the ashram the
Guru took young boys from among the so called ‘untouchables’
particularly from the Pariah and Pulaya communities, and made them chant
the Upanishads, offer worship in the temple and cook and serve food to
the residents and visitors to the Sivagiri Mutt .
Narayana Guru and temples
Narayana Guru founded a number of temples in Kerala and a few on the
West Coast of Karnataka. Some scholars of his time who were influenced
by the Brahma Samaj of Swami Dayananda Saraswati even suspected that the
Guru was in favor of idolatry. Some others thought of Narayana Guru as
Hindu revivalist wanting to protect the masses from being converted into
Christians and Muslims. In fact all these are mistaken notions. He was
always willing to give his guidance and blessings when people wanted to
walk in the right direction. In those days the temples governed by
orthodox theocrats were inaccessible to most of the working class
people. Even though the temples were barred to the so-called ‘low-caste’
people, their offerings in money and kind were always accepted. Such
shameless exploitation of the poor by their caste-superiors was to be
met with in a telling manner. The answer lay in the founding of ‘counter
temples’ which were open to all.
When people rallied round to make new temples, the chief passion that
moved them was their thirst for liberty from the chains of social
oppression and the enslavement of caste traditions. Narayana Guru was
very particular that the new temples he founded were all to be on spots
of great scenic beauty. The temple itself should be a work of art. From
the first experiment of founding a Shiva temple at Aruvipuram he came to
know how temples could become instrumental in changing the life style
of people. The regular temple-goers became more and more clean in their
habits. The citadels of caste-superiority and domination were in and
around the temples of orthodoxy. The secret of the sacredness of temples
and the mystery of divinity, screened away from the eyes of all except
the privileged classes, were now thrown open to the public by the
temples of Narayana Guru. Through a series of installations of
differently conceived deities, the Guru also wanted to educate the
masses. After installing deities like Shiva and Devi, the Guru made a
departure from the tradition by installing in one temple the inscription
of certain words pertaining to higher values such as: Satyam, Dharmam,
Daya and Santi. Even in Sivagiri Mutt the Guru did not allow such kind
of offerings and rituals that would make the premises unclean and
unhygienic. At the place called Kalavamkodam near Shertallai instead of
installing any deity, the Guru installed a mirror with the inscription
on it ‘tat tvam asi, (that thou art).'”‘
In certain places when people requested the Guru to make a temple for
them, he advised them to have a school instead of a temple. Once in
Trichur the editor of a progressive journal asked the Guru of his
attitude towards temples. The Guru said that a clean temple situated in a
hygienic place with good water and fresh air would inspire people to
come and spend their time in prayer and meditation. An open place
dedicated to God is free of parochial feelings. It can be a good
stepping stone for a more serious search into the higher values of life.
The editor asked him if it was good to propitiate stone images in reply
the Guru said: “When a man goes to a temple, he is only thinking of God
and not of stone images. They are confused only if people like you ask
them to look for stone images. Nobody worships stone. Pointing to the
newly built temple at Trichur, the Guru continued. “Make good gardens
around temples, and plant trees around. in every temple there should be a
good library and arrangements for teaching the fundamentals of living a
virtuous life. A well-conceived temple will be of great help to the
public. The Guru knew in his mind that ‘the Sivalinga he installed was
only a stone. In the tenth Verse of the ‘Asatya Darsana’ of Darsana Mala
the Guru writes:
One (alone) is real, not a second.
What is unreal indeed seems as being real.
The Sivalinga is stone itself
Not a second made by the mason
The Siva in the sivalinga is projected on it by the devotee. The image serves the purpose of the language of iconography.
