Love in the Guru-Disciple relationship

Gurucharanam Saranam

Love in the Guru-Disciple relationship

((The Divine Words of Navajyotisri Karunakara Guru translated from original Malayalam)

In the beginning, during the ignorant ages, people lived like animals or evil spirits. Evolving from that state, today we have reached to the status of ‘Self Manifest Dharma’. (the spiritual status wherein one is able to perceive the self-evident cosmic Truth). What is the ‘radiant substance’ in that conceptual pursuit, how should I place myself in that – this is the present state of thinking in this Kaliyuga. This state is full of all qualities. Churning good and bad alike and absorbing its’ essence, the world is moving on in its track.

Imbibing in ourselves this efficiency of living and imparting it to our children, our effort is to foster it through the generation. Almighty God has shown to us to do it in the best way. For instance, different images surface in our mind without our being aware of it. When we say Bhakti, Yoga, Karma or Jnana, there arise in our mind different reflections on each of this. When small kids see their father, they have one image, while the grown ups have a different one. It is the same when we see the mother. Thus, when we come across with every person, different people will have different thoughts. Likewise, a painter or singer has different mental pictures.

How did this image come into the mind of man? That is because of the inner fragrance of each person. We develop this little by little. This is a secret within us even without our knowledge about it. Like this, several images develop in us, one toward God too. About God, we have a mixed image arising out of our different thoughts, which are then blended with beauty, humility, truth, fortune and self-esteem. That arises on its own from us. This is mind’s association in the nature of its evolution. It has to be experienced and cannot be communicated by words.

Bhakti (divine love or devotion) is like a great mountain of love. That is a path of love. That love is the feeling of blessedness towards everything, the feeling of sacredness, which comes in us spontaneously. For children, the love would be for toys or tasty things. With the progression of age, that will transform in two ways. One will be in performing work with all sincerity, while the other is of sensuality. This we know from experience, but cannot explain how.

Transforming thus ourselves, when we reach a Mahatma who embodies this truth and who acts with humbleness, truth and self-sacrifice, or to a concept similar to this, we become aware of its profundity. It is such a great blessedness. We are living in its companionship (i.e. Guru). What we, who live like this, should think is that ‘I should absorb this in my soul and develop it inch by inch and work for the benefit of my contemporaries, home, society and nation’.

Some may see and understand this and go. Some others are not like this. They would undergo whatsoever sacrifice for the sake of others and strive very hard. Although all are human beings, for some people, seeing this type of work itself will cause annoyance. For some others, (it will be) some selfishness in the nature of love; or, whatever others might do, there will be the ignorance to give value or respect and understand it. Thus, we have shortcomings in all aspects. We will have (good) culture only when we become prepared to change it. For that, (one has to) come to some public area of work and after understanding the vice and virtue in that, we should again come to the path that demands sacrifice. Like that, we have to elevate ourselves and proceed to take up the sacrifice of imparting the virtuousness of this blessed path to all individuals among us. It is through such doers of sacrifice, today we have got accustomed (to this path) this much.

How shall we take up this work? Through whom shall we take it? All of us have knowledge. There is also the interest to take up all this. But when the occasion comes, it will not be possible to do it; or if it is done, it will not be beneficial to each other. There will be many obstacles owing to which we will not be able to fulfill our actions. We should march ahead removing these obstacles. After thinking and deciding well what should be done for this, we should go in that direction.

For Hindus, first there is the ‘Bhajana Mattam’ (i.e. venue for devotional singing). Then there is the temple. After that is the ashram. Similarly, for Christians, there is the ‘Vanakkamaasapura’ (a dwelling for prayer), then the church, after that the Metrapolita. For Muslims, it is ‘Taikkav, Mosque and Mecca. It is in this order, the wise has been doing it. Each type of knowledge has been familiarized to us in this way. That knowledge has been enjoined in all religions. What is the meaning of this enjoinment? Combining spiritual and worldly matters through life, it has been brought up linked with each other like a chain. Otherwise, people will leave it off.

The Guru-Disciple relationship is not like that. Surrendering all protection as well as punishment at one place (at the feet of Guru), everything is gained from there and brought back (into our life). This is the love in the Guru-Disciple relationship. My savior as well as chastiser is only You! In a way, it is like the rule of a king. But it is not the relationship between the king and populace. It is the learning through life. Making him do something in every birth, with his life and devotion, love and respect, gathering all that he does with its purity, washing it with humility, indefinable love is being given by providence. There is no word for this except divine magnanimity. We should do every action absorbing this magnanimity.

There will be Father, Mother, Brother or Sister only when we give regard to it. The status that we give to God also is similar. Before we commence drinking water or eat something, we close our eyes for a second. We used to do that when we begin to break up earth with a shovel or take up tools or pen. It is a general belief that drivers, boatmen and mahouts do not respect anything. But the driver while holding the steering and the mahout while taking up the hook will for a moment remain there closing the eyes. The mahout is praying that when the elephant sees the hook, it should behave. It might trample him to death or pierce him down. Similar is the case with boatman. It is enough he observes a shred of raincloud, great would be the upheaval inside him.

Those who fly in the sky with great celebration, we might think that they are free like birds, but once he enters into it, his attention would be riveted to it until he touches down his destination. So, where all should be our attention? The duty of Guru is to keep us in such concentration(s) first.

Now, we are living in a small path of knowledge. Not only that, we have commenced the acting of a part. Then first it should be learnt how love in the innate human nature should be nourished. We have a habit of sharing love with and without bias. We should also learn how this love should be at every position. Let us be learned, ignorant or whatever, only by sharing this love, we can advance in this world. We are beginning to learn the greatness of love knowing it intimately in everything.

