Person · Kerala saint and social reformer
Narayana Guru
/nɑːrɑːjɐɳɐ guˈru/
Also known as Sree Narayana Guru, Sri Narayana Guru, Nārāyaṇa Guru, Nanu Asan
Narayana Guru (1856–1928), born into an Ezhava family of Ayurvedic physicians near Thiruvananthapuram, led Kerala's reform movement against caste under the motto 'one caste, one religion, one god for all'. In 1888 at Aruvippuram he consecrated a Shiva image himself, defying the Brahmin monopoly on temple rites, and went on to consecrate some forty-five temples. His Advaita poem Daiva Dasakam is still used for community prayer, and both Tagore and Gandhi came to meet him at Sivagiri.
- Date
- 1856–1928
- Function
- Social reform & movement
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
Among his consecrations were a mirror, an Italian sculpture and a slab inscribed 'Truth, Ethics, Compassion, Love'. In 1923 he convened an All Religions Conference at the Alwaye Advaita Ashram, described as the first of its kind in India.
Connections (5)
- FoundedAruvippuram
In 1888 Narayana Guru, meditating in a cave by the Neyyar at Aruvippuram, took a rock from the deepest part of the river, a pool called Sankaran Kuzhi, and consecrated it as a Shiva image. Brahmins asked who had given an Ezhava the right to consecrate; his reply, that this was an 'Ezhava Shiva', became a famous retort against caste. It was his first major public act and the start of his temple-consecration movement.
- FoundedSivagiri, Varkala
Narayana Guru moved his base to Sivagiri near Varkala in 1904, built a hermitage on the hill and opened a school and a night school for children of the lower castes. In 1912 he consecrated the octagonal Sarada temple to the goddess of learning, with Kumaran Asan as secretary of its committee. The Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham he founded is headquartered there; he died there on 20 September 1928, and his samadhi is the goal of the Sivagiri pilgrimage.
- FoundedBhagavati / Gokarnatha, Mangaluru
The Gokarnanatheshwara temple at Kudroli in Mangaluru was built in 1912 and consecrated by Narayana Guru, carrying his movement beyond Kerala to the Billava community of the Tulu coast, which now accepts it as its 'Aadi' temple. It was one of the forty-five or so temples he consecrated, in places from Thrissur, Kannur and Thalassery to Mangalore, which together gave castes excluded from existing shrines temples of their own.
- Historical linkVaikom
The Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924–25, a nonviolent campaign for the right to use the roads around the Vaikom Mahadeva temple in Travancore, was reportedly triggered when Narayana Guru himself was stopped on a road to the temple by an upper-caste man. His disciples Kumaran Asan and Muloor Padmanabha Panicker wrote poems in protest, and another disciple, the Ezhava leader T. K. Madhavan, petitioned the assembly in 1918 and later led the satyagraha. Gandhi visited the Guru during the campaign.
- Associated withAdvaita Vedanta
Narayana Guru's philosophy was Advaita, and his reform its practical consequence: the Wikipedia account says he furthered Shankara's non-dualism by adding to it social equality and universal brotherhood. His Atmopadesa Shatakam, a hundred verses of self-instruction, and the ten-verse prayer Daiva Dasakam are non-dual poems, and he explained Vedanta to his disciple Nataraja Guru as knowing that the wave is also water. His Anukampadasakam honours Krishna, the Buddha, Shankara and Jesus together.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Narayana Guru", "Aruvippuram", "Sivagiri, Kerala" and "Vaikom Satyagraha". Narayana Guru, One Hundred Verses of Self-Instruction (Atmopadesasatakam), trans. Nataraja Guru (1969).
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