Sri Narayana Guru

His Contemporary Relevance

Philosophers seek to interpret the world, but what is needed is to change it. So observed one of modern time’s outstanding philosophers, Karl Marx. He sponsored a dialectical materialism and preached scientific socialism as the panacea for society’s ills. For over a century Communism held sway as the Creed Triumphant. But now it seems its claim to midwife change is belied by actual experience. Life as well as its problems have turned more bafflingly complex. Fresh efforts are called for to sort them out. Today fundamentalism, both of the Right and the Left, is rampant. The little man is its helpless victim in the chess game of tyranny versus tyranny. And prolonged too far, it may lead to the decimation of the species.

Any search today for the silver linings ahead must take into account such gloomy prognostications. True, the prospect is bleak, though not without hope. Happily there is an increasing awareness of the fix we are in. Unfortunately this manifests mostly as spurious spiritualism. There is a fast multiplying fraternity of god-men, creeds and revivalist groups, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, the graph ebbing to the lowest with Bhagwan Rajneesh. There seems to exist a hardly credible claim that the East holds the key; its ancient wisdom is the talisman to rejuvenate the race. The saffron-robed Hindu Sanyasin gets a lot of clientele in the affluent West. Of late the Krishna Conscious­ness cult has made much leeway.

It is in such a confusing scenario that the world sees – and hears of – Sri Narayana Guru. Missions have been set up in his name. Globe-trotting sanyasins are active proselytizing people to his creed. The emphasis is on annotating the Guru’s writings. Many such exercises in futility bring to mind the Evangelicals who contended on the authority of the Bible about the number of angels who could stand on the head of a pin. Cacophonic strains about the magnificence of the Guru Word is what it whittles down to. This process of peeling the onion of his philosophy goes on apace. No attempt is, however, afoot to understand it in its proper milieu and learn its applied lessons as motivation for purposeful action.

In retrospect, Sri Narayana Guru looms larger in the context of social change and transformation than in the abstract realm of philosophy. He founded the Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), the society for the propagation of the law that he formulated. Under its aegis, there arose a climate for socio-political realignment and spiritual and cultural osmosis. For long past, Kerala, his native region, was a stagnant fen of caste prejudices, untouchability, unapproachability and the like. Consequently Swami Vivekananda called it a mad house. Through the Guru’s teachings as well as ministry, forces of social change, egalitarianism, religious tolerance, economic growth, universal brotherhood, etc., were unleashed. People of Kerala, owing allegiance to diverse creeds and of different social strata, lent their ears to his message. In no mean measure did it help Keralites to be in the vanguard of the nation. Through the ballot box they performed unprecedented feats like voting Communists into power as well as out of it!

The great modern Malayalam poet, Kumaran Asan, was one of Guru’s most celebrated disciples. In more sense than one the poet is his handiwork. In a perspicuous assessment of his mentor entitled “Guru”, Asan remarks that among sanyasins the like of him are few: he was equally a householder, coming to grips with the pressing problems of mundane existence;

“To do good to others
Gloriously did he sacrifice life and grace
Nay even his soul’s hard-won bliss.”

The first half of the Guru’s life was a protracted quest. He learned at the feet of reputed scholars and apprenticed himself to hermits. He studied and cogitated. Along with Sanskrit texts, he also pored over Tamil Saivite philosophy. As a mendicant, he wandered from place to place, mixing with the salt of the earth and sharing in their weal and woe. It was a long period of hiber­nation, of penance, austerities, observation of life and uncommitted participation in its flux and flow. These variegated exercises of the body, mind and the intellect won him finally enlightenment. Then he returned to his early haunts. At Aruvippuram, south of Trivandrum, on the banks of the Neyyar river, he found a con­genial spot, with lush green forest and tranquil surroundings. Close by was a sparsely-populated village with its industrious humble folk. He chose it as the focal point of his world-ennobling ministry.