Devotion (Bhakti) is the fullness of love. In whatever way there would be other thoughts (knowledge or pursuits in life), it would not be possible for it to go above true devotion. The nature of devotion is to see one’s deity or Guru as God. A person, who desires God’s love, might experience limitless sorrows. That time, one should console himself that it is for removing the filth of his sins and strongly establish himself in love again and again. Since he would be able to undergo all sorrows filled with love and ambrosia, when his sacrifice is seen, it would not be understood as sacrifice. Sorrow should come essentially. Although he is convinced that whatever he does is good, if his contemporaries accept it, he will not know what sorrow is. Without experiencing lot of sorrows, it will not be known what sacrifice is. Let it be that sorrow is not experienced. Is it possible for him then to understand another’s sorrow? In that case, he will neither know it from self-experience nor able to know the sorrow of others.

The love that he will have for other living beings depends upon his surrender to God. His eminence will be in keeping the purity of his character by hating nothing and seeing everything with love. Knowing all sorrows, with loving behavior and knowing it experientially, become identical with it. Then the seat of sorrows as well as the seat of happiness is oneself. He can see the earth as a flowerbed and see the forests with full of stones and thorns as a garden. When he reaches at such places, through the bliss he experiences, he can enjoy the essence of all beauty in the world. He might see the vision of God through it. He will have an overflowing mind, which can see God in everything. This is what is said as ‘inner intelligence’ (mati buddhi). The devotion, which is unlike this, is for gratification of desires. That type of devotion will in the end, cause frustration.

When the pile of desires becomes broken, there will be sorrow. Even If the devotion is lenient, there will be sorrow. Let a person be a true devotee or otherwise, there will be many tearful surges of weeping. In fact, he sees with great delight the form of his personal deity in every sentient and insentient nature. Then he weeps unknowingly with the love that made him witness the glory of the Supreme. Thus, a devotee who has experienced God in different ways would shed tears out of divine love. Despite all this, those who have no knowledge to see and understand love, when he is tormented with tales about him about which he is not aware, he would weep thinking that these people torment me without knowing the truth and whether God does see this or not.

(75^th Janmadina Poojita Samarpana Souvenir)

Yugadharma and the Householders

Guruvani
(The Sacred Words of Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru)

Yugadharma and the Householders
(Translated from the original Malayalam)



Material reality is very important to mankind. Disregarding physical phenomena nothing can be understood. Our body arises from karma (action); that is materiality. What can be achieved without the physicality of the human body? To assume the Dharma of the body, Karma is necessary. Only the knowledge gained through (the medium of karma) will be useful to us. Only that knowledge has a locale. How have all of us - men and women, small and big - transmitted this knowledge through our lives?

There was a time when a disease was diagnosed from the pulse. When it was modernized it has become impossible without touching the blood, bone and marrow. Still, wherever and whatever is examined, it is not known where the disease is located. All the undiagnosed diseases would be covered up by jargon too difficult to understand. We are enslaved by some jargon or the other like this. There should be a change to this error.

It is the householders, grihasthasramis, who should correct this fault arisen from habit. Only they can do it. They have to struggle a lot for it. Many more hardships will have to be undergone compared to what we undergo for the sake of husband, wife, children, education, wealth and power. For setting this karma right one should decide to make one’s own house the very starting point. It should be handled in such a way that everybody can understand it. For, from the time of birth until one is able to walk, it is in the home-environment that one grows. For a mother (girl-child) who is brought up thus, that tendency (learnt from home) would be in her blood, marrow and flesh. For developing such inclination in mothers, first the men themselves should inculcate it. The home environment should be thus developed as far as possible. When such effort is coupled with the accumulation of virtue, punya, the prevailing method of education itself will change the world over.

When there is no clarity of aim with awareness, the God-given blessedness of the earth itself will be lost owing to a deviation from the course of mankind’s (right) karma and dharma, resulting in children who sow ruin all-round. (Hence) it should be done in accordance with the changing times. That it has not been done this way is the reason why thinkers, rulers, physicians, householders in the world and social activists regret they have got into a vicious circle. Even those who, standing in the midst of people, dish out moral teachings and Vedantic aphorisms taking the name of great preceptor-traditions are convinced that their own lives and the whole life of the society that they lead are caught in this vicious circle. These are people who do not think about the matters that have come by divine dispensation or evaluate the Yuga Dharma. The populace, therefore, being caught and trodden under the grip of devotion, liberation, rationalism or atheism has moulded the householders in such a manner that they have become ready to be thrown into a big fire-pit that is looming large.

All the technologies discovered by the West to save themselves, enduring shivering cold and snowfall, are pitched towards us to spell ruin. Though we possess here a nature suitable for living by whatever means and a land rich with agricultural produce, we remain idle, hands locked, making others to work in the manner of slaves, acting as the lords - the consequence of which we are experiencing ourselves today. The result of that very karma has come back to us. We have got a situation, wherein, after cultivation, in order to crop the produce, the consent of someone else has to be sought. If the crop is to be harvested full, one has to stand with folded hands before the hewer. Otherwise half of the crop might be left uncut in the field. Thus we are in the midst of all kinds of degradation. We have no drinking water, no law and justice. What kind of freedom do we have? We, who do not have freedom, say we are free. Except polluted air, what do we have to take in? Aren’t the five fundamentals, the panchabhuthas, themselves polluted? In our country the situation is at least a little different because there are no big factories and companies functioning in our land. The world falls apart like this while our notion is that the world is progressing. Ignorant multitude of people, who mindlessly glorify science and technology! (There are) some others who are aloof from all this. There are yet other ignorant people who say yes to whatever is told. This karmic circle makes your life empty because it does not let you think or make others think about the perpetual loss and destruction taking place in the world. I am reminding you again about those intimations being given to the world for the past many years as the Words of God.

