Spiritual Cleansing of Indian Society

Gurucharanam Saranam

Spiritual Cleansing of Indian Society

Mukundan P.R.

It would be outrageous if it is stated that the problem of poverty in India is due to her spiritual background. Indian people are known for their great spirituality, but spirituality when practiced not in agreement with Yugadharma or as per the evolutionary character of the ages (Manvantara order), it becomes counterproductive, like the usage of expired medicine. The problem of poverty, in its social and individualized nature, has a spiritual aspect because poverty is the expression of the subjective deficiency in a person or society. The gross world of our experience springs from or is a reflection of the subtle dimension of our thoughts, beliefs and actions. In other words it is the status of the soul or the subjective dimension which determines the quality of our life and environment.

We cannot change the scenario of poverty without a qualitative change in the soul status. For example, many homeless people in Kerala were given homes free of cost by a government scheme. Age-old miseries and spiritual ignorance had made quite few of them pathetic drunkards. Within a short period, they sold their houses and became homeless again. A house under the canopy of the Creator is a divine blessing. We can help a homeless person. But the most enduring help would be elevating persons and societies subjectively so that the blessings of life never depart from them.

If religious beliefs lead to fundamentalism and extremism, if it causes fissures in the society, if it produces poverty and moral depravity, if it does not uplift human spirit to the vitality of truth, then it means that a spiritual distortion has taken place, calling for a positive social intervention. It necessitates a new method, to revitalize and rehabilitate the human spirit. We have found from our experience that what is needed is not the revitalization of old doctrines, but a spirituality that could practically uplift us to a new height of social and spiritual transformation in accordance with the evolutionary character of this age, Kaliyuga.

Whenever, whenever societies have come under the weight of regressive traditions and belief systems, they have suffered socially, politically and economically. We all know that the pagan ancient religions of Rome, Greece and Egypt were replaced with new monotheistic doctrines and belief systems, bringing about great social change. It was after this cultural and spiritual renaissance, the western societies evolved to play a leadership role in the world. Almost the entire world has now come under the influence of western culture. In the medieval period, the Arab and Persian civilizations became formidable when Islam crushed the pagan tradition and began to follow monotheistic religion. Similarly, no one can deny the strong influence of Buddhism in the rise of Japan, China and other countries in the Far East.

The relation between spiritual movements and economic and socio-political development is very obvious one. The common thread in all the above examples is a departure from the old customs and beliefs and courting of a more egalitarian spiritual path based on the belief in a monotheistic vision of God. All these are historical examples for the upgradation of the subjective status of societies through spiritual intervention. However, India remained isolated from this spiritual emergence after the time of Buddha. India remained locked in an island of cultural and spiritual malignancy. The history of her cultural and political enslavement and the depressed state of the majority of her people continues to this day. The economic and social deprivation of the underprivileged should be studied in this historical context of cultural and spiritual isolation.

India is the ancient land of the wisdom of sages, whose spirits enliven the spiritual sky of the world. Her development and progress is aligned to the egalitarian path of the Rishis. The spiritual heart of India needs regeneration. Her people should be liberated from the negative spiritual and cultural influences of the past, competing sects and castes. The befuddling ideology of unity in diversity is a meek expression of the helplessness of Hindus in particular and of others in general. India continues to remain in the secondary school of primitive (pagan) worship. India should graduate to a strictly monotheistic tradition under a strong spiritual leadership. It can help India emerge as a global spiritual power. But it is quite understandable that the question of spiritual leadership is not a simple one.

The Indian culture is based on the spiritual regime of the Rishis. India venerated Sri Ram in the Treta Yuga and Sri Krishna in Dwapara Yuga as they were the spiritual authorities of those ages. But when it came to Kaliyuga, India lost its spiritual track. It wallows still under the serfdom of devas unable to understand the true message of Sri Krishna, Sri Buddha and other sages regarding the worship pattern of Kaliyuga. Puranas state that in Kaliyuga 'naama samkirtanam' or chanting of God's name is the way. But whose name? One has no proper information on this. One view is that the name of the Supreme Guru of this Kali age should be chanted. But that Guru should have crossed all spiritual planes and realized the truth of Brahman. That Guru should at least have fulfilled and crossed the trimurty stage (deva stage) in spirituality and should function as per the Will of Brahman .He should function with the knowledge of three fold cosmic time and also should be receiving 'darshan' or spiritual vision from the Light of Brahman to guide mankind in all matters. After Sri Krishna in Dwapara Yuga, we do not know which spiritual master and his lineage has been born in this Kaliyuga fulfilling these conditions.

When India falters, the whole world gets spiritually lost. If it is stated that all the problems of the world today have originated from the spiritual error of India, it would be too difficult for us to comprehend. But believe beyond doubt that India is the spiritual center of the universe. It is God’s Will. Let us not forget that the world is established on spiritual truths of cosmic dimension. and India alone is the custodian of that spiritual wisdom. This Kaliyuga has brought India good tides of luck through the birth and life mission of Navajyoti Sri Karunakra for the spiritual cleansing of Indian society, to evolve it into its true pristine spiritual status.

India Wronged Spiritually?

Gurucharanam Saranam

India Wronged Spiritually?

Mukundan P.R.

Warning: Do not discard your allegiance to the gods unless you are fully acculturated in the path of the Rishis or Gurumargam, it can be dangerous.

Very few people might be aware or might have thought that India’s problems of poverty, corruption and social distortions are due to her wronged spirituality. Wronged spirituality, not lack of spirituality! Whenever and wherever dharma is wronged that society suffers and it is true in India’s case. But this truth is covered up by the learned pundits as well as the pauperized ignorant people of India. India’s rise is prevented by the weight of an outdated version of spirituality, polluted and fragmented internally and degrading socially. This wronged version of Hinduism is popularized through a temple culture, the distinct features of which are an iniquitous caste system and worship of gods and demigods. The price India and the people of India have paid during the last thousand years and are still paying for this great spiritual aberration is very high. India should return to the source of its spiritual wisdom, the Rishi tradition, which venerates the Absolute Truth of Brahman than the blind supplication to thirty three billion gods and an ugly forced veneration of caste hierarchy.

‘Apoojya-poojane chaiva poojyaanaam-apyapoojane, Narah patanam-aapnoti mahadwai naatra samshayah’, says Kurma Purana. By not revering those who are to be revered and revering those who are not to be revered, that society goes to utter ruin. And India has been utterly ruined by the veneration of venerable gods and demigods in contravention of yugadharma. India forgot the Supreme Brahman and the venerable Rishis in the lineage of Manu. Don’t the Hindus know the spiritual status of demigods and devas? Don’t the Hindus know that the abode of sages and rishis are higher than the gods and devas? They know and the devas too know it. The gods always revered the rishis. The puranas are full of such knowledge. Otherwise how can Brigu Maharshi kick Maha Vishnu on his chest with his feet! How can the king of gods Indra beg pardon from Atri Maharshi for the escape from a curse? The great Vishwamitra Maharshi, challenged Brahma, the creator and proceeded to create an alternative universe itself! He was stopped doing so by the request of gods. Then whom should we follow, the great rishis or the gods? We should follow the rishis. The Buddhists, the Sikhs, the Jains, the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims understood it. They followed Gurumargam, the path of the Buddha, Guru Nanak, Mahavir, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed and they prospered and were blessed to that extent.

