Back to Varkala

He arrived at varkala. 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. He regained a stage in which he took little walk on his own and , thought highly emaciated was still the same alert, radiant, and kind Guru.

The 73^rd birthday was celebrated by a select group of friends, representatives of different nations and religious, in September, 1928, in the beautiful city of Geneva, For the first time the Guru’s message was proclaimed in the west.

On the 20^th September, 1928, about a week after this event, the Guru entered Maha-Samadhi or the Great silence, peacefully and silently at varkala.

Final days

Towards the end of the year 1927, when his labours had come to a sort of finish, The Guru became unwell. His complaint was old-age, which laid its hands on him.

There were with him several doctors, besides representatives of the various public and religious bodies that he had founded, form the various parts of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar.

The time was early, and the guru had a bad night’s rest. He was resting, seated on his bed and supporting himself erect with his now emaciated arms. His breathing was difficult and he could not speak except in monosyllables. “ These”, he said. Meaning the sounds of this obstructed breaths.. “Have come as escort.”

The people came to visit him and expected that, being super-human as they believed him to be, he would not, feel any pain when he was ill. As if to contradict this ideas, the Guru was heard to cry like a child at every pain.

While the crowd of villagers waited outside, they could hear the Guru’s voice from inside murmuring like a distressed child, “ O Mother ! O Mother !”, again and again conveying to them, thought the tone in which it was uttered, a containing the same attitude, the same essence of devotion and simplicity to which he head dedicated the rest of his life.

Suffering and bed-ridden 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.

Books

Narayana Gurudev was extempore in his writing. His works can be mainly divided into mystical hymns of inspired exultation, simple teaching for the common folk, philosophical renditions for the elite, and translations.

Vinayaka Astakam, Vasudeistakam, Guhastakam, Shanmukha, stotram, Bahuleyastakam, Shanmukaha Dasakam, Subrahmanya kirtanam, Navamanjari, Bhadrakalastakam, Mannamtala Davi Stavam, Kali Natakam , Dhidambarastakam, Sivaprasada Pancakam, Sadasiva Darsanam, Sivasatakam, Visnvastakam, Daivadasakam, Svanubhava, Giti, Kundelini pattu, etc…. are some of his mystical hymns. Jiva Karunya panchakam, Anukampa Dasakam, Jatiniranayam , Jatimimamsa, Dattapaharam, and Astamam…….. were written for popular instruction. Atmopadesa, Satakam, Advaita Dipika, Brahmavidya Pancakam, Municarya Pancakam, Arivu, and Darsanamala ……. Were written fro serious students in philosophy.

Shivagiri mutt

Narayana Gurudev moved to Varkala and chose for his residence a neglected hill at the side of the canal.

This place, in due course, developed into the site of the Sarada Temple and the Guru called his new residence Shivagiri. Here, he established an architecture was simple and different. For the first time in India, a temple with windows and ventilation was devised.

The Guru installed a deity which was traditionally symbolic and aesthetically perfect. The highest standards of hygiene were introduced to maintain the place as a modal to other temples and temple worshippers.

The opening of this temple was uniquely marked by the inspirational ceremony of guest of hymns in praise of the mother Sarada. The Guru himself wrote “janani-navaratna Manjari” …… nine Gems in praise of the mother.”………. when Shivagiri became crowded by pilgrims and young enthusiasts, he moved away, first to Tamilnadu and then to Alwaye.

He stayed in th mutts and Adhinams in these places and helped his devotees and disciples in Tamilnadu. “A new enlightened generation” The shivagiri mutt in Varkala, where he lived, was like a center of the new age to which social reformers, freedom fighters, educationalists, thinkers, writers, and inspiration.

The Guru took into this fold several people from the lowest stratum of society and gave them education and taught them a clean way of life.

His method of fighting social malignancies such as caste observance and segregation was through taking positive measures like fostering socially healthy and dynamic people who were fearless and who could stand on their own feet both financially and morally. He made the poorest of the poor self-confident, self-respecting and industrious.

For those who had been denied opportunities for over a millennium, he opened new temples to show them the light of life, new schools to make them articulate, and industrial houses to help them become dexterous. He created a new enlightened generation………… who could live without asking for, thinking of , or telling of caste.

Organizations

Dr.P.Padmandabhan, the darbar physician of the maharaja of Mysore, on hearing about Shree Narayana Gurudev, came to Aruvippuram to seek the Guru’s help in his campaign for establishing human rights.