Advaita ashram
When Sivagiri became a well-established center, the Guru once again
changed his residence. He went further north to Alwaye and founded an
ashram’ not far from Kalady, the birthplace of Sankara, who was
venerated for his non-dual wisdom. As homage to the hallowed memory of
Sankara and to proclaim his own stand, the new ashram was founded in
1913. Nataraja Guru in his The Word of the Guru gives a very picturesque
description of the Advaita-Ashram as it was in the time of Narayana
Guru. We quote that section in full length:
The traveler who was animated by a desire to see this leader of one
of the modern religious movements in India, would most probably have had
to alight, as the present writer once did, at the small railway station
called AIwaye, two stations to the north of the terminus of the Cochin
State Railway. Alwaye is a small municipal town belonging then to the
State Of Travancore. It is associated with the name of the great Indian
philosopher, Sankaracharya, who is said to have taken sanyasa, the vow
of renunciation in search of wisdom, while bathing in the broad river of
crystal water winding its way through the town. If the traveler had
directed his footsteps along one of the roads leading to the river-side,
he would have come across a stile leading into a compound, which he
must cross, keeping his way along the narrow avenue till he reached the
bright river-side beyond the trees. He would have found, on turning to
the right, a neat little white building strewn round with pure river
sand the silence of the place broken only by birds or by the voice of
occasional bathers in the river. On one side he would see below him the
river boiling over with a thousand whirlpools on its broad breast, the
banks overgrown with luxuriant vegetation. If the Guru was in the Ashram
(hermitage) he could invariably be found on a little raised seat
overlooking the river. As he turned to look at the visitor, the latter
would, if he had a keen eye, discover from the expressions of his face
that the Guru had just been disturbed from some all-absorbing subject
while he sat gazing at the river scene. There could be discovered a
peculiar composure in his features revealing a peaceful otherworldly
contemplation. He would ask the newcomer who he was, in the most gentle
of voices, and treat him, probably, to a meal of fruits and milk. After
that, if he conversed, the topic in all probability turned on how human
nature must improve; how there is no necessity for man to · quarrel with
man, as he does at present, on supposed religious, national, or racial
distinctions; how, while a cow or a dog may be considered to belong to a
different “caste” it is absurd to think that one man differs from
another except in trivial things like dress or language; and how it is
immaterial, in everyday life, what school of philosophy or what creed a
man professed so long as he does not transgress the bounds of common
human goodness. Before the newcomer retired from the abode of the Guru
leaving him to gaze on the river scene in absorbing meditation, let him
walk round the humble hermitage, and he would not have failed to observe
the neat little kitchen where a Brahmachari (dedicated student)
prepared light food for the Guru, or noted how sparing the Guru’s diet
was. In the grounds of the hermitage he would have found trees, each one
of them receiving its share of the Guru’s care. Before leaving the
precincts had the visitor cast his glance on the inscription in golden
letters on one of the walls of the Ashram, he would have read as
follows:
‘One in Kind, one in faith, one in God is man, Of one same womb, one same form, difference none there is at all.’
Narayana Guru and Mahatma Gandhi
It is an irony of history that the man who dedicated his entire life
for the cause of abolition of caste is today pinned down to the name of a
particular caste group of Kerala as their benefactor; while Mahatma
Gandhi, who ardently believed in the four varnas and the merit of
occupational distribution implied in the caste system, is now venerated
as the foremost champion against casteism and untouchability.
Some followers of Narayana Guru, headed by T. K. Madhavan wanted to
include in the policy and program of the Indian National Congress, the
abolition of taboos and the shown to people nick-named as ‘the
untouchables. Mahatma Gandhi was not convinced of Narayana Guru’s
doctrine of “One Caste, One Religion, and One God.” However, Mahatma
Gandhi found it was of great political advantage to include the program
of abolishing untouchability in the general schedule of the Indian
National Congress. Mahatma Gandhi called himself a Vaishnavite and he
wanted to see India as a people of Vishnu (Vaishnava Janata). In spite
of his love for all and his universal outlook, he hated Hindus embracing
Christianity or Islam.
After the inclusion of the abolition of untouchability in the national
program of the Congress, T. K. Madhavan and others did not want to wait
for the fate of the program to come on its own. They decided to get
involved in direct action. Mahatma Gandhi gave his approval too. The
venue of the action was Vaikam, and it became famous as the
VaikamSatyagraha. Narayana Guru placed his land at the disposal of the
Satyagrahis to make their camp. Other leaders of Kerala who took an
active part in the Satyagraha were Manhath Padmanabhan and Changanasseri
Parameswaran Pillai.
