Narayanan — called Nanu as a child — was born in 1856 at Chempazhanthy near Thiruvananthapuram, into an Ezhava family, a community then barred from temples and treated as "polluting" by the upper castes. He studied Sanskrit, poetry and Ayurveda, taught for a while, and then left home to live as a wandering ascetic, meditating for years in the caves of Maruthwamala.
ഒരു ജാതി ഒരു മതം ഒരു ദൈവം മനുഷ്യന്“One caste, one religion, one God for humankind.”Sree Narayana Guru
He emerged as a yogi, scholar and poet who would transform Kerala society without violence.
Aruvippuram, 1888
In 1888, at Aruvippuram on the Neyyar river, Narayana Guru took a stone from the river and consecrated it as a Shiva linga — something only brahmins were allowed to do. When challenged, he answered that he had installed "an Ezhava Shiva". The act opened worship to those who had been kept out, and he went on to consecrate dozens of temples, some with a mirror or a lamp instead of an image, open to all.
Education and organisation
"Gain freedom through education; gain strength through organisation," he taught. In 1903 his followers founded the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, which built schools, fought untouchability and led campaigns such as the Vaikom satyagraha of 1924–25. He set up his ashram at Sivagiri near Varkala, and Gandhi and Tagore came to meet him.
Philosopher and poet
Narayana Guru wrote some sixty works in Malayalam, Sanskrit and Tamil, among them the Atmopadesa Satakam, a hundred verses of Advaita teaching, and the prayer Daiva Dasakam, sung in Kerala homes and schools. For him Advaita was not only philosophy but a reason to treat every human being as one.
How they are remembered
Sree Narayana Guru Jayanti (Chathayam in the month of Chingam) is a public holiday in Kerala, and the Sivagiri pilgrimage each December draws lakhs. Kerala's high literacy and social reform owe much to the movement he inspired.
Ekatmata Stotra · Stanza 29
Named in Stanza 29 of the Ekatmata Stotra — the fierce voices — Netaji to Ambedkar.
सुभाषश्च प्रणवानन्दः सावरकरस्ठक्करबापा।
अम्बेडकरो नारायण-गुरुर्वन्द्या जयन्ति धर्मिणः॥
Sources: Wikipedia: Narayana Guru · Wikipedia: Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam. Written afresh for The Hindu Book; corrections welcome at [email protected].