Why and when did the gods and devas begin to be extolled here sidelining the great rishis, the repositories of highest spiritual wisdom and God realization and through whom alone mankind can hope for spiritual uplift? Was it for the sake of the Vedic priests, because their livelihood depended on temples? At least now they can change, as very few of them depend on temple craft now. O’ priests! At least now you can release India from these spiritual wrongs, which your innocent ancestors inflicted upon the great Indian civilization. And you smug Media and the sleepy Intelligentsia, wake up! You heed not the sages of this country and their spiritual mission, with full of ignorance, arrogance and ridicule inside you. But their message cannot be trifled down and trampled upon. India will rise again and so too the Rishi tradition. It is the requirement of this age, the yuga dharma.

Astral Causes behind Diseases

Gurucharanam Saranam



Astral Causes behind Diseases

Mukundan P.R.



Health is the natural expression of the soul, the emanation of values lived and virtue earned in synchronization with its evolutionary process. It is true of any system or organization too. Therefore, a person or a society cannot be made healthy by treating the symptoms alone which is mostly the current practice among health activists. The vision of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru has opened a new school of thought on the problems of health and astral factors behind diseases.


Whatever little awareness there is today with regard to the subjective causes of diseases, it is confined to a secondary level of causative factors such as wrong lifestyle, food habits, environment, etc. The analysis does not go beyond the physical and mental levels. The spiritual or subjective aspect of health is not given enough attention, despite the fact that the basic issues of health are rooted in the soul of man.

Our sages have mentioned that diseases – vyaadhi, are the result of worries, i.e. aadhi. We all know that peace is the precondition for health. The subjective person, the soul is ever pure, blissful consciousness. But the tranquility of the soul gets dissipated by the push and pulls of actions arising out of one’s vasanas or inner tendencies. The soul loses its tranquility because of its confinements with ego, mind, and senses. Once this confinement happens, the soul starts running outwardly, never to experience peace again.


This worrisome status, along with unhealthy actions disturbs the flow of prana – the rhythmic flow of vital energy in the body. Once the rhythm of prana is thus disturbed, it destabilizes the bodily fluids and vital airs causing malfunctions in the body. The food may get over-digested, digest irregularly or not digest at all. When the digestive system is affected, diseases also rear its head. Therefore, diseases have their origin in the subjective aspect of a person.


Though Ayurveda and Siddha, the Indian systems of medicine developed by the sages acknowledge the relation of diseases with the soul aspects, they have not been able to provide a remedy to problems arising out of karmic, ancestral, and spiritual pollution.


The focus in actual Yoga practice is to bring this subjective aspect, i.e. the soul into equilibrium through the control of prana. It means a lot of spiritual regimentation, physical discipline, and long continuous practice. It may be, therefore, suitable only to a small segment of people in this fast track of life, who have leisure and a suitable environment. Moreover, if yoga is not practiced under an advanced master with self-realization, it may also lead to physical and mental complications.


Tranquility is achievable with the highest virtue and purity in the soul. Yoga has been reduced to mere physical and mental exercises today. However, despite the question of its practicability in this age, Yoga remains the ancient Indian science of self-realization, very authentic and liberating in its vision.


When we talk about the health of our soul, three important factors are to be thought of; the soul’s karmic, ancestral, and spiritual influences. Unless a person is able to liberate him from the binding effects of these three factors, the hope of immunity from diseases, mental and physical problems becomes impossible.

The karmic residues of the soul earned over multiple births are recorded as karmagati. According to the auspicious and inauspicious nature of karmagati, corresponding effects will manifest in life as diseases and other misfortunes and vice versa. Unless the karmic element is understood and appropriate rewinding or rehabilitating karma is performed, the disease cannot be successfully tackled. These imprints in the soul are subject to the vision of seers – an Atmagyani Guru. Medical science and its methods of diagnosis are helpless in this area. All medical systems today concentrate only on the symptoms, not on the root causes related to the spirit inside.


Secondly, there are also a person’s genetic links which also become the source of certain diseases – mostly hereditary in nature. Mental retardation and other such misfortunes have a genetic link. It is known as pitru dosha in astrological terms. The spiritual and genetic contamination in the ancestral soul affects the health of progeny too. Here too, medical science is helpless because karmic and spiritual bindings of ancestral souls are beyond the scope of science. This soul science is subject to a spiritual regime and therefore under the purview of spiritual science and spiritual masters.


One of the important contributions of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru, the founder of Santhigiri Ashram in the area of healthcare is His thoughts on the astral causations behind diseases which He referred to as karma dosham, pitru dosham, and Aradhana dosham. Mention has already been made about the Karmic and Ancestral problems. The third aspect, Aradhana Dosham is related to deviated spiritual practices and the consequent debilities, deformities, and devolution occurring in the individual’s soul.


Aradhana Dosham is also related to spiritual mobility through spiritual zones of varying evolutionary nature with their peculiar color, effects, and hierarchies. Though the sages have mentioned it, the concept of spiritual zones and their relation to health issues is an area that has not been yet explored properly.


It forms part of the discourse on spiritual pollution, which directly and indirectly affects the measure of virtue and the evolutionary orientation of the soul. Spiritual pollution is the stagnation of souls in lower astral planes with its adverse effects on health, one’s progeny, and family life.


The tranquility of the soul is experienced in higher spiritual planes above the hierarchies of spirits, celestials, angels, gods, and goddesses. The astral planes up to heaven are related to pleasure and pain, name and form. By their worship and spiritual practices, the souls get connected to these lower astral planes, which produce only dual experiences of pain and pleasure, sorrow and happiness. In other words, it is the abode of base desires or ashta raga- the eight-fold bindings of the soul.


So long as the soul is subject to ashta raga, there will be imbalances and variations in the karmic and spiritual earnings affecting the measure of the soul’s virtue and evolutionary growth. At the present time, mankind is mostly related to these lower spiritual planes; hence the possibility of enduring health remains an unrealistic dream.


We have mentioned that enduring health is the result of tranquility arising from the soul’s composure in higher spiritual planes where all dualities disappear and the soul remains in its state of purity and positive spiritual emanations. It is the plane where Oneness of God and Oneness of Humanity become an actual experience. This spiritual transition is the basis for a healthy society and necessary to achieve lasting peace, enduring health and progress.


Mankind, therefore, requires the guidance of such a spiritual master, who has transcended the highest spiritual planes. The Supra-mental evolution mentioned by Sri Aravind Ghosh is related to this spiritual transition. Before embarking on this path of higher spiritual transition, one has to get rid of the karmic, ancestral, and spiritual baggage by rightly establishing oneself in the path of such a spiritual master.


The dialogue on human health can become more meaningful only when the subjective and astral aspects mentioned above are given due attention and thought. Santhigiri Ashram beckons each and all to such a practical path of higher spiritual transition, health, and peace.

An Appeal to All Blessed Souls

Gurucharanam Saranam

An Appeal to All Blessed Souls

Mukundan P.R.


Great preceptors (rishis) impart the guidelines of dharma in each age - the cosmic scheme behind life and the duty of man according to the aeonic changes. The Rishis are considered the guiding authorities on dharma, justice and duty owing to their omniscience, life of self-abnegation and spiritual elevation. But due to our ignorance, we still follow rituals and traditions that create divisiveness and disharmony in the society. The ‘sudra’ represents the ignorant and downtrodden class in the world whose spiritual and materialistic elevation is destined to be actualized in this age. But for its realization, they require the guidance of an omniscient seer, who could show them the path of liberation.