Dr.P.Padmandabhan, changed the Aruvippuram temple worshippers’ Association into a corporate body to propagate the ideals of Shree Narayana Gurudev …. Shree Narayana Dharma.. in the model of a sangha . The congregation that came after the Lord Buddha. This corporation was called “Shree Narayana Charama Paripalana Yogam”

People with various kinds of talents were attracted to the Guru. They all worked as a single team with various chosen fields of function. The results was the ushering in of three parallel organizations with three different but complementary ideals. The Shree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, founded in the year 1903, became the biggest single corporation of Kerala to defend the natural and constitutional rights of all socially and economically depressed people of the state.

Narayana Gurukula, founded in the year 1923, became a word-wide fraternity of contemplatives. It is the most articulating organ of the Guru’s philosophy and humanist teachings.

The Shree Narayana Dharma Sangham, registered I the year 1927, became the monastic order of Shree Narayana Guru. The Sangham is the caretaker of most of the religious institutions sponsored or founded by the Guru. Shivagiri mutt is its headquarters.

Aruvippuram

There was a forest conservator called Narayana pillai. He had no children he came to know of a siddha purusa. Man of high attainments, living in the woods of Aruvippuram.

With this aides, he made a trail to the guru’s cave. He sought Guru’s blessings to have a child. Subsequently a child was born to him. The Guru name the child Narayana pillai.

The trail brought many people to the Guru. Some of them took the initiative to build an ashram for the guru. When people started coming regularly for his blessings the Guru thought of giving them a new direction. He decided to give them a temple until then, temples were for the exclusive use of people of certain privileged communities. He wanted to have a common place of worship where all could came and offer their worship with no restriction of caste, sex or religion.

The installation of ht temple at Aruvippuram became a mile-stone in the history of India’s spiritual emancipation.

When a Nambudiri, kerala Brahmin, expressed his anger and concern abut such an act of sacrilege, the Guru simply remarked. “I did not install any ‘Nambudiri shiva’. God is neither a priest, nor a peasant, He is in all…….. He is all…..”

The news of this silent revolution echoed to the far-flung frontiers of India.

Spiritual Illumination

The Narayana Gurudev speaks of his realization in poignant words in his “Atmopadesa Satakam …… one Hundred Verses of self-instruction.

After his realization he bade farewell to the cobra and the tiger who befriended him in the cave and become a recluse in a thick forest on the banks of the Nayyar, a river in south kerala. He lived for some time in the woods without being detected by anyone. His sanctuary was a cave on the banks of the river Nayyar. This place was called Arunippuram.

Guru of Guru

The yoga lessons, which Narayana Gurudev received from Thaikkattu Ayyyava, increased his thirst for realization. So, he traveled from one place to another seeking guidance and disciplining himself most intensely. This ultimately led him to do intense penance for six years.

He found a cave in the Marutvan Hills, which is the ghat section of Kanyakumari District.

He lived in this cave and sustained himself mostly with berries and tubers, and drank from the mountain brooks.

His solitary penance was very intense. During those days, he prayed to god. Conceiving the supreme to be Shiva. While he sat for hours in the same posture in the solitude of the cave, a cobra and a tiger guarded him.

He lived mostly on mountain berries and leaves. He might have come at times to the foot of the hill to get food from the people ho lived in a hamlet nearby.

On one occasion, he was very hungry when he emerged from his samadhi. Total absorption. At that time he saw a leper coming to him with a begging bowl. It contained fluffed rice. The leper offered it to him. Like intimate friends they ate from the same bowl. The leper was not an apparition. He was an actual man. Hwy and how did he come there, was a mystery! After partaking of the food he bade farewell with out either of them making any attempt to know each other.

The last days of Narayana Gurudev in the marutvan were very similar to the days of the enlightenment of Gautama siddhartha.

Siddhartha became awakened under the Bodhi tree of Gaya, and became Gautama Buddha. Even so Narayana Gurudev became enlightened in the cave of marutvan and became Narayana Gurudev.

Marriage

Sree Narayana Gurudev become more and more drawn away from home and social gatherings. He lived like a recluse. This frightened his parents. So they decided to marry him to one of his cousins. When he was told of this decision he did not show any reaction. As he did not protest, they took it for granted that he gave his consent.

A day was fixed for his wedding. He left his home the previous night. When he was not seen even at the time to go to the bride’s home, his sister offered to go as Nanu Asan’s proxy to marry the girl on her brother’s behalf.

