Biography of Sree Narayana Guru
Dr. S. Omana
(This has been adapted from Dr. S. Omana's
doctoral thesis honoured by the University of Kerala)
Proper formation in Sanskrit and Vedanta
Affinity with the Tamil Culture
The Sanskrit background of the Guru
Shifting his headquarters to Varkala
Narayana Guru and Mahatma Gandhi
The Guru and Rabindranath Tagore
The World Relegions Conference
Narayana Guru's four fold influence
Birth and Childhood
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.
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.
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 Jewel
dances 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.
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.
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.
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 Guru gives 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 Satakam must 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.
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 the Prasthanatraya 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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's
Chandla Bhikshuki and Duravastha are poetic
expositions of Narayana Guru's teachings of social
justice.
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.
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.
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 dharma of 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 that was founded by the Guru himself
manages the affairs of the Sarada Temple and the
Brahmavidyalaya of the Sivagiri Mutt. The last
hierarchical head, Mahadhipati, was Swami
Sankarananda. During his lifetime, the Kerala High Court
ordered that a trust be constituted to manage Sivagiri
Mutt and all the ashrams and temples managed by the Sree
Narayana Dharma Sangham. That trust has given away the
office of the Madhadhipati. The sannyasins now elect one
among them as a president for a term of five years.
For political purposes, India was divided into linguistic
regions. The language barrier is a big handicap for the
dissemination of culture. Only the followers of Sri
Ramakrishna and Swami Dayananda Saraswati succeeded in
effectively breaking that barrier and bringing the ideas
of their Gurus to all people all over India. The Sree
Narayana Cultural Mission, a movement started recently
under the leadership of Mr. K.K. .Viswanathanis trying to
disseminate the teachings of the Guru on a national
basis.
The only organization that works as an international
movement is the Narayana Gurukula founded by Nataraja
Guru, a direct disciple and spiritual successor of
Narayana Guru. The Gurukula has expanded its function by
founding the East-West University a unique educational
movement, which is very much more a university of the
people anywhere than one managed by a group of people
somewhere. The present head of this Gurukula is Guru
Nitya Chaitanya Yati. The main Gurukula centers are in
India,Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji, Australia, Europe and
America.
Another powerful expression of Narayana Guru's call
for one world came through the sacrifices of the world
citizen, Garry Davis. The World Service Authority and the
World
Governmen1 for World Citizens, now having bases in
Washington, London, Paris and Basel, are gaining momentum
as a refuge for the stateless people of the world.