The Brahmic Will to be self responsible for the divine dispensation for god realization existed from the beginning of creation itself and continues incessantly. It is the same godly will that manifests as the Subtle Being, Godhead, as a Deva, Sanyasi (sage) or a Rishi and accepts worship through these mediums in the course of ages. But there is a concept known as Yuga Dharma. Different aeons like Krita, Treta and Dwapara had their characteristic dharmic dispensation, which in the present age – Kaliyuga undergoes significant changes. These changes in the dharmic code (Yuga Dharma) are brought about by great seers of transcendental knowledge, who manifest as the embodiment of enlightenment and divine abstraction as willed by God.

Even during the ages of Treta and Dwapara that were oriented for polytheistic worship of Devi-Deva (gods and goddesses), the words of Rishis, the enlightened seers were depended upon as the guiding principles. At the time of Maharaja Janak, the judgments in regard to dispensation of justice were taken by the wives of Yagnavalkya, the great rishi of that age. They had the divine insight to decide on matters of justice without even seeing the contestants, the accused or the accuser. The blind folded goddess of wisdom has been accepted as the symbol of justice even today. Despite differences in rituals, in the matters of justice, the words of a seer (jnani) are taken as authoritative. The uniqueness of the Indian spirituality or Sanatana Dharma is this tradition.

We are ignorant about the differences in the result (virtue, punya) earned from the observance of customs, rituals and worship followed by us at the present time. Due to the moral degeneration and lack of virtue in conduct, majority of people have become ‘Sudra’. The word Sudra here includes people from all castes – Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. All ignorant and fallen people irrespective of caste, color, nationality and religious denominations are termed as Sudra, a qualitative term. As per the four fold caste system, the present age Kaliyuga belongs to the Sudra class for their uplift and enlightenment. The term ‘Sudra’ used here, as already mentioned, is a qualitative term used in a universal sense and includes Christians, Muslims, Budhists, Jains etc. and also the spokesmen of the modern computer age and the apostles of various ideologies and concepts. Therefore the word ‘Sudra’ embraces both the potentialities and also its limitations. The limitation of the Sudra is that he has no wisdom to dive deep into the spiritual light hidden in the historical past and apply it in life in the present age so as to enhance and enrich the glitter of his or her soul through a noble and righteous path of action.
According to Manu, the ancient law giver, this fourth age of Kali is earmarked for the Sudra for his liberation and enlightenment. But we should not think lightly of our lack of awareness and inability to understand the demerits in the customs, rituals and worship we follow at the present age, which are incapable either to liberate us from our (negative) karmic mould or to give us the blissful evolutionary soul experience. We might see the observance of caste system as insignificant which created the evils of social barriers and discriminations; we might ignore too the ignorance that termed spiritual consciousness as communalism. But how do we evaluate the corruption in the path of eternal dharma proclaimed by the Rishis in accordance with the Will of Brahman? How do we see the vested interests that disturbed the harmony at home causing motherly and fatherly curse and sorrow?

How can you justify the horrendous actions by which sinners who are useless for their home as well as the society, performing evil actions and accumulating great burden of sin, at last adorn the clothes of a Sanyasi, get elevated in the society with the support of caste or religion? How can you justify the wicked action of those men who castigated and belittled the sages, the embodiment of sacrifice and divine enlightenment and from whose mind, the pearls of wisdom churned out of the ocean of transcendental truth emerge; of those who raise the men of letters (mere scholars) to the pedestal of seers thus destroying the divine tenderness of dharma? The Sudra, the fourth in the caste hierarchy has got the right by divine decree to earn the karmic and ancestral purity required for the birth of noble souls and experience godly realization in this age. He has also got the luck to safeguard the oneness of mankind till the end of creation. But in whom does the karmic virtue exists to lead him to this goal – in the depth of the heart of a Seer or in some tantric rituals?

The Tantric and Vedic rituals and chants which were reverberating in the last century have almost come to a stop. Sri Marthanda Verma, the Travancore Maharaja used to feed thousands of Brahmins and give away handfuls of gift to them in expiation of sins, but for the last forty years the ceremony has become lifeless; the noble minded give importance to ‘Sadhu Pooja’ – the worship of sages than to the feeding of Brahmins. Who are the Sadhus or the Sanyasis? Is he a lowly beggar who has lost all hopes in life due to penury and lack of virtue or are they the ones who get afflicted by incurable diseases owing to their vices and sin and as a last resort adorn the clothes of a Sanyasi? No, on the contrary, as mentioned before, the seers are great souls who have sacrificed their life, body and mind for the cause of dharma. We should expect the fulfilling action that would be venerated by the ensuing generation, not only in our land but all over the world, only from such seers. The purity of their heart symbolizes the weighing scale of dharma and adharma. They are the divine personification of sacrifice and austerity.
What the world searches today with a longing heart is for such a seer of sacrifice through whom the grand unfoldment, development and fulfillment of Yuga Dharma is to take place. Do we respect that Universal Guru seated in the hearts of Krishna, Buddha, and Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Janaka, Vishwamitra, Maitreyi and Gargi imparting eternal, transcendental enlightenment? If we are waiting for the coming of that great Soul, the leading Light of the five-fold Gurus, the protector and elucidator of the concept of Yuga Dharma, why do we open ‘Bala Gokulams’ all along the roadside? Would we have been celebrating Krishna Leela which reminds us of the ‘Deva Dasi’ system rooted in base sensual enjoyment instead of the noble thoughts on God? Would we ever try to portray Lord Krishna who for the first time blew his Panchajanya for the establishment of Yuga Dharma as the lustful, sensual ‘Gopala Krishna’ through texts like Gita Govindam - creations out of great ignorance? Whatever it is, we are also the inheritors of that pernicious tragedy.

It may be due to the fact that we are also part of that sinful tradition we could not well understand Guru (Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru) and the Santhigiri Guru parampara. Nevertheless, Santhigiri Guru Parampara has reached the penultimate peak of luck. We have discovered the deposits of transcendental truth in the boundaries of Guru Parampara, born from the sacrifices of Guru. Through this medium God has prepared for us, in the form of Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru, we have become the possessors of Cosmic Mind. Like Gargis and Maitreyi, the Jananis (Sanyasinis in Santhigiri Ashram) blessed with transcendental vision ennoble this Guru lineage through the worship of Guru.

This Guru Parampara which receives revealed words from Brahman, the Supreme Light of God promises the certitude of the divine birth of great seers, the initiators of great concepts, like Janaka and Vishwamitra in the coming ages. (It refers to the performance of ‘Guru Pooja’ in Santhigiri Ashram, by which Guru cleanses the ancestral and spiritual impurities and debilities and through which a generation with mental and physical prowess would take birth in the families thus purified by Guru).

In the divine experience of great souls, they see Guru as the illumination of all godly abstractions and the ever lasting, sublime light of love. We consider this glory as the ultimate path of refuge for all people and the entire creation. Lo, through that path of protection, we first walk, nearer and nearer. O Guru, you are enthroned as all Godly abstractions and divine consecrations. You exist as the Cosmic Will and the glorious abode of our veneration.

Submitting our prostrations at your holy feet, we purify the flaws in our ancestry, spiritual practices and customs and also find a solution to the familial curses and sorrows of our mothers and fathers. We have become singers of the glory of the universal path of liberation. We have fulfilled through this the prayer of great sages, the result of their penance of several ages. This path of purity is the fulfillment of God’s wish from the inception of creation itself.

