Narayana Guru (28 August 1855 – 20
September 1928) was a philosopher, spiritual leader and social reformer in
India. He was born into a family that belonged to the Ezhava caste. He led a
reform movement against the injustice in the caste-ridden society of Kerala in
order to promote spiritual enlightenment and social equality.
Birth and Early Days
Narayana Guru, ne Nanu, was born
in the village of Chempazhanthy near Thiruvananthapuram. His early education
was in the gurukula during which time his mother died when he was 15. At the
age of 21, he went to central Travancore and was taught Vedas, Upanishads and
the literature and logical rhetoric of Sanskrit. He returned to his village in
1881and started a village school where he taught local children. A year later,
he married but soon disassociated.
Leaving home, Guru traveled
through Kerala and Tamil Nadu and he learned meditation and yoga. Later, he
continued his wanderings until he reached the Pillathadam cave where he set up
an hermitage and practiced meditation and yoga. In 1888, he visited Aruvippuram
where he meditated for a while and during his stay there, he consecrated a
piece of rock taken from the river, as the idol of Shiva, which has since
become the Aruvippuram Shiva Temple.
Guru shifted his base to Sivagiri,
near Varkala in 1904 where he opened a school for children from the lower
strata of the society and provided free education to them without considering
their caste. The Sharada Mutt was built in 1912 and also temples at Thrissur,
Kannur, Anchuthengu, Thalassery, Kozhikode, and Mangalore. He made his final visit to Sri Lanka in 1926.
On his return to India, he was involved in a number of activities.
Soon after the meeting at
Pallathuruthy, which was the last public function he attended, Guru became ill
and underwent treatment. He returned to Sharada Mutt and it was here, he died
on 20 September 1928.
Legacy
Casteism was practised in Kerala
during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Guru performed consecrated Siva idol
at Aruvippuram in 1888. Overall, he consecrated forty five temples. He
propagated the ideals of compassion and religious tolerance and one of his
noted works, Anukampadasakam, extols
various religious figures such as Krishna, The Buddha, Adi Shankara, Jesus
Christ.
The social protest of Vaikom
Satyagraha was an agitation by the lower caste against untouchability with the
support of Mahatma Gandhi which influenced the Temple Entry Proclamation of
1936.
Writings and philosophy
Guru published 45 works in
Malayalam, Sanskrit and Tamil languages which include Atmopadesa Shatakam, a hundred-verse spiritual poem and Daiva Dasakam, a universal prayer in ten
verses. He also translated three major texts. It was he who propagated the
motto, One Caste, One Religion, One God for All. He furthered the non-dualistic
philosophy of Adi Sankara by bringing it into practice by adding the concepts
of social equality and universal brotherhood.
All Religions' Conference
Guru organized an All Region
Conference in 1923 at Alwaye Advaita Ashram, which was reported to be first
such event in India.
In 1916, Ramana Maharshi hosted
Narayana Guru at his Tiruvannamalai ashram. Rabindranath Tagore met Narayana
Guru at the latter's ashram in Sivagiri in November 1922. Three years later,
Mahatma Gandhi visited Guru during his 1925 trip to Kerala to participate in
the Vaikom Satyagraha.
On 21 August 1967, Narayana Guru
was commemorated on an Indian postage stamp and another by Sri Lanka Post on 4
September 2009. The Reserve Bank of India issued two sets of commemorative
coins depicting Guru's image.
The first of the several statues of Narayana Guru was erected at Jagannath Temple. The Government of Kerala observe the birthday, the Sri Narayana Jayanthi, and the date of death (Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi/Punyadina) of Narayana Guru as public holidays.