After a few days, Nanu Asan returned home and his relatives presented the bride to him. She brought him a plate of bananas and a cup of boiled religious mendicant. He gave one of the bananas to her as a token of his blessings. Then he said: “ well, now there are enough people here to occupy all the rooms. It is not imperative that I should stay here. All are born with some purpose in their lives. I have mine and you have yours. Let me go to fulfill my role.”

With these words, he went out into the open. Once in a while he came home to see his father and mother and sister. At that time he spoke to his ‘ wife’ also with kind and gentle words.

Once, when she had a bleeding nose, he even administered a herbal remedy by squeezing the juice of some leaves into her nostril.

Nanu Asan

Sree Narayana Gurudev fell ill and contracted a dangerous virus infection of his digestive system. This brought him back home. When he was cured he started a one teacher school of his own to teach Sanskrit in a coastal village called Anjengo. From that time on he was called Nauu Asan

Asan means teacher.

School Days

Sree Narayana Gurudev was initiated into reading and writing by cempalanti pillai. He studied till the age of ten in a one-teacher school. Afterwards, he was asked to tend the family’s cattle. While his cows were grazing he sat under some shady tree and compsed hymns in praise of god.

Sree Narayana Gurudev no longer a child he did not want to go through the traditional routine of studying one book after another and getting gradual promotions. His teacher allowed him to study as many books as he could.

In four years, he completed his Sanskrit literature and Vedanta studies under kummampalliu raman pillai asan.

His peer group was of late teenagers and youth. Most of them were boisterous. Sree Narayana Gurudev was given a separate cottage to live in. He used his spare time to meditate and practices the discipline of yoga.

He was especially drawn to the great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. He mastered these books. Whenever there was a heated discussion among his peers, he was asked to meditate and adjudicate.

During those days, he had the first spiritual experience which was the stepping stone to his enlightenment.

Child-hood

Sree Narayana Gurudev was a smart, handsome and witty child who was very perceptive of all that was happening around him. Everybody felt forcefully drawn to him. Even as a child, he showed a tendency to teach and correct others. He saw elders placing fruits and sweets before the pictures of mythical gods.

The little boy Sree Narayana Gurudev stealthily got into the sanctum and ate the sweets and fruits offered to gods. When he was questioned he simply said, “god will be pleased if I please my self”

He found the elders inconsistent in their moods. When an elderly person died, people become grief-stricken and cremated the body with much fuss and lamentation. After a couple of days all were found in their usual merry mood. Seeing this, the young nanu want away and sat in the woods nearby when people found him and asked him why he left home, he said he was confused by the inconsistent behaviour of this elders. He saw his parents and other elders observing untouchability. They were even afraid of becoming polluted by going near a working peasant.

To break this taboo, little Sree Narayana Gurudev want and embraced the so-called untouchables and unapproachable and came home to touch and pollute his family members. Thus he was a reformer of the society even from the start.

Birth

Birth of Sree Narayana Gurudev :

Sree Narayana Gurudev was born in kerala, the southern-most state of India. His parents, Madan asan and Kutti amma, live in a village called chempalanty not far from trivandrum, the capital city of kerala state. The family home of Sree Narayana Gurudev was called “vayavaram”

He was born on the 26^th of August, 1855, and his parents called him Nanu, an abbreviated form of narayana.

Sree Narayana Gurudev mother kutti Amma was a pious woman of gentle disposition. She gave birth to two daughters also. The guru loved and respenced his mothr very much. However, he never allowed her sentiments to come in the way of his renunciation. He was born on chatayam, the third day of onam, karala’s sacred harvest festival.

Introduction

Sree Narayana Gurudev spanned a period of 73 fruitful years. From the year August –28-1855. To the year sep-20-1928.

He was born at chempzhanthi, near thiruvanathapurm, the capital city of kerala and the great saint attained mahasamadhi at shivagiri madhom in varkala.

Shree narayana guru was a teacher, philosopher, prophet, social reformer, all rolled into one. Great men like mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, visited shree narayana gurudev and took his blessings.

Gandhiji wrote ‘I consider myself honored to have darshan of his hoiness shree narayana gurudev. I had the rare opportunity to spend a day with him at his ashram”

The essence of Shree Narayana Guru’s teachings reverberates the truth of ‘one cast… one religion… one god…for man”.

A few excerpts from ‘ Life and teachings of narayana guru” by Nataraj guru and Shree Narayana Guru-a brief biographical sketch”