The technology of the Westerner - who tries to show superiority by writing, sketching and experimenting to prove whether the greatest invention is ‘ours’ or ‘yours’ - not being satisfied with the assault from both land and sky, is destroying the people through ideology, activism and government. I am reminding you once again that the householders of the whole world ought to be vigilant; otherwise they are preparing themselves to cast their own future generations into a vast fire pit that is getting formed. Because, whatever way it is created, do the parents have any alternative other than letting the children be in this very society?

What does each one do in the name of politics? Politics is a thing (karma) which gets extinct in a day and fated to be so. But the youngsters who are unaware run after politicians and take politics for their life. They start reflecting about it only when half their life is over. By that time, turning back becomes impossible because they are not in a position to start afresh. Ask any leader, who has crossed the middle age, in private. And he would agree that it (his entry into politics) was a mistake. If it is considered seriously, you will realize that this is an outrageous wrong being done to the younger generation. But we have not realized at all what a great wrong it is! This evil will vanish from the very face of the earth, if the householders could unite and act with a will. It is enough for you to understand that it is deception and it will disappear on its own. Until you realize this situation for yourself you will not be able to listen to and believe in any counsel. This karma (the politics of today) does not have to be eradicated willfully; you need only perform your duty with awareness.

What is that duty? It is fulfilling the karma (efforts) accrued through previous births. It is not possible for you to act from the awareness of all past lives and achieve the completion. It is not necessary for you to know it either. It is enough to learn to believe. This is what Jesus said that your faith will save you. You should learn to have faith. A Source is being given to you for faith. Remaining firm on that Source, everything can be accomplished one by one. You, your wife and children are involved in the same karma. What you attain should be attained by them also. The father should be one who has attained love through faith, karma through love, virtue (punya) through karma, and good fortune through virtue. The womb of a mother suitable for this is also necessary. Have we brought up such virtuous mothers? A father, who has to be god for the children, should he not reach at least the level of knowledge of showing the path to God? Your search should be for this. Whatever else you find for them would not do. This is karma. This is virtue. The father and mother who reach this virtuousness actualize the ‘progeny of the world’. This is not the accomplishment of the renunciate, the sanyasi. What can be done if you householders live abandoning this? Caste, religion or class is not applicable to the life of householders. The dharma of the age should lead you as the light.

This is the Age of Kali. The Dharma of Kali is the guidance given by the Guru who has come (to the earth plane) extinguishing all karma, going beyond tantric and mantric rituals and actualizing the Saakteya, Saiva and Vaishnava traditions and (who has) earned the right for liberation through cycles of birth accumulating virtues in life. Kali is brimming in a manner that declares that even the teachings of Jesus and Mohammed are not enough. If the Dharma of Kali is to be accomplished, the wife and mother in our households should be virtuous like the wife and mother of Prophet Mohammed. Initially the prophet could not make out the Word from Light. The Prophet thought that it was an illusion. It was his wife and mother who understood and encouraged him. They were of such goodness and qualification.

The householders should be able to bring up such a girl (wife) who would say (to her husband) that, “I would pray for you so that you may attain whatever blessedness.” Only if you do karma of this much virtuousness, you can become the heirs to the work of redeeming the Age. It cannot be got by one who has disqualification in karma, no matter how high his status.

If this ever revolving orbit of planets is to offer us beneficence remaining in their paths, the grace of God is indeed essential. People should get this knowledge through the Governments. This should be accepted by the people and governments as much suitably.

How can one think and realize the possibility of interstellar destruction, if we disregard these matters, immersed as we are in mirage-like rhetoric and words of consolation? We must maintain constant vigilance to accept this physical duty by our life, if we are to bring up India as the basis of prosperity and the true source of the Word of God.

The Difference Between Guru and the Deities

GURUVANI

(The Sacred Words of NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)

Translated from the original Malayalam



The Difference Between Guru and the Deities



What is the range of the term ‘Guru?’ From someone who does a job to a person engaged in the virtuous work of (imparting) self-realization comes under the definition of Guru. Leaving the field of occupation, when one reaches the spheres of pranamayam (energy sheath), jnanamayam or vijnanamayam (knowledge and wisdom sheaths), mere bookish knowledge becomes inadequate as instructions are to be sought here.


The lack of punyam in the soul gets expressed as various diseases in the body. This has to be cured by employing different methods. Textual knowledge does not help in this. Where textual knowledge does not help, that path of dharma, which enables one to seek merit (punya) through karma (action), helps. Such dharma has influence on the soul as well.


The dynamic of action being such, action without dharma hinders the soul and the body in course of time. A person follows his basic instincts and propensities (vasanas) accrued from past births.


Some may do more good deeds and some tend to do bad deeds more. Sometimes, the individual is not in a position to distinguish between good and bad. Therefore when he does a bad deed, taking it to be a good one, his entire activity turns bad.


Unless one confesses to Guru about one’s negative karma, no solutions can be found and one comes to a dead end. In an excess of devotion (bhakti) some resort to strange deeds and invite people’s displeasure. Yet others imagine themselves to be persons of still higher attainment and would act and even move like a yogi or mystic.


