Atmopadesasadakam – Sree Narayana Guru (1856-1928)

 

Sree Narayana Guru (1856-1928), the social reformer and spiritual leader was born in Chembazhanthi, in Thiruvananthapuram. He is considered as the leading figure of Kerala Renaissance. It was ‘Thycattu Ayyavu’, a ‘Hatha Yogi’ and philosopher from whom he learned meditation and yoga. He established a hermitage at Maruthwamala where he held an austere life of seclusion, meditation and yoga for eight years. He believed and preached that the ultimate reality that underlies the being of everything phenomenal is one and the same. So, he preached equality and universal brotherhood and condemned all discrimination in the name of caste, creed and religion.

He built temples for the backward communities as they were denied entry into temples. Though he consecrated Sivalingams earlier, later it became mirrors and lamps to establish the fact that true worship should be of one’s own inner worth and wisdom. His famous dictums ‘one caste, one Religion and one God for human beings' and ‘ask not, say not, think not caste’ effectively summarise the entire corpus of his spiritual teachings. He believed that education is the only path to achieve self knowledge and thus salvation. He was also an accomplished poet, who wrote Advaita Deepika, Athma Vilasam, Shiva Sathakam, Atma bodham, Vivekodayam, Atmopadesasadakam etc. In’Atmopadesasadakam’ (one hundered verses on self instruction), Guru propses his philosophy of egalitarianism. It expounds the philosophy of Advaita (non-dualism) in the search for knowledge. It contains hundered verses written in Mrugendramukam meter.

Guru says that attaining the core reality that transcends all ordinary knowledge, that radiates the knower and all other external objects, requires the turning inward of all senses accompanied by repeated prostrations, reading, chanting and mastering scriptures. All the people in the world share the ultimate reality, the ultimate knowledge which is God. God is called by different names in different religions. But ultimately he is the same. According to him, mental faculties, senses, the body and the many tangible worlds are the various forms divinely assumed by the one Sun. The illusory appearance of the five basic elements namely earth, water, fire, wind and space exists only externally. They are inseparable as the rows of waves arising in the ocean. So, The knowledge, The object known and the knowledge of the knower are actually nothing but the variations of God, the one that has no beginning and end. So, man’s endeavour should be to get united with that Ultimate Reality, God. Through meditation, he can attain this. Thus Guru establishes the great fact that realizing the Ultimate Reality, The God, is accepting the Universal brotherhood and equality without discrimination.

------Thulasidharan V