SreeNarayanaGuru

[praveen]

THE LIFE AND activities of Sree Narayana Guru exemplify that he was a Vedantist , (believer in Vedanta) pure and simple. He had the yogic
experience of a Supreme Identity “in which oppositions and all contraries, even of being and not being are resolved.” Through that experience he realized that the worlds and gods of the ordinary man’s religion, “were levels of reference and symbolic entities which were neither places nor individuals but states of being realizable within oneself.” The characters and events in the Puranas may not be all historically authentic. Nevertheless, they possess the “superior reality of religious mythology.” The greatest of the Puranas, the Bhagavatha , states that the tales are not to be taken as literal truth. They are intended to lead men to wisdom and detachment. These and other great truths were demonstrated by the Guru to the masses through a series of idols of Siva, Subramania, Ganesa and a lighted lamp, a plaque with a
great thought engraved on it, and Aum , the mystic syllable, engraved on a mirror, capping it all by an Adwaita Asrama where devotees of different faiths meditated in the same prayer-hall, studying and living together as partners in a common quest. The entire programme was a demonstration in concrete images, and finally in the absence of images which represent the higher significance of idol-worship. Through that process, the Swami taught people to apprehend the idea that religious rites so far practiced by them could be adapted towards a visible representation (if one may use that expression here) of the Vedantic doctrine of the non-duality of the Divine Being. They had only to progress along this path. The way had been thrown open to them. No other sage or saint had concretized these various steps as Sree Narayana Guru had done. He was unique in teaching idol worshippers, in this manner, how to understand their own time honoured practices in a better light, a light that would illuminate their onward path toward
spirituality.
As Ananda Coomaraswami puts it, “One had to believe in order to understand, and one had to understand in order to believe.” That, in short, is one of the paradoxes in spiritual advancement. While the idols of different significance illustrated how “belief leads to understanding”, the other side of the medal, i.e. “the need to understand in order to believe” remained to be satisfied. The two processes interact and function simultaneously. They are being separately dealt with here,
simply because that is the only logical means of analyzing this composite concept. C.V. Kunhuraman, one of the greatest disciples of Sree Narayana Guru, a thinker, a scholar and a social reformer of first rank and writer of lucid, penetrating, persuasive prose, suffused with bubbling humour, was one of a band of great followers of the Swami who revolutionized social
thinking and metamorphosed the religious atmosphere of Kerala. True, he worshipped the Guru, this side of idolatry. But he would not believe anything—even if it be the Guru who said it—unless he was intellectually convinced. His weekly newspaper Kerala Kaumudi was one of the great papers of the day, read avidly by the common people. He wanted his readers to be convinced of the Swami’s preaching. The Swami obliged and explained thus: “The aim of all religions is one. Once the different rivers run into the sea all of them merge into it; the differences disappear.
“The aim of religion is to lift the thought of man towards the summit. After that is achieved, each individual will find his way to it, on his own.
“For the man who has experienced the ultimate truth, the aid of
religion is no longer needed. He becomes the source of religion for other men.
“The Buddha did not attain the ultimate in enlightenment by studying Buddhism. He realized. He preached what he had realized. And those teachings became Buddhism. Jesus Christ never had any use for Christianity, did he? But the followers of the Buddha had to depend on Buddhism and the followers of Christ needed Christianity. This is true of other religions also.
“We do not know who were the architects of the Vedas. Nor do we need to know them. The thoughts they propound are of eternal significance. But ordinary men who are unable to grasp their meaning require other religious works that explain how these eternal truths can
be applied in daily life.

“At the same time, the seers who explain that eternal truths should ensure that the well of religion is undefined.
“Swami Dayananda Saraswathi accepted the Vedas as the foundation of his teachings. Even so, he discarded those parts of the Vedas which he considered to be artificial additions to them. This
discrimination, however, has to be exercised by Acharyas, who know what they are discarding and why. “Wars between countries will cease when one country is defeated. Religious wars and communal strifes will have no end because no community can be annihilated. As they have to live together and cooperate in all walks of life after the fighting is over, animosities created
by strife poison the entire country. “If religious strife is to end, everyone should be taught the other man’s religion and he should learn it with an open mind. “That will show us all, that different religions do not differ in fundamentals. It is such a realization of the fundamentals which is meant by the expression, ‘one religion for man’. “You say that there appears to be a strong move for mass conversion of the down-trodden to other religions? “Religion has two aspects: The inner and the outer. Which of these do they want to change? If it is in the external aspects that they want a change, then it is social reformation that they are after. As for internal
change, such a transformation is taking place continually in all people, and it occurs in accordance with one’s own mental development. The process is a natural one which cannot be brought about by anyone else on your behalf. Saints can only show you the way. The journey is yours. “A Hindu or a Christian or a member of any other religion should forgo his religion as soon as he ceases to believe in it… Cowardice and insincerity alone persuade you to remain in a religion once you stop believing its tenets. The continuance of such a person in any religion is not good, either for him or for the religion concerned.
“Conversely, those who get converted for wordly gain will only defile the purity of the religion which they join. It is bad for any religion to increase the number of unbelievers in its congregation. (The kingdom of God is within you. Conversion to a particular religion should be to
realise that truth and not for the attainment of wordly wealth.)
“The elite who argue that conversion of Hindus to some other religion is indicated by the excrescences and corruption that have vitiated Hinduism are really making out a case for reformation of Hinduism. That is what they should attempt. (Those thinkers should not
desert the arena and leave the masses without leadership.) “For that matter, however, there is no such religion that may be called Hinduism. Foreigners styled the people of Hindustan as Hindus. Therefore, if by Hinduism one denote the religion of ‘Hindus’, then Christianity and Islam Professed by thousands of inhabitants here should also be called Hinduism. Nobody says so, and no one will accept such a definition. Today Hinduism means the entire conglomeration of an immense variety of beliefs belonging to an entire scale of values which spans a considerable hiatus that exists in the matter of customs, manners, rites and philosophy among different group and believers. Veda, Mimamsa (explanation), Dwaita (dualily), Adwaita, Vishishtadwaita,
Saiva, Sakteya, Vaishnava—all these are forms of Hinduism (not excluding the innumerable modes of primitive beliefs that differ from place to place and caste to caste.) They exist at different levels of spiritual development. If this entire gamut of beliefs can be call ed one
religion, viz. Hinduism, then all religion-Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, etc., can also be collectively known as ‘one religion’. “If the religion preached by its founder, and subsequently
elaborated into different branches by his followers, can be called one religion and given the name of the founder, the spiritual tenets preached by different Acharyas can also, by an extension of this principle, be termed as one religion. People should see the phenomenon of unity in
diversity as it exists between different religions.” C.V. had nothing more to ask.