In course of time, the activity of such persons loses clarity. It becomes incomprehensible (even) to themselves. They will not be able to assess for themselves whether the path of initiation (upadesa margam) or the path of concentrating on a favourite deity (ishta devata sampradayam) is suitable for them. Beings in the subtle plane start manifesting before a person who follows either of these paths for some time.


Such manifestations would be according to the evolution of the soul of the devotee. If there is a manifestation, the devotee will be full of zeal in his pursuit. His devotion (bhakti) would also increase. He would start getting visions in the waking state of consciousness (jagrat), dream state (swapnam), profound sleep (sushupti), the higher fourth state (turiyam) and a still higher state (turiyatitam).


The inner visions start with the elementals, go on to lower beings such as matan, maruta, and mantramoorti, and to apparitions of mystics such as yogi, jnani, karmi and so on. Demonic beings capable of creating powerful movements in the five elements are among them.


These are the ‘lords’ in some households and ‘gods’ in some others. The devotee who has visions of them might even get the feeling that these ‘lords’ and ‘gods’ are pleased in his presence. He would then feel proud that he has attained certain heights. He might get visionary experience in dream as well as in the waking state. He would become respected in the locality. In terms of the soul’s growth, some of these persons get stuck at this stage.


If there is no Guru to guide, at this stage a situation may arise, which invites the displeasure of family and neighbourhood. They could say bad things about him and he may even be physically beaten up. Since the devotee has extrasensory experiences, he would still cling on to his object of worship. He would carry on as if his experience is spiritual. He would indeed have many matters to present as authentic! As indicated above, there would also be deeds to his credit that ought to make those around him believe (in him).


Those who follow the path of worshipping a favourite deity like matan, maruta, or mantramoorti would sprinkle holy ashes, engage in tantric rites and initiation rituals, in order to earn people’s respect. These are minor tricks inspired by the deity itself. The devotee and those who believe in him get caught and even incarnations could be wasted this way. This could have happened in past births also (to the devotee).


The practitioners of such devotion might take to wandering, and their end might come on the roadside somewhere. Yet others would practice yoga, initiation through mantras and worship of favourite deities and just pass away (without much progress).


Some work towards altered states of consciousness like pratyaharam and dharana related to the samadhi state. Striving thus, they earn certain spiritual experiences as well as perceptions of life. As they are meticulous about their personal cleanliness and bodily purity, they will be held in high esteem at home and outside.


As they go forward, the lack of soul’s merit (punya) as well as the needs of the body will block their progress. Here things get mixed up. Correction and direction can be received at this stage only from a Guru; Guru becomes inevitable here. That is the depth of the riddle that is Guru.


When visions, as indicated above, are received, and 7444 of them realized, an aspirant attains one ‘stage’. If an individual with a healthy body and punya in the soul strives relentlessly and consistently, it would take 181/2 years to complete this one stage.


Even such completion would take an aspirant (if he is a beginner in spiritual life) only to ‘Vetalanagaram...’ – the realm of powerful but dark (tamasic) beings. If a mistake is made at this level, one would stagnate at the same level through many births and deaths without progress. The line from the Gurugita, “aneka janma samprapta karma bandha vidahine”, could be reflecting this cycle of birth and death.


An aspirant could fall into such error whichever path he takes – be it jnana, karma or bhakti. Some who have come up in the jnana path also have written about this.


Sri Narayana Guru’s Daivachintanam refers to the same experience. It is from his spiritual knowledge that he draws and speaks. To get out of the negative, one must pursue the positive, he says. But he does not make it clear as to how to go about it.


It is one among millions and millions of tyagis (seekers who lead a life of self sacrifice) who becomes capable of getting such a perspective. Many souls incarnate and depart in a variety of ways. In all this there would be truth also. The truth, in words of dharma, is in the correction by discriminating between right and wrong.


A person who completes 70748 visions of this kind will evolve to a high plane (daivasannidhanam) moving closer to the Supreme. Until and unless the human race realizes the value of this great and inexplicable astral process, no one can even guess what the plight would be. Even the rationalists turn out to be exponents of futile efforts in this field.


More dangerous than these aspirants and rationalists who create perverse karmic streams are those poets and thinkers who present a world vision based on intellect, without an inkling of the gross-subtle-cause-effect (sthoolam-sooksmam-karanam-karyam) relationships. The above mentioned rationalism (yuktivada) and liberationism (muktivada) have led to the philosophy of people like Charvaka.


These people have a handicap. They don’t have the maturity of awareness that can lead them to their own liberation. But we keep in mind that they have the skill to open up the storehouse of knowledge of the entire world.


The effort in this area is of two types of devotion -- without using intelligence (mooda bhakti) and devotion born of knowledge (jnana bhakti). Of these, the second group pursues the path of jnana bhakti and will not have any touch with real spiritual experience.

The subjects that their intellects absorb and the writings of those who are in tune with them are of intense value to themselves; everything else would be senseless to them. But legs tire equally for the person who is chased, and the person who chases. Both will fall pathetically in the end. Rationalism and liberationism have only this much of essence.


But the real liberationist is not in these lists. The author of Gita has qualified him with great words: the one who combines intelligence with spiritual power – “budhya yukto yoga balena chaeva.”