Even though Narayana Guru gave his full consent and blessings to this
agitation, he had his own views of Satyagraha. Afterwards, when Mahatma
Gandhi met Narayana Guru at Varkala, the sage of Sabarmati and the Guru
of Varkala had an interesting discussion which was of great significance
in helping us to know the outlooks of these two great men. When Mahatma
Gandhi arrived in Cochin, some Hindu enthusiasts wanted Gandhi to
impress upon Narayana Guru the need to stop low caste Hindus from
getting converted to Christianity. Mahatma Gandhi presented the subject
in a tactful manner to Narayana Guru. He said:
The caste-Hindus and the low caste-Hindus are both the sons of Hinduism.
The caste-Hindu is the elder brother who shoulders responsibility, and
he therefore exercises certain privileges. The low caste-Hindu is his
younger brother who is to be cared for. If the elder brother turns out
to be somewhat rough and aggressive that should not make the younger
brother a runaway from his mother Hinduism.
Narayana Guru could not agree with the logic of Mahatma Gandhi’s suggestion. The Guru said:
If a Hindu has no belief in his religion and has belief in another
religion, it is good that he embraces the religion in which he believes.
Such a conversion will help Hinduism in getting rid of a non-believer,
and the religion to which the man gets converted will have the benefit
of adding one more believer to it. Moreover the man will be benefited
with love and sympathy which he will get from his fellow-believers.
There is nothing wrong in such conversions.
On hearing this Mahatma Gandhi approached the subject from another
angle. He said: ‘The convert is embracing Christianity not for the
spiritual worth of that religion but for the social and economic
benefits he gets from that religion.
Narayana Guru agreed to that and he wanted Mahatma Gandhi to
understand it as a socio-economic problem, which could be met only by
taking adequate measures that, could {give social and economic justice
to the aggrieved members of the society. This point went home to Mahatma
Gandhi and it was even responsible for making a big change in Gandhi’s
attitude .towards the entire problem of caste-conflict in India. It was
significant that Mahatma Gandhi afterwards changed the name of his paper
Navajovan to Harijan and even called himself a Harijan.
The Guru and Rabindranath Tagore
Nationalism is as much a blinding force as tribalism or parochialism.
Many of the national leaders of India had saintly qualities and were
deeply erudite in their scholarship. But their horizon of interest was
confined to the tradition of India or at best to the problems of India.
Rabindranath Tagore was an exception to this. He loved India more as a
state of mind than a geographical area of the globe. He kept both his
heart and mind open to all traditions and exposed himself to the
influence of all religions and races. He lived and thought and envisaged
the future of man as a true citizen of the world. His language was more
of a poet than of a logician. His mystical insight was deep and
profound. In short, in his thoughts, sympathies and visions, he was very
close to Narayana Guru, if not identical with the Guru at least in some
respects.
When Tagore’s Gitanjali was selected for the Nobel Prize, he became the
greatest pride of India. Narayana Guru wanted to know more of Tagore.
His own disciple, Thampi (afterwards Nataraja Guru), was an ardent
admirer of Tagore, and so he brought all the available works of Tagore,
and told the Guru the substance of what he read. Narayana Guru
appreciated Tagore’s visions even in Gitanja!i, but he was not in favor
of his own disciple imitating the style and diction of Gitanjali. The
Guru knew that his century was meant to be an age of analysis and
reason. So he advised his disciple Nataraja Guru to be clear and precise
in his presentation and Substantiate his statements with evidence.
Except in the matter of presenting thoughts as riddles, in all respects
Narayana Guru considered Tagore as a good model for Thampi.
When Tagore visited South India, he was officially invited to be a guest
of honor in the Sivagiri Mutt. Nataraja Guru was specially deputed by
Narayana Guru to attend on Tagore. The following is an eyewitness
account of the visit given by Nataraja Guru and referred to in his book
The Word of the Guru: Once came the poet Rabindranath Tagore, on one of
his Southern tours, to visit the Guru. In honor of the great poet of
Bengal the people in the vicinity of the hermitage arranged a kingly
reception. Elephants were requisitioned. He was to be brought in
procession as far as the foot of the hill of the ashram. Musical
accompaniments were arranged. The Guru stood in the verandah of his
rest-house and himself ordered the best carpets that the hermitage
possessed, to be brought out to adorn the foot of the seat of the
honored guest. The people thronged with the guest, anxious to hear the
conversation between the Guru and the seer of Santiniketan. Each of the
crowd thought himself the chosen follower of the Guru, and, as space was
limited, it took some time to establish silence for the conversation.