We, the Santhigiri parampara, submit this in front of the whole world with a prayer for the mercifulness of Guru.

(Excerpts from ‘India O’ Rise’ published by Santhigiri Ashram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala)

India: A Fractured Civilization

Gurucharanam Saranam


INDIA: A FRACTURED CIVILIZATION
Guruvani- the Sacred Words of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru
(Translated from the original Malayalam)



What is the state of elevation of the Saivite; and of the Vaishnavite; and of the devotee of the Sakti cult? All are the same. One prefers Sakti, the other prefers Siva. Yet another person prefers Vishnu. This alone is the difference. Stages of inner evolution do not form a part of these. For a change to come about in a person who ‘sees’, and for a change of stage, he should get the knowledge of all the three. Otherwise he traverses his chosen track but the others remain unknown; all three paths should be seen simultaneously. There is one story or the other to block this course as he progresses, bent on his inner flight.

When one takes to any one of the three-faced Saiva, Sakteya and Vaishnava traditions the knowledge of all the three should be gained. There is no such possibility and that is the worst of India’s calamities.

Many family lineages are being cited like Parasurama Gotram, Viswamitra Gotram, Sankara Gotram and so on. But all these are within the folds of the Trimurthi tradition. As far as the cleansing of the gotra is concerned, everything should be included. That is, all the four divisions of the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra should be taken care of. Otherwise in cleansing the gotra, everything would fall apart. What has gone wrong with India is that it is fragmented thus.

When the faculty of Darsanam (inner visions) develops in a person under a Vaishnava guru, that guru would be a guide in darsanam related to the Vaishnava tradition. He would not be able to guide with regard to Saiva-Sakteya experiences. The claim of the Vaishnavite, Saivite and Sakteya that the respective tradition of each is the highest holds no value. What does it amount to when one claims that one’s own tradition is high and the others are just right or good?

If a guru does not gain the stature of the Devendra, Parasakti and Ganas how could the disciple get such stature?

As we have not received knowledge transferred in this way, we do not know the true aspect of the concept of Manvantara. As the knowledge about Manvantara has been handed down in a distorted manner, all those belonging to these three traditions are warring amongst themselves. Therefore, we Indians are not able to stand united. And nature itself, in agitation, caused the Asian continent to be fragmented. Lack of unity like this will cause one disaster or the other with the changing of each yuga.
An example of this pertains to the planet Jupiter. Isn’t Jupiter a big planet? It is said that the face of it changed after a comet dashed against it. The area will be in ruin in due course. Here, we are able to receive the knowledge of events of the past 20 million years. For getting to know matters related to millions of years in the past, the right knowledge of Manvantara needs to be gained. But the mistake of India is that the gurus have not been able to perceive Manvantaras and move forward accordingly.

When the Asian continent was not fragmented a lot of people migrated to this place. They followed the life styles prevalent here. When the continent was partitioned into several countries, many people remained here. They evolved mantras and tantras and created the Vedic religion. The Vedic practitioner became the authority here. This is why the people are not united. People would not touch to show intimacy. They would avoid bodily contact in transactions. Thus distances increased and people moved away from one another.

The Trimurthi tradition was pursued keeping these distances. Nothing remained of the four-faced action. The four-faced phenomenon represents the creation of the four Vedas. It was said that Brahma created the four Vedas. There is no history related to Brahma. For that history, the knowledge of the Manvantra needs to be acquired. As the knowledge of the Manvantara was lost even the knowledge of Brahma was lost. The Brahma of the Trimurthi tradition was misconceived as Brahman. Brahman is all pervading. Brahma is not so. Brahma relates only to the aspect of creation. Still it was made to believe that Brahma was above everything. However, Brahma is not everything. The story of Brahma can be told only by Manu. As far as Manu is concerned, little is known. Thus a story was told that Manu, born of the Sun, gave it to Ikshwaku. In that history there was no place for Manvantara. Thus we fell into error. Vedic ritualism became dominant with the emergence of the four-fold caste division - Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra.

When darsanam develops in this manner it would be like a haze of smoke. Pay attention to what the Guru has to say if it comes up. If you don’t pay attention you will go into the path of error and slip into more mistakes. Then you will depart from here. If you go, you will be returning with no sense of direction.

The faculty of darsanam develops here through the Guru’s grace. Only such a Guru can give the direct knowledge of the Trimurthi and the stature of the ganas. When it starts emerging clearly, one distinct from the other, there would be a temptation to get away and talk about it. Yield to it and you will lose your way. That deviation will not be perceived either. Your conception is that there is the possibility of the Supreme One arriving here embodied. If the Supreme One incarnates how would you identify Him?

Q: It is said that the term bhagavan (lord) indicates the taking shape of six parts. Sri Krishna is seen and spoken about as Omniscient. Sri Krishna was the most evolved among those who came so far. He is also the Paramatma.

Guru: Yes, but it is not complete at that. It is true that Krishna is the foremost figure among those who had come till then. But his coming was a littile before the beginning of Kali Age. Therefore, we could not be given the Dharma of Kali. People could not be corrected and guided into that dharma either. Kali Dharma should be corrected only after ascending the eighth stage. Only Arjuna was corrected instead. Only Arjuna comprehended. Still he feared having to kill his preceptors and elders. It is then he is asked, don’t you believe in me? The faith is there. Still the fear persists. Krishna says then: They are not killed; they are not made to kill either. What is said at this stage — that is the Dharma of Kali given in this manner — has not been imbibed correctly. The Yuga Dharma has not been put into practice. It is the likes of Drona and Bhishma who have been killed. They were learned and came of royal families. Through the learning of mistaken scriptural concepts they upheld the Trimurthi.

The movement towards the Supreme Self can be contemplated only after traversing the constellations and reaching the eighth stage which can’t be termed ‘Paramatma’ or the Supreme Self. Krishna came upto that stage, but not in practical terms. To establish it on the physical plane he was making Arjuna act, himself giving the guidance as the guru.

Sri Krishna was born in the eighth stage. To move up from this plane he had to reveal to Arjuna everything from the very beginning. He needed to get his disciple Arjuna to do whatever was necessary for him to cross that stage. The stage after that pertains to the nine planetary fields. Eight out of the nine were realized. These forms dissolved. It is the colour of the sky of formlessness that has been attributed to Krishna. The nine planetary fields are tackled through making the disciple do whatever is required. That is Krishna needed to perceive the ninth planetary field and instruct Arjuna about that stage. But when Krishna reached this stage, the deities as well as devils attacked and gave him the chase. He needed to earn everything from the eighth stage and move up and instruct the disciple. Arjuna had been instructed up to the eighth stage.

It was the Deva’s stage that was shown in the field of Kurukshetra. Through the Kurukshetra war it was fully revealed. The next stage has no forms. There is only the colour of the sky. That sky has Sri Krishna pervading it. Arjuna has gone seeing Krishna in that eighth stage and accepting him as his guru. But Arjuna could not get to the ninth stage. The disciple needed to get to the ninth stage and perform action. Guru should not work in that stage. After traversing the nine planets, twenty seven constellations, twelve zodiacs and going beyond forms, thereafter the eighth, ninth and tenth stages are to be harnessed together. Dissolving takes place in the ninth. In the tenth there is no dissolving at all. It is transformation into that stage. There is no colour.