What enthused him in his new field of action is what he learned in his days of mendicancy. That was wisdom distilled from the heritage of the race. He was profoundly learned in the Hindu scriptures. He also managed to study the essence of Islam and Christianity. His distinction was, however, to correlate their quintessential wisdom with the spirit of the age. To evolve a Dharma which will electrify the benumbed souls steeped in folly and superstition was his self-chosen mission. Sri Sankara had, by his intellectual agility, elevated Advaita concept to undisputed pre-eminence. Non-dualism conceives of the ultimate identification of the Jeevatma with the Paramatma. Truly a sublime and excep­tional state of union! Narayana Guru also accepted Advaita. But he bestowed more thought on the Atma or Self. Its full-blown efflorescence admits of two vital possibilities. One is the perfection of the individual Self. The other is the impact this perfection is capable of causing in others, in society at large, and finally lead to the blissfulness of life in its myriad forms. This is, in short, the social potency of the Self, or in other words the social implica­tion of an individual’s being and becoming. There is a basic dichotomy in the Hindu approach to life. It is the calculated attempt to keep spiritual and material goal apart. The priestly class devised as well as perpetrated it with a view to facilitating economic exploitation. Narayana Guru bridged this gap. By holding aloft the twin capabilities of the Self, he illustrated the complementary nature of man’s individual and social urges. Thus, he evolved a composite philosophy. It is quite in tune with the scientific and humanistic sensibilities of modern man.

The Guru’s philosophy, for purposes of identification, may be termed Atma Darsanam. The Vedas teach Atma Vidya or Brahma Vidya. The Six Darsanas apprehend the subject from different angles. Thus, in Hindu metaphysics, the basic concern is with the Self. But as philosophy got more and more systematised through the Srutis, the Self was relegated to the ground, its relatedness was denied, and its commitment to here and now was overlooked. Instead a fictitious surrogate, viz.. Moksha, was catapulted to prominence. Advaita marks the triumph of this world denial. Narayana Guru retrieved the Self to its preeminence. To him Self is the core idea; it is the truly palpable reality and hence the crown and fulcrum of the moral state. By doing so he refurbished the concept of the personal God and bestowed a new dimension to Bhakti.

Atmopadesasatakam(One Hundred Verses of Self-Instruction), Guru’s long philosophical poem, ably elucidates his Atmadarsanam. It is written in the cryptic form of aphorisms, reminiscent of the Tamil classic, Tirukkural. The Guru has here purposely chosen the mother-tongue to make it accessible to the common reader. The companion poem, Darsanamala(Garland of Vision) is in Sanskrit and covers the same ground from a different angle. The two together form his philosophic edifice. His other writings are mostly hymns of occasional nature. They are basically devotional effusions. Atmopadesasatakamis a quintessential piece; it expounds the Truth as he apprehended it. Knowledge is central to this explora­tion of the Self. Knowledge, the one who knows, the material world he apprehends – all these are animated bya single unitive core, to which adoration and obedience are due. It is through knowledge that genuine Bhakti engenders. That alone makes the apprehension of the Absolute possible. The creative and committed phase of knowledge and self-awareness emerges when the Self is cognisant of other selves. Verses 23 and 24 extol the Good Samaritan.

For others’ sake the kindly man
Day and night does strive unstintingly;
Stoop’d low the niggard undertakes
Frustratious toil for his own sake!

What we here know as this man or that
Manifest in this world as Self’s basic form:
Whatev’r one does for self-happiness
To others’ happiness should conduce.

The last two lines touch the crux of the problem. The Guru isolates an elemental fact, viz., the reality of the Self. Though a small fragment of the Universal Soul, we have to nurture it and help bloom in all its glory, to be worthy of its fountain source. This emphasis on the Self is bold, fundamental and pragmatic. The Self’s wholeness as well as health is the sine qua non of the worthy life. Sans Self, nothing has existence: there is no joy orsorrow, no universe, noteven God. Here the true Vedic spirit revives itself. Verily, the Guru leads us tothe roots, to the sacred source and origin of all reality, viz., to the uncircum­scribed Self. Its sensory powers provide a local habitation and a name to all phenomena.