Some of the scholars who enthrall people with their textual knowledge are projected as jnanis by some (other kind of) rationalists. There are also persons who are stuck in unthinking devotion (mooda bhakti) till the end. These are the type of people who were described earlier as scapegoats of the sorrow that is Vetalanagaram. People of textual knowledge, no matter how great they are, are slaves to this realm of the spiritual world.


The aspects of gross-subtle-cause-effect (sthoolam-sooksmam-karanam-karyam) are related to the soul’s karma and dharma. The Guru who lends gross-subtle-cause-effect to soul’s karma and dharma should be a bold doer with direct spiritual knowledge and should respect and consider the five elements (panchabhoota), five senses (panchendriya), five sheaths around the soul (kosas), the individual soul (jivatma), the Absolute (paramatma) and dharma.


Without Guru, the aspirant may reach the aberrant state of the liberationist/rationalist whose action does not bear any fruit.


Thiruvalluvar does not seem to have discussed dharma, artha, kama and moksha but he has made references based on them. It is not possible for an ordinary person to function without these.


As far as liberationism and rationalism are concerned, they do not rise up to any conceptual height. It does not help to forget the fact that at this point every one falls. Reason and liberation are two ideas which deserve special and serious consideration. Such consideration is a way to freedom.


The dharma of Guru is eternal and inscrutable. Guru is the giver of vision (knowledge) pertaining to the level of the atom, the indivisible totality (akhandata) and the object of one’s worship.


He possesses the clarity of knowing the past, present and future. He can impart that proof to others as well; he causes recurrence of their life situations, to reach a corrective solution.

The difference between Guru and deity is immense. A life without realizing this is fruitless. The deities worshipped – devas and devis - are nothing at all in comparison with the visionary disciple of such a Guru.

The Blessed Mantra of Peace

Gurucharanam Saranam

The Blessed Mantra of Peace
Dr. George Onakkur

In my reminiscence that had the luck of meeting Guru – Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru in person fills the fragrance of peace. That happened as fate would have. Like my honored friend Sri O.V. Vijayan (now late), I too was guided to the presence of Guru by our dear sister Usha. One day, O.V. Usha came to see me at my home. Rather than on her life of a poet, she talked more on her spiritual odyssey. That gave me a rare solemn feeling. To my question when I would be occasioned to the abode of Guru, her answer was, ‘always’. By her clarification further, I felt that Guru was expecting me extempore. If that was so, I should not delay it further, an inner voice persuaded me. Thus I was visited by the chance to travel the paths of prayer to Santhigiri.

My mind was almost full of uncertainty when I reached at the Ashram gate by noon. Wouldn’t be the Guru resting at this uncertain hour? Will my presence create disquiet in the tranquility? Doubts galore! But the moment I entered the Ashram lawns, the news that Guru was waiting for me came along, like a tender breeze. I walked up courageously to the proximity of that Foot.

Even today, I mentally prostrate before that gracefulness of the Rishi, who, clad in pure white, stretched both hands and held me aside, with serene smile. All uncertainties fled me and the ocean of my heart became tranquil, all the waves having subsided.

Not a word came out of me. I was standing bowing before that figure of tranquility.

‘Please sit down….’ Guru instructed and I obeyed.

‘Have you had your food?’ His words were caring.

‘I already had’.

‘That will not do. You may take something from here’. He instructed compassionately.

‘Surely then’, I responded.

Guru himself served me snacks and sweets. I felt no thirst or hunger. I experienced in the honeyed words, the grace of Guru what I had sought. There is no ideological exhortation, no spiritual advices. The bosom-touch of creation like that of a child lying in the lap of its mother! It was always like that. In all the days that I came to see Sri Karunakara Guru, I blissfully bathed in the milky ocean of love, earned the happiness of spiritual elation. This kind of bliss was rare in my too ordinary life. Everlasting, solemn encounters that lift one to vitality from the low planes of worldliness!

I continue the practice of visiting the Ashram searching for the precious moments of peace which the grace of Guru bestows. In Santhigiri, Guru is still present. That spiritual luminescence glows eternally blessing the devotees. I have had plenty of opportunities to be witness to that lively Presence during the meetings in the Ashram. What I experienced on those occasions is the elating blessings of Guru overflowing me. I have the convincing experience that Santhigiri is the central place of spirituality.

What attracts me most in the Ashram is the real peace that is gained by the disturbed minds. That happens in many ways. God should manifest as food before the hungry stomachs. For the sick, he should be a doctor. He should be the ambrosial words of wisdom for those who seek spiritual truth. In the initial period of my visit to the Ashram, I had understood that more than 500 people partook in the Annadanam (offering of free food) being conducted. I remember that that benediction was extremely filling me with pride. However, today it is solace to thousands, daily. The growth of Santhigiri in the field of Ayurveda treatment is amazing. A situation wherein worries of the mind and afflictions of the body get dissolved! For the soul and body to become equally healthy, the contribution of Santhigiri is matchless. Equally glorious is the studies and exhortations of Guru full of Guru’s ambrosial grace.

The great luminance of a new philosophy suitable for human uplift and cultural renaissance is brightening up this hillock with full of light. The message of Santhigiri is the basis for the development of human civilization untouched by the thoughts of caste and religious differences and the quietude produced by it. The contribution of Santhigiri is the Himalayan-like spiritual elevation wherein takes place the confluence of three such great streams – triveni sangam. That is the blessed mantra of enduring peace for the present times distressed by the disquiet and inglorious maladies of its own.

(The author is a well known Malayalam literature)
Courtesy: Janmadina Poojita Samarpanam Souvenir 2005, Santhigiri Publications
Translated by Mukundan P.R. from the original Malayalam

The Language of Secular Spirituality

Gurucharanam Saranam

The Language of Secular Spirituality
Mukundan P.R.