Some of those who visit here grasp the situation. Still they are not able to imbibe it. That is the shortcoming in their destiny. They would keep looking upto the same old thing. This is the problem when the Gurumargam (the Path of the Masters) is not properly followed. They will rotate within the old form. This colour and the form will be caused to change. The process will go on like this. This is what was shown to Arjuna. Sri Krishna said: Drona, Bhishma, Salya and the like are people who destroy the position in which we were before. You are not killing any of them. You are not causing to kill them either. That is the logic behind it.

Anyone would be able to give instructions on the external features of sanyasa—renunciation. Some would develop the faculty of darsanam as well. But how many would be in a position to perceive and explain it clearly? There was nobody until now to clearly tell about the layers of darsanam, the (spiritual) stages and their transitions. To seek clarification about the different stages in darsanam you have to approach a guru — whether you are a sanyasi (renunciate) or anyone else. Otherwise you are not going to evolve beyond the position you have reached. You will be going round and round in that position. You would desire that you would go there or go here and all that. Wherever you go, you will not get it. You will not get it even If you lie for days without even drinking water.

(I am) talking about the matter which (even) Vivekananda could not get clearly actualized because he did not get a guru of that stature. This was not clear to Jesus and Mohammad. It was not clear to Buddha either. That he passed away, after accepting alms is a proof of this. Whatever is eaten should be digested. Poets have written that Buddha has reached the state of Nirvana. How do these poets know what Nirvana is? The theory of poets that Buddha is higher than Sri Krishna by binding the concept of Nirvana (to Buddha) is the conception of the poets. Buddha ‘informed’ the children here (in Santhigiri) that he did not come with the knowledge, hence the error happened.

In the actualization process of transcending form, Guru is present as the Paramatma, the Supreme Self. It is in this Guru that the Supreme Self is seen. One must know what this Supreme Self is through the Guru. There is no knowledge other than this. This is Parabrahmam. It is difficult to get a guru who has been transformed into Parabrahmam. That Guru will be with everyone. Guru is what stays with everything — good or bad. A Guru of that stature infuses devotion (bhakti) to karma.

The man who has studied Vedanta and harnesses his Vedanta with the dictates of the planetary chart will not understand this. Vedanta proclaims that Guru is Brahman. What is that Guru and who is that Guru who has reached the realm of Brahman? Further enquiry should be related to that question. Didn’t Arjuna have vision? That is why Sri Krishna said, “Look, who was I, and who were you, and what were we?” It is after showing him this that Sri Krishna made Arjuna fight. Parasakti and the devas together blocked the evolution beyond the eighth stage after the war. Then Dwaraka went under the sea. It is at that point (Arjuna) said, there is no help, Krishna!

After knowing and following the path here, if you still go back to the old established traditions, there will be such ruination that one would not even know where one is going to reach. What I say is a subject not known to anyone till date. Your aim should be to realize this. This is what God has bestowed on you. Until you realize this you will not be able to bring up your children in obedience. If you are the ones who have understood this, shouldn’t you enquire and actualize it? Is it something to be bound and planted within the fort of some caste or creed and watered? No single person should work in this (Ashram) with such conception. Never should one do it. Misfortune will result.

God by his grace has granted the easiest way for you so that you can lead yourself understanding and defining this, imparting it to your progeny and fulfilling the dharma in life. For this, the children of India should become a model at home in this country and in the world. Instead, what has happened in contemporary India? Today, unable to find the means of livelihood many people have moved out from India itself and have done many sorts of things in fulfilment. They have become tiger or cat or whatever, in the name of redeeming the world. You should be able to absorb such knowledge as would enable you to bring up your children in propriety so that these tigers and cats do not jump on them. The liberation of our country and its existence will be affected through those children.

This is the Annunciation we have received. The world will certainly benefit provided you put in your best effort, doing and making others do without giving orders to one another; without insisting on doing it the way you want it done. You should become fully able to take on this work that will benefit the world by the Will of the Almighty. Whatever the people of the world should get, let them get it as the gift of India. It should be transferred to them through our little children. The need of the hour lies not in giving it through the Upanishads considered to be the fountainhead of Indian wisdom or through the recitation of scriptures (Vedas), nor through aphorisms considered sacred. For this seek at the appropriate place and struggle.

Your ancestors are not people with punyam (merit in the soul). If someone had come into riches, he will have offspring who will chop off the head of that wealth. That is exactly what we see in our midst. Parents with seven children become tearful and start wiping their nose if one child fails in an examination. It would appear that they are pained because the children who are to support the entire world have failed. I have this sadness that we don’t have mothers and fathers who think: ‘The poor who have neither the opportunity to study nor a proper meal to eat did not get this. My children got at least this much. May my children put to righteous use what is earned throgh the merit of the forefathers’. If a child fails in a subject these parents find satisfaction in the gestures of showing sorrow not found elsewhere. Then where would the children brought up by such parents stand? I would only call it as an absolute sign of dirtiness and recklessness. You should not become parents who ruin the country by making these disinclined children struggle and study unnecessarily turning them into plunderers, arsonists and thieves.

Likewise the rites and rituals you follow are also extremely dangerous. This is the cause of your devastation. It is a severe crime towards your family. It uproots not only the family but brings about havoc to the country itself. Today it is the educated who loot much more than the uneducated. Your children are imbibing the education that creates extremely rotten tendencies inviting destruction. You should give your children what is suitable to their innate tendencies. If (something) is given contrary to the tendencies, a bad aspect is being pushed into him. Do not thus allow the child to take up the ownership of karmadosham (error in action).

There is a type of ‘avadhoot’ (the wanderings of an ascetic) wherein one does not know how to dress, eat, drink or bathe. In the style of this, your children walk about in a useless manner, as though merged in God, drinking, defecating and vomiting, moving through filth of many types; they grow in front of the world as predators trying to learn gimmicks, in whichever place they reach.

Giving great weight to this ignorance, you have ended up offering bribes to get admission for your children even in nursery schools. Learning quite a few things from there, they would be turning to other things in order to nourish the wicked tendencies with a course of putrid action imbibed from an ideology that uproots everything. Even if such a child comes to the Ashram, what would he be doing? His efforts would be to take up the action that would invite danger, rather than finding a release from it.

Those of you who wish to be part of the process of the Ashram dharma should keep this in mind: ‘This is not just for removing the faults in me. This is also for removing the failings in the work of my forefathers. If there is release for me well and good! Otherwise let it be. But let this country be not ruined earning this ignorance through my children.’ Your work should reflect at least that much of love. Apart from this you are not asked to become renunciates. You may become renunciates when the time becomes appropriate and you get qualified. One need not forsake that desire nor forbid it. There is nothing to be achieved by resisting it.

I am not talking about the efforts related to renunciation. You don’t renounce. You become the children of our country. Live for the karma that would bring release for your progeny even without your knowledge. For that let your innermost being absorb that dharma which would bring to the world such children as would keep eternal vigilance for this country. Take that life or leave it according to your knowledge, experience and habit. There is no point in my telling you about that too, because I have become convinced that my loving and cajoling cannot prompt you to take it. But what I had to do I have finished doing. I have done the work which will prevent the transfer of hereditary negativity and the resultant ignorance of each one of you to your children. Believe this to be the karma performed by me so that you may be in possession of that karma; your dharma is to faithfully absorb it for which you have to renew yourselves. For that God has entrusted this world itself to you. I am giving you this good news with great expectations.