Here it is worthwhile to compare the rider “to others’ happiness should conduce” with the Biblical exhortation to “Love thy neighbour as thyself” – a desideratum difficult to fulfil. Christianity, perhaps, equates the individual with society. Communism on the other hand atrophies the Self for the sake of the larger group. Both overlook Self’s crucial role. Narayana Guru’s philosophy strikes the mean: it correlates the claims of both the individual and society. It is, perhaps, the best approach.

The seeker and seer of Atmopadesasatakamis only one side of the coin. On the obverse is the doer. The latter half of his life is exclusively devoted to action. The Karmayoga begins after the Jnana Yoga. The Pratishta or consecration of the temple at Aruvippuram is the turning point. It is, perhaps, his most seminal act. But for it, his achievement thus far would have been conven­tional as well as pedestrian, characteristic of an ordinary sanyasin. A non-Brahmin, a so-called untouchable, consecrating the Siva­lingam was a bold, revolutionary deed. This premeditated challenge to priestly privilege produced far-reaching consequences. This sacrilegious act was performed in 1888 and the century that followed witnessed a social transformation. The phallus was installed according to Vedic rites. An improvised temple rose over it. The Guru caused the following message to be displayed prominently beside it

“This is the model abode
where all abide in brotherliness
Sans rifts of caste nor religious strife.”

The crowning years that ensued were exclusively set apart for building such oases of harmony and brotherhood in Kerala and neighbouring Tamil Nadu. He built several temples and caused many existing ones to be remodelled. Demonic deities were superseded by humane ones. In one temple the mirror was the Pratishta. In another a lighted lamp was installed. At Sivagiri, Varkala, his headquarters, he built a temple to Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning. Adjacent to these places of worship, he caused schools and reading-rooms to be organised. One of his inspiring messages is this: “Be free thro’ education, gain strength by united action and thrive via industry.” Indeed his world view was distilled into such telling exhortations. Thus is his philosophy encapsuled. The true Advaitic creed of the Guru is this: “One species, one religion and on God for man.” As a great humanist he proclaimed: “Whatever be one’s religion, the end is to ennoble”: “To help neighbourhood to thrive, the wise man strives hard.” Such messages enthused the masses and made them strive for  bettering themselves. The Guru’s was a non-violent, persuasive mode of action. He fought untouchability and casteism. He en­couraged job-oriented education and the revival of village in­dustries. He preached economic discipline and warned against wasteful expenditure. In many of these, the Guru was anticipating Mahatma Gandhi. And through such diverse deeds he was putting into practice the philosophy of ‘Atroopadesasatakam.’ Thus, the philosopher not only interprets but also changes life.

The current trend is unfortunately to praise his words and to ignore his deeds. It is like chasing the shadow while neglecting the substance. The need is to study the totality of his legacy. His philosophy is the prelude to the solemn drama of his world­ ennobling deeds. He is an untiring exponent of the Self with its possibilities. Through knowledge, be free he exhorted. He con­ceives of leadership in terms of the enfranchised Self, from which benediction passes on to all around. Progress to him is the ability of man to husband his scarce resources in an equitable manner. These are exactly the concepts thrown up by modern Indian renaissance. Among the leading lights of our nation’s rebirth, the Guru’s place is betwixt Vivekananda and Gandhi. In him is manifest the blending of spiritualism with enlightened materialism, a co-existence of Dharma of the orient with the science and humanism of the occident. Sri Narayana Guru is the exponent of a New Humanism which is capable of leading man out of the labyrynth in which he is unwittingly trapped. It is an effective substitute to communism, the God that failed, which, alas, for a while gave us false hopes.

Sri Narayana Guru’s 130th birthday is August 30, 1986