From time immemorial man has drawn several pictures and symbols of the Divine on this universal canvass. For millennia the divine was associated with celestial beings, gods and goddesses – the Roman gods, the Greek gods, the Mayan gods or the Egyptian or Indian gods well known among others. As time passed by and the consciousness of man evolved, man erased many of his old pictures and drew new ones. From the beginning of this new era of Kaliyuga more than 5200 years back, it was the age of great spiritual upheavals. In India, the Seers of the Upanishads, Sri Krishna and Buddha and other sages represent this lineage of spiritual masters who took human consciousness to new heights of sublime spiritual contemplation while disassociating themselves from the prevalent ritualistic tradition.

In the West too, a chain of masters appeared like Abraham, Moses and John the Baptist, before the birth of Christianity and Islam. One can find parallel to all spiritual ideologies in the world in the ancient Indian culture as they are in fact the spin off from the disintegration of Sanatana Dharma. India was truly the forerunner in original spiritual thoughts. But sadly, India could not be benefited from its spiritual bounty.

If the case of India, the supposed torch bearer of spirituality is thus dismal, neither encouraging is the situation in other parts of the world. Even the teachings of Moses, Jesus Christ or Prophet Mohammed could not succeed bringing peace to mankind. In the West, the institution of family has been almost completely collapsed, spewing unrest and instability in social life, with the graph of crimes and health crises spiraling up. More dangerous is the impending peril of natural calamities arising out of man’s greed and blind exploitation of natural resources.

It is distressing to note that man has bombed the surface of moon recently disturbing its divine serenity. Man’s attempt to tamper with the planetary system using science and technology is a dangerous trend. Above all is the campaign of terror and inhuman violence let loose by the fanatic fringe in the name of jihad and other parochial or fundamentalist ideologies.

The canvass of the universe has been dirtied beyond reparation with the putrefying carcasses of a bygone past suffocating the march of mankind to progress and peace. The time has come to draw a fresh picture of Divinity and to have a dialogue on the human prospect. The birth of NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru (1927 – 1999) is in line with this Divine concern. The divine mission of Guru is beyond the confines of all religious dogma. When Guru settled at His Ashram in Pothencode erecting a small hut, He was inaugurating a new spiritual ideology, which links and relates the past with the present meaningfully, in continuation with a Divine Will in Nature, encompassing the whole humanity.

Santhigiri Ashram has today grown into a reputed spiritual institution with thousands of followers in India and abroad. The Ashram believes in an action oriented spiritual life and has several enterprises in the area of healthcare and education, especially for the rejuvenation of Indian systems of medicine. Many eminent leaders, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, UPA Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi, the then leader of opposition Sri L.K. Advani et al visited the Ashram and shared the vision of the Guru with Her Holiness Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini, the present spiritual head of Santhigiri Ashram. Late Sri K.R. Narayanan, former President of India was greatly inspired by the Guru. He donated his ancestral property at Uzhavoor to Santhigiri Ashram for the establishment of a research institute for the promotion of Ayurveda and Siddha.

Today, the humble hut, the parnasala where Guru first made His abode, has been transformed into a giant lotus- shaped marble embellished structure, rare of its kind in the world, after a tireless work of ten years. On the eve of the dedication of the Parnasala to humanity on 12th September, 2010, Santhigiri Ashram, established by the Guru is organizing a Spiritual Congress, an all Religious Meet in which eminent spiritual leaders from all over India would participate.

It is only befitting to the great epochal Guru, who sacrificed His lifetime of 72 years for the peace and spiritual unification of mankind. Santhigiri Ashram is a spiritual abode, blessed with the revelations of the Divine and the present spiritual head of the Ashram, Her Holiness Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini is the repository of those divine revelations, through whom the Guru still communicates revelatory visions for the building up a new world beginning from ones home and society, irrespective of caste, religious affiliations and other discriminations based on gender, class or color differences. Sishyapoojita said about the message of Guru:

‘The message of Guru’s life is beyond the confines of time and place. Guru, who is the perceiver of three-fold time, guides us remaining as the Radiance in the primordial plane of God’s creational contemplation, comprehending the nuances in the meaning of mankind’s liberation through His own life, knowing and making it known. Mankind should take up the mission of Guru as an austerity of guiding us to Satya Yuga (the golden era of truth), rectifying the disasters in the dharma of Kaliyuga as well as that across the ages through the action of disciples…..'

The teachings of NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru deal with varied fundamental spiritual concepts such as –

i) Sanatana Dharma and Experiential Spirituality
ii) Concept of Cosmic Evolution and Yuga Dharma
iii) Manus and Yuga Cycles
iv) Stages of Spiritual Evolution
v) Astral Pollution or Diabolic Spirit world
vi) The relation of spiritual practices with-

a. Genetic problems and diseases
b. Parental curses and family disorientation
c. Social degeneration
d. The causes of success and failure and other misfortunes in life

vii) Healing of Karmic diseases and Ancestral curses
viii) The role of woman in the family
ix) Marriage and family Life
x) Civilizing the progeny

These topics are in fact the language of Secular Spirituality propounded by NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru and will constitute the pivotal principles for a civilizational change.