Gods Own Hermitage

Gurucharanam Saranam

Gods Own Hermitage

Mukundan P.R.


A great Light appeared on the spiritual sky of India on 1st September, 1927 at Chandiroor in the Alappuzha district of Kerala. It was a Thursday. Sri Krishna, whom the world venerates as a great Avatar, was born in a dark prison cell. Jesus Christ, whom the humanity worships as a Savior, was born on a bed of hay beside a cattle shed. Though the great prince Siddhartha of Kapilavasthu was born in a palace, he chose to reside in the rustic hermitages of wandering ascetics.

The great Luminance that appeared on the spiritual sky of India on 1st September, 1927 at Chandiroor was born in a decrepit hut made of mud and thatched with coconut fronds. The simplicity of truth and the immense magnanimity of the Divine is the mark of such divine manifestations. The great Light which descended upon earth at Chandiroor is none other than Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru.

God realization has nothing to do with religious identities and rituals. The great Guru realized this truth and did not hesitate to accept a Sufi fakir as His spiritual mentor in the initial years of search for truth. Today Santhigiri Ashram is home for all people seeking spiritual solace and guidance - irrespective of caste, creed and religious differences. A secular model, which aims to unite people, has great relevance in this troubled times of religious fundamentalism and extremist violence.

Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru, after tortuous experiences in life and wanderings without food and shelter and undergoing painful trials and crossing of spiritual stages, came to this place at Pothencode, in the year 1968, making it His permanent abode. It was as per a divine intimation.

A small hut was made with bamboo sticks and coconut leaves in the wild environment which at that time was surrounded by thorny bushes, wild animals and serpents. This was the nascent beginning of the great monument – the Parnasala, which stands before us today in all splendors.

The Parnasala – originally meaning a hermitage made of leaves has, apart from its meaning of simplicity and spiritual significance, an additional meaning, symbolized by its lotus shape. It is a meaning which takes us to the sublime experience of beauty, tranquility and divine joy, which is implicit in the concept of Lotus and into which experience, the Parnasala lifts up our soul.

Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru spent His life discoursing about the epistemological change required in this unprecedented age of transformation, which unless heeded can lead humanity to a civilizational cul-de-sac or a rupture in the march of humanity towards peace and progress.

Guru took great risk as well as pain to separate the clutches of religion from the pure joy and freedom of spiritual experience. The Secular Spirituality propounded by Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru is based on this separation of religion from the truth of spiritual experience.

Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru struggled to guide the downtrodden people to the knowledge of life-principles vital for soul enrichment and social progress – a knowledge that had been denied to them for several centuries in the name of tradition and culture. The Guru guided them and lifted them up to an astounding level of spiritual understanding in order to unite them, to build up and nourish their families and the society to which they belonged through life supporting charitable activities and enterprises.

Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru tried to lighten the struggle of life by initiating a way of life – a community-living on which the members of the community can depend on to find the means of living together without any discriminative boundaries of caste, religion, class and gender differences. This model of living and growth which Guru envisioned based on the belief in the Oneness of God and mankind is a perfect model for the ailing civilization of our times.

The Parnasala of Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru represents all that is good in human endeavor to build up a unified world. It is one of the rarest monuments in the world and will be a land mark of great spiritual significance in the coming years. In addition to its status as ‘Gods Own Country’, Kerala will now become famous for the Parnasala; one might call the Parnasala as ‘Gods Own Hermitage’ or Home.

Let the bright light emanating from this most graceful edifice embrace the whole world and unite the heart of human beings in love and mutual respect, based on divine truths in nature. Navajayoti Sree Karunakara Guru has left behind the legacy of a Guru-Disciple order, the splendid gem of which is Her Holiness Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini, who guides Santhigiri Ashram as its spiritual head and whose tireless prayers and conception for the last ten years have born fruit in this blossoming of the Parnasala into a magnificent divine structure of global importance.

Astral Pollution of Atmosphere

Gurucharanam Saranam

Astral Pollution of Atmosphere
(Sacred words of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru)
Translated from the original Malayalam


Whatever our ancestors have established, let it be truth or untruth, is the ethics. How did we conduct ourselves in it? Kali is the fourth era. When we say Kali we are made to believe that it is the age of ignorance or the age of ignorant people. But this concept is absolutely incorrect.

There are four Vedas which have been divided for the four yugas. This division has been made by a person called Vyasa or Krishnadwaipayana. However that may be, this Knowledge has astonished us. How can we now observe the Dharma of Kali?

By telling that ‘Kali is with Sudra’, the Sudratwa (the quality of being Sudra) has been irrevocably established. When it was pronounced that Kali is with Sudras, some people felt superior and some others felt inferior. Some thought that they were a group of the downtrodden.

What is the Dharma of Kali? The other three yugas have been actualized. If any shortcomings have occurred in that actualization, the Kali Yuga and its heir the Sudra are there for its correction. For that, the Sudra has to acquire knowledge. Thus the Sudra who acquires the knowledge is also becoming the authority of the Satya Yuga. No one becomes an authority just like that. For that one has to acquire wisdom, ability and efficiency. It should be based on knowledge given by divine dispensation. Ignorance about this divine dispensation has resulted in branding Kali as bad. The whole world has been functioning on this wrong assumption. This malfunctioning has come through the course of many ages; to be exact it is as old as twenty five chaturyugas. Therefore, it is not possible to grasp it by calculating. It is not possible to measure it even by going to the moon and studying. The length of a chaturyuga is 12000 divine years. One divine year is 365 human years. How could one comprehend it by calculating?

After living in this world we will go, leaving the body here itself. We are learning things till that time. Each day, small and great things will be learnt. It is a great act in the Ashram culture, wherein we first, praying a bit, respecting a bit, accept each other and regard the teachers, parents and preceptors. With such action, we ourselves can accomplish many things. The remaining is a great wisdom that is learned from the institutions of family, society and the nation when we grow up. That is the knowledge which we should cultivate materially and spiritually. But be careful in the exhibition of deception and pretentious frenzy in the name of that knowledge. Those who have stayed in the Ashram even for a day observing all this will realize that it (pretentious display) is not good. If those who are experienced in ashram-life were to join with them in the frenzy, they will become worse than the latter, because they will do all undesired things to outsmart them and thus become unbefitting to the country.

In the Ashram and through learning in the Ashram, we, with our wisdom, sacrifice, suffering and actions are compensating and fulfilling whatever lapses (are there) in our house and the country. This is the spiritual knowledge which we get from the Ashram. This is not sanyasa. It is not for adopting sanyasa one is coming to the Ashram, having faith or staying (in the Ashram); but it is for learning with their lives. That was what ancient kings had done. Even Lord Krishna studied in an Ashram. An Ashram is such a great institution where (great souls like) Krishna learnt.

‘Aa’ (‘Aa’ means that), ‘Shram’ (‘Shram’ is effort) – Ashram. The core aspect of every Ashram is to work transmitting love, respect and humility for the good of the world. This is the education which is gained from the Ashram. Instead, there is no meaning in saying that ‘I had been to the Ashram for the sake of it and learnt Vedas, Vedanta, music and dance’. All these can be got from anywhere.