The two veteran leaders greeted with joined palms, and sat down facing
one another. The seer of Bengal broke the deep silence that marked their
meeting, and complimented the Guru, on the ‘great work’ he was doing
for the people. The Guru’s reply was not delayed. ‘Neither have we done
anything in the past nor is it possible to do anything in the future.
Powerlessness fills us with sorrow.’ His words sounded an enigma to
some. Others thought he was just joking. Still others examined the logic
of the statement. A characteristic silence followed the remark. The
crowd looked at one another for a meaning, but it was the Guru’s face
itself that gave the silent commentary to the words. Deep silence and
earnestness sat on his features. Smiles of curiosity and the rival
expectations of the people were drowned into the neutral depths of
silence by the suggestion that was expressed on the features of the
Guru. All was silent for a minute or two. The climax of the interview
was reached in silence where all met in equality. Usual conversation
followed and the poet and the crowd retired.
Narayana Guru’s contribution to philosophy
The works of Narayana Guru can be classified mainly into four divisions:
Mystical or devotional
Metaphysical
Socio-ethical
Aesthetic.
Although all the hymns and praises are essentially devotional and
permeated with mystical effusions, some of them contain fundamentals of
epistemology and hence can be included in his metaphysical works. Indian
aesthetics has its heart in devotion. All works of Narayana Guru
except, perhaps, Darsna Mala, Arivu, Jati-Mimamsa and Jati-Nirmaya have
great aesthetic content. The Guru’s deducement of ethical norms is based
on his philosophical visions and metaphysical conclusions. As a result,
when we study any of the aforesaid aspects, we have to look into all
his works. As we intend to elaborate on this point in the next section
we do not want to say anything about his major works at the moment. A
general classification only is noted above.
The World relegions conference
In 1893 the first Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago. This
was attended to by Mazoomdar of the Brahma Samaj, Nagacker of Bombay,
Gandhi representing the Jains, Chakravarti and Mrs. Annie Bessant
representing Theosophy. At the last moment Swami Vivekananda was also
included in the list of the delegates from India. The very first speech
of Swami Vivekananda in the Parliament of Religions opened up the
possibility of a meaningful dialogue between the East and the West, and
his persuasive logic was effective to make cracks in the walls of
exclusiveness which kept one religion separated from another.
Thirty years after this epoch-making gathering of the world community in
Chicago, Narayana Guru organized an ‘All Religions’ Conference’ in
Alwaye. This was the first of its kind in India. The Guru’s dream of the
people of all the races and religions coming together to share the
light of love and spiritual insight had thus become a reality. Though
the conference did not catch world attention like the Parliament of
Religions, it turned out to be a great seed of unity sown in the right
soil at the right time.
The past and the present
India’s spiritual and cultural roots are deeply buried in the
Sanskrit lore of ancient India. The history of India has been fated such
that her articulation to the outside world be in English. Narayana Guru
wanted the Indian people to be nourished by their tradition and to be
active in their relations with the wider world outside using the medium
of English. As an expression of his ideal of India’s future education,
he founded a Sanskrit school in Alwaye and also an English school in
Varkala. The Guru’s ideal of education was not lopsided. The discipline
of the mind and the enlightenment of the soul should not be used as an
excuse to neglect the developments of one’s creative skills. As a
gesture of this ideal he also founded an industrial school as an annex
to the Sivagiri Mutt In short an archetype of the India of
tomorrow was presented to his followers before he entered into the last phase of his life.
Shree Narayana Dharma Sangham
Narayana Guru was not very happy with the way in which his disciples
were conducting their life-mission. He would not accept anything less
than a world community of the human family. He hated the very idea of
caste and man’s adherence to such a totally irrational social prejudice
and psychic coloration. So he decided to trust the materialization of
his teaching in the hands of his sannyasin disciples who had come from
all classes and communities, which included even westerners. This newly
organized institution of sannyasins was called Sree Narayana Dharma
Sangham. The sangham was registered in Trichur in the year 1926. After
the registration of the Dharma Sangham, the Guru instituted a will and
testament by which all the ashrams and mutts and temples founded by him
were transferred to the care, custody and administration of the Dharma
Sangham. The Guru nominated Swami Bodhananda to be his successor and
Nataraja Guru to be the adviser of the Dharma Sangham.
