SreeNarayanaGuru

[gopu]

The yoga lessons which Nanu Asan received from Thaikkattu Ayyavu increased his thirst for realization. So, he travelled 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 in 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, he was guarded by a cobra and a tiger !

He lived mostly on mountain berries andleaves. He might have come at times to the footof the hill to get food from the people who 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. Why and how did he come there, was a mystery ! After partaking of the food, he bade farewell without either of them making any attempt to know each other.

The last days of Nanu Asan in the Marutvan werevery similar to the days of theenlightenment of GautamaSiddhartha.Siddhartha becameawakened under theBodhi tree of Gaya, andbecame Gautama Buddha.Even so Nanu Asan becameenlightened in the cave of Marutvan and becameNarayana Guru.