There is a relief from all sorts of problems after the present prayer (Akhandanama) was started without interruption in the Ashram. When the Trimurthi system was relied on, there were results in the early stages. Gradually, there began occurrences of failures; nothing worked including the curing of diseases. The present prayer was received by two persons as oracle. It was received at Varkala itself. But since my name appears in it, I did not permit to do it. But a message (oracle) was received that it should be chanted and strengthened. I referred this to Pattani Swami (the spiritual guide of Guru). Then he said: ‘At present, you will not know who you are. For that, a time will come. Only after your time, it will be understood sufficiently. It is for the whole universe’.

It was in 1973 it was realised that the Akhandanamam is the most appropriate thing. The conviction is that Nature had been preparing for this for a long time in advance. There are people here who have been praying this daily from the very beginning. But most of them have not understood what it is being done for. There are many reasons for it. Most people have come to think (of prayers) that if the blessing of a god or goddess is received, everything is attained.

Another type of awareness is the practice of satiating (the deity) with one-day ‘ahuti pooja’ or ‘adakki pooja’ (certain prayer offerings to the deity) accompanied by vows and offerings. There are many temples in Travancore and Malabar which conduct this type of one-day ‘adakki pooja’ as the most important ritual. There are such temples in Thiruvananthapuram, Vaikkam, Ettumanur in Travancore and from Kodungallur to Kasargode in Malabar. These include the temples of Parasurama. Neither we nor the people with higher wisdom than us know why these have been built as such big temples with outer and inner courtyards filled with ornamentation works. Our forefathers, or let us so consider that Kshatriyas, have done it with a mind to show off their power.

An attempt has been made here to unite us by the Vaishnava, Saiva and Saktheya cults. But people will not get united in that manner because these three cults have come with three different characters. What is required for unification is certain wisdom. What knowledge can we get from these (traditions) which have been led into decay with embellishments, music, dance and din? Let us take Kathakali itself. It has been acclaimed as Kerala’s own original (art form). Absorbing the consciousness of coining names for each sect and sub-sect, categorizing them into many folk arts like Theyyam, which even the government promotes - in such a situation, how much have we progressed, how much have we taken, how much could we understand? Do we have time even to think about this? Even if we have thought about it, it is as if a cruel fate of time that never allows us to unite has entangled all people, leading to the path of annihilation.

All of us know about the Dharma called Sanatana. But what is Sanatana, what is Haindva - we are in a quandary unable to know it with discernment. Sanatana means to function with the knowledge of the Ages. But we do not know what these Ages are. We do not know how to adapt to these Ages. The Satya Yuga has gone with its innate goodness. From the Treta Yuga, we have lived according to the dictates of the karmic propensities.

We have come to this world after many generations. We have very little time in this life. What can we learn during this short span of time? Can the wealth of knowledge left behind by the ages be learnt to exhaustion? Therefore, the subject we should learn is the Dharma of Kali. The Dharma of Kali is not based on caste or religion. It is a benevolent aspect that should come about in the dharma of mankind all over world. Though attempts are made to suppress it to the extent possible in the name of freedom or whatever else, one should realise the changes that have occurred during the past fifty years.

Especially, when we evaluate the intelligence of the children born during the past twenty years, be it good or bad, we will find that they are more intelligent than us. This can be observed visibly in the children of the age of two to three years. Even though all these changes have occurred empirically, we have been informed that Kali is bad and ruinous. And this misconception has been ‘served’ all over the world. How can we change this concept? Many people are convinced that we cannot change this. But, we can change it. It is for that purpose, we have to work hard. If we are unable to change it, what is the benefit to the next generation? In the past twenty five chaturyugas itself, how many great men have come; they themselves could not change according to the Dharma of Kali or change others. Then what is the fate of ordinary people?

There are millions and millions of souls, of those who have died after worshiping in a wrong manner either evil or benign powers, existing like a scourge in the atmosphere. They exist as atmospheric pollution (or astral pollution). The scourge of this atmospheric pollution indeed affects all of us equally. It is said here about the whole human world. I do not know how many of us are aware of this aspect of truth. I am saying that this can indeed be changed even when the atmosphere exists in this manner. Of course, this is a big issue.

When we talk about the knowledge of our ancestors, whether they have the karmic attainments in the measure of ten, five or ten thousand years? How can we tell them about how the karmic propensity of a yuga is interlinked with dharma. That which is described as the ‘karmic propensity of a yuga’ exists as long as the soul exists. In what way can we transform it?

We should transfer this knowledge to our children. The children growing in front of you should not be thrown to the ‘knowledge’ evolved in the past. Children below the age of twenty to twenty five years, irrespective of gender, caste or creed should be enabled to effect a transformation which will lead all people to a benevolent destination. Within a period of a hundred years, how many millions of souls who have come and lived in this world and gone back with ‘karmadosha’ (karmic error) exist as atmospheric pollution! It is not the pollution of a thousand or ten thousand years. The pollution of indeed twenty five chaturyugas is here. Though we might have to face a lot of difficulties and hardships, this pollution can be removed. For that there is a God-given benevolence here.

It is not for a (particular) caste, religion or doctrine. If one doctrine is concentrated upon, what shall we do with the others? Kali Yuga is the most appropriate time for actualizing this. I have realized this truth, perceiving and experiencing with my life. God has permitted to accept this Kali-Dharma in all its certitude. In order to take it up in its absoluteness through the children growing up in front of you, and in order to beget the ability in each one for actualizing it, you accept this. Melt in sorrow to whatever extent though you may, this characteristic of accumulated pollution cannot be removed by you from them. It is a great fortune if you can take it up as a great Dharma.

What we have so far seen and heard are all a series of miraculous acts inspired by a whole range of subtle beings from demon to deity. The frenzy trance which is a ‘test’ (pariksha) of the presence of the deity worshipped is one such phenomenon. All that was said and done to myself by those who were possessed by deities while at Santhigiri Varkala comes to my mind. A girl had come there who was possessed by an evil spirit (which she said, was) ‘Madhura Meenakshi.’ Another person was possessed by an evil spirit called Kalliyankattu Neeli, as advanced and powerful as the first. In Southern Kerala this spirit is known as Yakshi. There are numerous similar spirits based on tombs and mausoleums.

If you concentrate upon them, then these evil forces will appear in front of you. They would utter certain words of greetings outwardly and inwardly, and making certain odd sounds, tell us about matters which we have never thought of or heard of. They would speak of things we have done in the distant past and forgotten; and of the deeds done by our forefathers. They would express an exact knowledge about our objects of worship as well. If the soul is that of a person who belonged to a prophetic religion, it would quote a few words from the prophet and continue on its own illustrating the points.

All this is the perversion of an evil spirit who does not have any knowledge or attainment in that path (that prophet´s path). If it happens to have some knowledge, the performance would be more convincing. If this is the case with a lower spirit, how much more impressive would be the words of spirits which have attained the stages of a deva (deity) or a rishi (sage). It may be difficult for us even to understand. The reason for this is the ignorance of the essence of the four enunciations that came through a preceptor in the line of the Manu: ‘Aham Brahmasmi,’ ‘Ayameva Brahma,’ ‘Ayamatma Brahma,’ ‘Tat Twam Asi.’

Those who think on how these four enunciations got formed or how they were spread could be very few. What can we do then with the knowledge produced by a kind of scholars who do not have any knowledge? In this way, rights and wrongs have got mixed up through the ages. It is impossible to tell how many souls are there who have evolved into the stages of deva, devi and rishi following countless paths of yoga and jnana, against this background.