Narayana Guru’s four fold influence
To understand Narayana Guru’s contributions, both historical and
perennial, we have to mention here the names of at least four of his
foremost followers. Each one of them was so very different from the
other, and yet what the Guru made to manifest through them complemented
each other to make a lasting contribution.
T. K. Madhavan
There is an old proverb, which says that no prophet is honored in his
own country. Narayana Guru was an exception. He was loved and venerated
by all those who knew him as a god walking on the earth. Many came
forward to be his lieutenants. Concerted action can be done only through
organized effort. Narayana Guru found in the person of T. K. Madhavan
an untiring soldier and an intelligent organizer who knew all strategies
and devices useful in the fight for his cause. It is easier to work
from where one stands before spreading the word the world over. The
Guru’s followers lacked the insight of an all-embracing philosopher and a
universal lover. As in the case of the Guru, they had native common
sense and great courage to face all issues squarely on a combat basis.
The slogan that was raised by T.K. Madhavan, of course in the name of
the Guru, was ‘Organize and be strong’. He was responsible for building
up strong unions of fighting people in southern Kerala to liberate the
socially and economically oppressed people from the age-old machinery of
tyranny. Nobody will dispute the fact that T.K. Madhavan was the prime
mover of the political conscience of Kerala to enter the arena of revolt
and mass action. If today Kerala is in the forefront of politically
awakened India, we can trace the history of it to T.K. Madhavan and his
loyalty to his master from whom he drew his inspiration and guidance. A
political action, however profound and significant, will lose its
impetus and will be forgotten in the course of time. However, this
aspect of the Guru’s influence cannot be belittled.
K. Ayyappan
Ayyappan came to Narayana Guru as a teenager. The Guru was very much
impressed with the clarity of his logic and the unflinching courage he
showed in carrying out his convictions. The disciples of Socrates were
not all alike, and therefore he had a different message to each one.
This was true in the case of Narayana Guru too. Ayyappan was a
pronounced atheist, and he believed only in the light of reason. The
Guru found in him a good reformist and an educator to eradicate from the
public mind caste prejudices and religious superstitions. The task
entrusted to him was a Herculean one. Ayyappan had to face the direct
wrath Of the religious, social and political custodians Of vested
interests. Though he did not believe in God, he believed in the Guru
more than anyone else. Even though he believed in the infallibility of
reason, he was willing to place the Guru’s reason always above his own.
Ayyappan was responsible for turning many youngsters of his time from
the path of easy acceptance and cowardice to one of valiant resistance
and non-conformity. His work fully complemented the work of his comrade
T. K. Madhavan. His watchword, ‘educate and be free’ had the blessings
of Narayana Guru. The new soul of Kerala has in its cerebration the
thought-waves of K.Ayyappan. A number of progressive thinkers like M.C.
Joseph, Kuttipuzha Krishna Pi!lai, V. T. Bhattathirippad and Kesava Dev
were in the camp and the campaigns of Ayyappan.
Mahakavi Kumaran Asan
Coming into the more perennial contribution of the Guru, we Should
try to understand what he made to manifest through his disciple,
Mahakavi Kumaran Asan who was to him a mind-born son. The charm of good
poetry never dies. Some of : the outstanding words of truth are sung as
imperishable poetry such as we see in the Rig Veda, the Mahabharata and
the Ramayana; the Psalms of the Bible and the Holy Quran. All the finest
feelings of Narayana Guru and what he mooted as the aspiration of the
people of all time was sympathetically echoed in language of exquisite
beauty by Kumaran Asan through his poems. The Guru did not make him a
puppet or an instrument of propagation. He had blessed the poet to grow
into his own full stature both as a poet and as a person. Kumaran Asan
is undoubtedly respected today as the father of the renaissance in
Malayalam literature. In all his poems, we can hear the unerring
commentary of Narayana Guru’s silent word. Kumaran Asan’sChandla
Bhikshuki and Duravastha are poetic expositions of Narayana Guru’s
teachings of social justice.
