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.