It is not humanly possible to tell one from the other and act accordingly. During Sri Rama’s time, it was a Brahmarakshas (a powerful being in the subtle plane) who came to block the fire sacrifice of sage Viswamitra. This has been included in the myriads of miracles of Hanuman in the Ramayana; this is an example. There is an account of an incident in which Hanuman carried and brought a hill of medicinal herbs (Marundu vazhum mala – Maruthua mala) and so souls like this will appear in front of a man of deep devotion and say that a particular thing will happen in a particular way; it will exactly happen as predicted. Would it be surprising then if the devotee develops a pride about himself when four or five such incidents have happened exactly as predicted? The reality which the devotee has experienced would eventually lead to dosha (bad effects).

Souls like these present in this atmosphere are not two or four thousand but millions and millions. We should understand that they are capable of misleading growing children in any way (they like). The phenomena of becoming a medium of Hanuman or of various male and female deities and the paths of miracle working of rishis (ascetics) are all marks of being led astray thus.

Any man who follows these paths will be led astray. The realities submerged here and there in the story of Sri Rama are indicative of such straying. Rama Teertha and Shirdi Sai – are they lesser people? There is a story among Christians, a handful of water was taken from a pool of water and a cavity formed up to the extent of the water taken.

The human mind can magnify small matters and store them within. If such matters as quoted above enter into the mind, what would happen, can be (easily) guessed. Such matters of jnana and siddhi (miracles, predictions, etc.) happen in abundance not only in India but the world over. What is more, all these are matters that occur amongst people always. Whether people believe in them or not, they give great importance to this. Agnikkavati, Garudakkavati, Manushya Kkavati etc. are rituals celebrated widely among Hindus. There are people, possessed by deities, who can dance wearing a chain of red hot iron around their body and work miracles. How could one not be wonder-struck when all this is practiced on an ordinary human body? This is considered highly divine; this is our knowledge.

Walking over water and walking through fire are similar practices. How is the rationalist to know the inner impulse of this? A. T. Kovoor lived in Ceylon amongst those happenings; why did he not put an end to those miracles there? Would it not have been better to bring about changes in these practices there than coming to India and giving lectures? What to say except that all this is worse than bursting fire crackers in the presence of deaf people. The witnessing of one such ‘achievement’ is in my memory. It was an occasion when some pooja was going on in my family shrine. The man who conducted the worship (shanti) was an oracle (velichappad) who came from a distance of a kilometer. After blessing (the crowd), he hacked his face with a ceremonial sword in his hand and the flesh was hanging from that cut. People wanted to take him for getting some medical treatment but he would not agree. When he came out of the temple, his face was intact. Who would not be wonder-struck by seeing this?

A big spear will be taken and a thread will be run through it first; this will be pierced through the cheeks of the devotee. This will be handed over to the next devotee. He would pierce through a lemon and then he would pierce his cheeks also and hand it over to the next one. I have seen three or four persons pierced through with one spear like this. This happens mostly in Subrahmanya temples. This is the way we make projections as the divine. How many illusions could a mere magician create before us! Who does not know there is no good, either big or small, coming from miraculous feats? (The so called) manifestation of God has been happening in the midst of us in this manner. What should we do? How should we go forward? The man who gets into the frenzy this way turns into an evil spirit after death, an extremely evil spirit. Staying in a variety of places of prayer, they would act in many ways. Their acts would appear to be real also.

If you go to Nagore, Beema Mosque and the resting place of Peerukkannu Sahib in Takkala, you can see continuous frenzy trances in dance from 6 in the evening to 3 after midnight. It would stop after 3. In case it continues, it would be a consciously created movement of the body, an act merely put on. If philosophers and scholars engage in scholarly elaborations, ignoring all this (reality), do you think it would disappear? This matter cannot be wished away by saying that it does not exist. Asserting the reality, without doing anything about it, cannot make anyone a jnani – a man of true knowledge- either. For, it has particular characteristics filling the atmosphere as astral pollution. It would not be removed by giving lectures, only in front of a jnani does it – the spirit possessing a person- get subdued completely.

The jnani would not exhibit frenzy trances or any tactic. In his presence the evil vanishes. This would happen in slow course without doing anything in particular. The power of the evil decreases in time and would depart. However, if the members of the person´s family do not recognize and value the grace received, the evil could return. Or another being of the same nature could take charge of the person.

Millions and millions of evil spirits are present in the atmosphere as astral pollution. This is what the condition of the world is. If a person gets possessed intensely for a few days continuously, he would behave like a madman who has lost his senses. When it becomes severe after several attacks, the person could bite his own tongue and lips or grind his teeth and can even pass away. Is it possible for any rationalist, scholar or philosopher to say that such severe convulsions do not happen? Would it be possible for the doctors who look after the sick to say that? It is such a negative force that had inspired the killing of Sri Krishna.

It is this force that caused the Prophet Mohamed to regret: ‘Oh the world is ruled by jinns!’ Thereafter the Prophet resorted to austerities for three months and left his body. That is the only course he could possibly take. Is it not known to the religious scholars and theoreticians? It has no benefit for us to either prove or disprove the reality through argument. We should have at least the knowledge to say that such influences cannot be removed.

Status epilepticus which creates convulsions as in tetanus is a result of severe epilepsy. This is one among the many afflictions caused by the influence of evil (spirits). This sort of disease is seen in most upper class families. Some children influenced by spirits go blind or deaf; some others – both male and female- turn mad and have to live with the symptoms of madness till the end because of this spirit influence. Many instances of these maladies can be seen among the children of the present generation. What do we gain from Yuktivada –rationalism - and Muktivada – liberation theory - in such a situation?

More people affected by the diseases from spirit influence are found in countries outside India. Who knows where the souls of all these people go after death. I wish the arguments for and against the existence of spirit influence is dropped, knowing the kind of diseases it causes stationed as it is in the atmosphere. People have a habit of dismissing the symptoms of spirit possessions as madness or lunacy. There are retarded children in the families of many doctors. Treatment for their abnormal behaviour and enlargement of head is not effective even when they are in their childhood. If at all it is effective, it could only be described as God´s Grace. In other cases, they have no way but to live with their condition.

What do the patriarchs, rationalists and scholars have to say about this. This is characteristic of the diseases affecting the children of the wealthy. It would be better to take care not to transfer this ‘wealth’ to the coming generations and destroy them. Think if you happen to read this note of objection, being written to bring to light the ignorance of generations. The children might be playing the roles of father, uncle, husband or wife. Will there be any change if you call them scoundrel, mean minded or in a literary way Bhadrakali. These mean souls adapt to fashionable ways and the foolish call this sophistication. Such people are groomed as tigers and lions by the ignorant knowledge mongers of despicable character, who have learned to oppose everything. Each of us needs to think about the title that should be given to this (kind of) human being.

As a solution there is only one thing we need to acquire through the Grace of God. Without any denial, by arguing that it is true or untrue, try to assimilate the truth that exists. When you perceive any such feature, obey the Great Soul who has informed this to us. In order that the mistake exemplified through the lives of Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Rama Teertha, Jesus, Prophet Mohamed and others be cleared from our midst there is only one way. That has been already mentioned. In order to wash away the atmospheric pollution, maintain a Guru-Disciple relationship with the Great Soul who has come as your contemporary. There are a lot of things that can be understood through such a Guru-Disciple relationship.

(Courtesy: Janmadina Padippu, Santhigiri Publications)