SreeNarayanaGuru

[gopu]

If we asked Sree Narayana Guru whether he believed in God, his reply would be : 'If you are asking me whether there is a God sitting somewhere in the clouds, with whom people can bargain or barter, my answer is 'no'. If you are questioning me whether there is a God existing, my answer is 'God is all, God alone is.' (Source: Nityachaitanya Yati)

There is a popular anecdote. Once an atheist asked the Guru whether the Guru could show him God. The Guru replied with a smile, 'Go home, take a mirror and look; you will see God.' What the Guru meant is 'your God is yourself — one's own potential is one's own God’. Whether you develop it or atrophy it depends totally on you. That is why you are your own God. The ‘Kingdom of God is within you.'

The Guru has given his definition of God in his poetic compositions, 'Daivadashakam', 'Arivu' (Jnanam), 'Advaitha Deepika' and 'Janani Navarathna Manjari'.

Daivadashakam is a prayer song composed by the Guru for the inmates of the orphanage at Aluva Advaithashram. The prayer is composed in such a way that it can be offered by persons of any creed a11 depicts the one God which the Guru envisaged. He is the protector, benefactor, supporter, leader and guide, all in one. He is the creator, the creation and the instrument of creation. He is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. He is Reality and Illusion; He is the creator and destroyer of illusion, illusion itself, exponent of Reality and Reality itself. He is all in all. Just like water cannot be separated from the wave, God cannot be separated from Life.

In 'Arivu' (translated as Epistemology of Gnosis) the Guru equated knowledge with God. For him knowledge (Jnanam) is God. Brahmavidya is the means to this God-realization; in other words, the attainment of Advaithic knowledge. 'Advaitha Deep/Tea' (The Lamp of Non-Duality) explains this concept further. Attainment of awareness or knowledge is the realization of the non-duality of the real and the apparent. The idea of the serpent is hidden in the rope. It needs 'knowledge' or awareness to resolve this apparent duality into the reality of non-duality.

In 'Janani Navarathna Manjari', this Awareness or Knowledge is deified and worshipped as Universal Mother. She is Love incarnate and the force which unites all, thus emphasizing the 'Advaitha' Unity of Life. And Narayana Guru's God reveals Itself as the Essence of Existence.