Nataraja Guru
The youngest of his disciples in whom Narayana Guru showed much
personal interest was Natarajan (afterwards Nataraja Guru), the second
son of Dr. Palpu When this son of Dr. Palpu was born, the Guru himself
named him as Natarajan, and the Doctor promised the Guru to give his son
for Guru’s cause. Narayana Guru found in this boy even from the age of
twelve, a disciple as dedicated and firm as was St. Peter to Jesus
Christ. On hearing the news that Natarajan passed his Master’s Degree in
Zoology and also simultaneously got his Teacher’s Degree, Narayana Guru
welcomed him to join him as a member of the ashram in Sivagiri. For a
short while he taught in the Advaita Ashrams in Alwaye as an English
teacher. Thereafter, the Guru made him the headmaster of the Sivagirl
school.
In 1923 with the blessing of Narayana Guru, he started the Narayana
Gurukula Movement. In 1928 Narayana Guru sent his beloved disciple for a
final finishing course at the Sorbonne, in Paris, The future Nataraja
Guru received his Doctorate of Letters from the Sorbonne on presenting a
thesis on “The Personal Factor in the Educative Process.” Subsequently
he joined the Fellowship School in Geneva and taught there as a physics
teacher for five years,
While Nataraja Guru was in Geneva he wrote a series of articles in
the Sufi Quarterly. This caught the attention of eminent western
thinkers such as Romain Rolland, Sir Francis Young Husband and
Sommersmet Maugham. Afterwards Nataraja Guru established fifteen Centers
of the Narayana Gurukula in India and also centers in New Jersey
(U.S.A.), Ghent (Belgium), Geneva (Switzerland), and Singapore in South
East Asia.
In his well known book The Word of The Guru there is a short biography
of Narayana Guru, throwing light on the Guru’s teachings. Nataraja Guru
also commented on Narayana Guru’s Atmoapadesa Satakam (One Hundred
Verses of Self. Instruction). Nataraja Guru’s interpretation of the
Bhagavad Gita also throws light on Narayana Guru’s attitude towards the
Gita. Daiva-Dasakam, Advaita-Dipika, Janan-Navaratna Manjarl,
Jivakarunya Panchakam, Anukampa-Dasakam, Pinda-Nandi,
Chijia.da-Chintanam, Kundalini- Pattu, Brahmavidya-Panchakarn,
Municharya-Panchakam, Kali. Natakam, Jati- Mimamsa, Siva-Prasida
Panchakam, Arivu, Nirvrti-Panchakam, Darsana-Msla, Agni Hotra, Anubhut
Dasakam and Prapancha-Suddhi Dasakam were all translated into English by
Nataraja Guru. His magnam opus is an exhaustive commentary on the
Darsana Mala. It is called An Integrated Science of the Absolute.
Maha Samadhi
We think, it will be appropriate if we close this section on the Guru s
biography with a touching account of the last days of the Guru given in
The Word of the Guru.
As the image of Jesus carrying his cross has served as a symbol of his
love and service to humanity; so also great masters make even their
sickness and suffering serviceable to their fellow-beings. The life of
the Guru was in every detail of it an example of the principle, which he
enunciated as follows:
Act that one performs
For one’s own sake,
Should also aim the good
Of other men.
In fact this maxim may be said to form the keystone of his whole
life. By apparently trying to be selfish he on many an occasion
impressed a useful principle or habit on the many who came in contact
with him. He would insist that the barber who shaved him had the
sharpest razor, and would see that the best methods were used in the
art. He would complain of his chauffeur who did not gently put on his
brakes when he came to an uneven part of the road. He would teach him to
be proud of his car, and find fault with him if he had omitted to
observe a new kind of car in which a visitor had come to see the Guru.