India - The Seat of Universal Spirituality

Guru Charanam Saranam



India- the Seat of Universal Spirituality


(From the Teachings of NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)



‘The Manu Parampara is the means to impart the Law of the Supreme to the world. Therefore, the essence of all religions is inherent in this system. An alternative to this way cannot evolve easily in the world. India is a land of great wisdoms and great civilizations grown over vast periods of time. It should, therefore, strive to establish the perfect culture willed by the Almighty. Not only Christians or Muslims alone – all religions ought to heed this'.(NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru).



'The noble minded should give importance to ‘Sadhu Pooja’ – the worship of sages. Who is a Sadhu, or a Sanyasi? Is he a lowly beggar who has lost all hopes in life due to penury and lack of virtue or the one who is afflicted by incurable diseases owing to his vices and sin and, as a last resort, adorns the clothes of a Sanyasi? No, on the contrary, the seers are great souls who have sacrificed their life, body and mind for the cause of dharma. NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru said.



We should expect the fulfilling action only from such seers who would be venerated by the ensuing generation, not only in our land but all over the world. The purity of their heart symbolizes the weighing scale of dharma and adharma. They are the divine personification of sacrifice and austerity, Guru said.



Sanyasi and Jnani are in a position to tell the rulers how their regime should function at any given point of time. Such advice enables the rulers to ward off untoward and harmful developments. Jnanis are those who can see the past, present and future and give counsel to people. The universality and acceptability of Sanatana Dharma by all people in the world lies in this fact.



India has a rich and vast storehouse of knowledge gained through the observance of Yugadharma – the evolutionary concepts of the four-dimensional ages: Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali. But, the people of India have been unable to benefit from this for earning virtue or self-fulfillment for the soul.



NavajyothiSree Karunakara Guru said that, in the fragmentation that took place in spiritual practices (dharma) having diversified into Saiva, Saktheya and Vaishnava traditions, the glorious edifice of Sanatana Dharma propounded by the sages and rishis was lost to mankind. Nonetheless, India has an important responsibility to give leadership to the world because of its unique spiritual status from antiquity, Guru said.



Other paramparas (Guru Lineage) have not been able to go deep into spirituality as the Sanatana or perennial law of the Manvantara system. It is a matter of divine intervention. Such depth of spirituality as this is difficult to find elsewhere. And so is such extensive history and religious culture. Still more significantly, the responsibility of working for the remaining time-period of this Manu Parampara is vested in the dharma of the Hindus.



The Manu Parampara is the means to impart the Law of the Supreme to the world. Therefore, the essence of all religions is inherent in this system. An alternative to this way cannot evolve easily in the world. India is a land of great wisdoms and great civilizations grown over vast periods of time. It should, therefore, strive to establish the perfect culture willed by the Almighty. Not only Christians or Muslims alone – all religions ought to heed this.



Further, though each religion is essentially part of a totality, each has been separately ennobled by many great men from time to time with their self-sacrifice and effort which have given rise to different customs and traditions. Many such traditions are visible in Hinduism itself. It is doubtful if any other religion is enriched to this extent. In order to mould life in keeping with this Age – the Kali – theologians and all believers of various religions should assess this Kali and its composite culture, the samskara mentioned in the Gita. This is a process to be achieved by the present and future generations.



In the primordiality of bygone ages, exemplified through the concept of Manvantara, there occurred conceptual as well as practical errors in the Trimurthi tradition, which, according to NavajyothiSree Karunakara Guru, caused decadence in the dharmic structure of India. Narrow-minded religious practitioners uprooted the very pillars of Dharma for selfish-aggrandizement. It was due to our diminished virtue we have lost our heritage. Through the lack of virtue, we became slaves to other infiltrators…



The soul of India is ailing. NavajyothiSree Karunakara Guru beckons the present generation to realize the past follies and make amends. Though Guru criticized Brahmin orthodoxy for perpetuating caste system, at the same time He exhorted them to come in the forefront for initiating a civilizational change.



Guru says: “An opportune time has come for making an attempt at total reparation. It is best if the Brahmins themselves do it. There is also a reason for their attempt being the best. As far as India is concerned, all knowledge – the Vedas, Sastras, Upanishads and epics – has been handed down through the Brahmins.”



The soul of India is burdened with the bulk of its unenlightened and downtrodden – the Sudras, with their sweat, fatigue, sorrows and age-old miseries. Guru informs us that the spiritual and materialistic elevation of the ‘Sudra’ is destined to be actualized in this age. But, how can they realize this goal? For its realization, they require the guidance of an omniscient Seer, who could show them the right path of liberation and spiritual enlightenment.



Mukundan P.R.

The Forgotten Fundamentals of Sanatana Dharma

Gurucharanam Saranam

The forgotten fundamentals of Sanatana Dharma




Religious practices among the people living in different social settings present the spectacle of myriad paths in the worship of God. The confusion that arises in a seeker in seeing the complexity in religious practices can be resolved only by a fully realized Guru who should show at the experiential level the truth and untruth engrained in different methods of worship. Notably different from other spiritual philosophies, ancient Indian spiritual science has presented insightful accounts about the means through which the Supreme should be worshipped in accordance with Yuga dharma (ethical code of the age) intended to be the basis of human deeds in each age. It is the Manu tradition of Indian spirituality that constitutes the basis of the Rishi culture (Aarsha Bhaarath Samskaara) which provided humanity a time reckoning, knowledge and worship pattern of the Supreme in accordance with the dharma of a Yuga.


As per the realizations of the sages, each of the four Yugas in a Chaturyuga has an ordained Dharma to be followed. This is relevant over the entire solar system within which this Creation has taken place. Nature changes with every yuga. The connection between the different dimensions also changes. Along with this, subtle perceptional changes too occur in the soul of man. The Yuga Dharma determines the limits up to which the souls can evolve.