He would say that he preferred a garland of gold to one of roses if,
while on a tour, people greeted him with empty applause and theoretical
loyalty and devotion. He would insist on good cooking more with a view
to reforming the food habits than for his own sake. He would insist on
small details in building, and order an alteration in spite of expense,
in order to set a better example in architecture. He would like to hear
music in order that he could patronize musicians. Himself an adept in
the art of healing, he missed no opportunities, whenever he was ill, to
call together a little group of medical men of different schools of
medicine in order to discuss with them the various bearings of the case
and make them discuss the details. In the system of medicine called the
Ayurveda, which is the ancient Sanskrit system, there lay, buried and
forgotten, gems of ancient experience which he found valuable to unearth
and apply, suffering himself to be the subject of the experiment.
His last illness was rich in such opportunities. He would find some
point in which one system failed and in which someone else knew better.
Suffering and bedridden as he was, he would argue the minutest details
with his doctors and those who attended on him. He went to Palghat and
traveled about four hundred miles north-east to Madras, carried in
stretchers and transported from Place to place, from one doctor to
another, from the care of one devotee, who loved to keep him under his
care, to another. Then he came back to Travancore from where a strong
deputation had arrived to take him to Varkala. One of the stations on
the way was AIwaye where on the platform were gathered all the students,
young and old, of the Sanskrit school and the Ashram for which he had
given long labors. The coming event was still unknown to them but a deep
emotion at the illness of the Guru sat on the features of each one.
He arrived at Varkala. Others of a different school demonstrated some
of the symptoms of the illness, which the experts of one school of
medicine had declared incurable, to be curable. For some time the Guru
seemed quite well. The radiant glow on his features had never
disappeared. He still retained his good humor and although he was weak
in body, he never yielded or compromised except where it was necessary.
He guided the deliberations regarding his property and legal affairs
with a perfect sense of justice and awareness of all shades of opinion.
He regained a stage in which he took little walks on his own and, though
highly emaciated, was still the same alert, radiant and kind Guru. It
was in this condition that the present writer left him on his voyage to
Europe.
A select group of friends, representatives of different nations and
religions celebrated the 73rd birthday on September, 1928, in the
beautiful city of Geneva. For the first time the Guru’s message was
proclaimed in the West. Strangers, united in worship, feasted together
and discussed informally the significance of the ideals of universal
appeal which the Guru’s life had symbolized.
On the 20th September, 1928, about a weak after this event, the Guru
entered Maha-Samadhi or the Great Silence, peacefully and silently at
Varkala. In one of his last writings he wrote:
That dispenser of mercy could
he not be that reality.
That proclaiming words of supreme
import the chariot drives.
Or compassion’s ocean ever impatient
for all creation,
Or who in terms clear non-dual wisdom
expounds, the Guru.
Followers
Today, Narayana Guru is understood, believed and followed different
people in different ways. There is only little agreement between the
representatives of the major groups and organizations that have taken
upon themselves the responsibility of spreading the word of the Guru.
Close at home, Narayana Guru’s name is rightly and wrongly associated
with the S.N.D.P. Yogam. From the very name, it is easy to see that the
founders of the organization derived their inspiration from Narayana
Guru and wanted to foster his teachings as something similar to the
dharmaof the Buddha. In the course of three-fourths of a century, the
Yogam has gone in a tangent that is now considered by many people as an
unfortunate deviation to exclusive communalism, the very rancor that the
Guru wanted to cure the people of. In the fifties, when the public lost
all their faith in the leadership of the Yogam, its enthusiastic
General Secretary Mr. R. Sankar, tried to infuse new blood into it by
making the Yogam an advocate for literacy and service to the ailing
masses. With this intention, he started the Sree Narayana Trust. The
Trust was successful in founding a number of educational institutions
like schools, arts and science colleges and institutes of technology.
Now there are a number of leading colleges of the Kerala University,
Cochin University and Calicut University which are ably managed by the
S.N. Trust. Afterwards, Mr. Sankar was directly and indirectly
responsible for founding hospitals with all modern equipments for
surgery and nursing, in a number of places. But for these colleges and
hospitals, many people who were socially and economically handicapped,
would have had to live in misery, resigned to their fate.
Sivagiri was the headquarters of Narayana Guru and it is also in Sivagiri that his mortal coil rests. The sannyasin’s order SREENIVASAN P S VAIKOM