As per this, in the Satya Yuga, the soul lives quite absorbed in Brahman – The Absolute. In the second and third Yugas (Treta and Dwapara) a gradual extroversion takes place in the soul necessitating spiritual discipline and external mediums. In this period, the deva-devis, the high celestial evolutes of the last Chaturyuga, who however had not attained liberation (mukti) become the deemed authorities of spiritual intercession. They can accept prayers, reveal visionary knowledge, scriptures, advices, mantras and generally lead the souls as per the will of Brahman. But they can lead the souls up to their avasta or spiritual stage. Some people may evolve beyond the celestials up to the position of Rishi or sages in Rishi Loka. Then comes the Kali Yuga. Nature changes; subtle perceptive changes occur in the souls too. In this age attainment of highest spiritual transformation, realizations, leading up to salvation- mukti become possible.


In the Dharma of Kali Yuga everything becomes Supreme oriented. The Guru must be Parabrahma Guru – the Supreme Guru. The Mantra initiation, prayer, meditation and all else must be to the Supreme. In the scriptures the Jnana portion becomes relevant. Only visions (darsan), revelations (asariri) emanating from the Supreme must be accepted. The auspicious souls of the previous two Yugas - the devi- devas, rishis, and others will take birth in the purified families, gotras, which have got into the path of the Supreme Guru. They along with us will then continue in the efforts to attain salvation. Though the essence of a great truth is indicated in these ways, its logic must be worked out to its fullest in all spheres of life and after-life. The civilization must become Jnana oriented. In every Yuga, the Yuga Dharma will be taught and revealed by great souls who are born in that Yuga.


In our world the Kali Yuga Dharma was first preached by Sri Krishna to Arjuna. He taught Arjuna the jnana yoga, karma yoga and bhakti yoga. He also told Arjuna the dangers in the lower forms of worship and said that Arjuna must repose his faith in Him only. Foreseeing what Krishna was going to preach, His very birth was opposed by the diabolic forces and their earthy devotees (e.g. Kamsa).


During His life the traditionalists opposed Him at every turn as a Sudra, as a dark person (non-Aryan), as an immoral person and as opposing their deity worships etc. But many respected his teachings as truth and accepted Him as Paramatma. Six Hundred years after His life the traditionalist did what they were always good at. They accepted these teachings but infused it with the traditional lore and practices. Krishna, the Yuga Acharya became one of the gods of the Hindu pantheon. This is a good example of a truth preached, becoming a part of religion.


Then came Sri Buddha, Sankara, Prophet Muhammad, Christ and innumerable others. We have been told that 2444 Acharyas came into this world in this Kali yuga alone to preach the Dharma of Kali. They had limited success. In India today other than isolated traditions, the bulk of religiosity is traditional fused with some of the teachings of these Acharyas. We must go to the jnana path – the path of knowledge. Otherwise we cannot progress materially and spiritually in right direction so as to resolve the manifold sufferings that we face today.


In the West the teachings of Prophet Muhammad and Christ was able to lead
people away from the then existing Roman, Greek and other isolated religious, spiritual traditions to the path of saints or Rishi marga. But they had not attained the jnana path or mukta avastas (stage of liberation). As such the intellectual pure sciences that grew in the West completely refuted the religions there. The scientific search confined itself to empirical, confirmable matters only. The perceivable world was studied. The agent perceiving through the body was outside such a purview. This agent was the soul. Though the body is created and dissolves at death, this is only ‘hardware’. It by itself is meaningless. We can chemicalize and atomize it into nothingness. We will not discover anything. There is a soul, the software which is coming and going in life and death. This software is an accumulation of the Karmagathy (karmic propensities) of lakhs of births and deaths. The knowledge about the soul, its existences in the various dimensions, the inherent, inalterable laws by which it earns good and badness and evolves higher are the ‘soul knowledge’ (atmajnana).



Mukundan

O.V. Vijayan on Navajyotisree Karunakara Guru

Revelatory Religion in Historical Perspective
O.V. Vijayan

Revelation is like a constant rain that saturates the knowing of man, yet many reject it, dulled as they are by gross pursuits. The Guru intercedes and sensitizes him to the perennial rain.

Even this intercession is fraught with danger. Systems arise from it, exclusion, and the eventual denial of the perennial totality. Mohammed had said:

When you meet the people of the Book (Jews) and the Christians, tell them that the God you worship- is the same one as theirs.

Even the Guru is put to test, test exceedingly harsh and he also responds with exceedingly harsh truth. A Gentile woman sought the aid of Christ who responded: ‘My mission is to the children, not the dogs”. She replied: “Lord, the dogs eat what the children discard. Grant me but that’. Full of joy, the Redeemer said, ‘Woman, your faith has made you whole’.

The early Christians limited their apostolic mission to the Jews, until Pauline Christianity made the apostolic concern universal.

A Guru by historical accident, functions within inherited traditions and images. But his message eventually transcends these and fulfils itself as Revelation.

Human societies have tended to reject the mystical because it is strenuous and perilous, and without the guidance of a preceptor fraught with demonic perception. In the Christian tradition as elsewhere the mystics have been preserved as saints, as cult figures, the dispensers of miracles while the perenniality of the mystical itself has been rejected by the ordinary worshipper. Even so the mystical keeps company with man all the time and it merely takes a look around the shoulder to discover it.

A Glimpse on the Core Teachings of Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru

Karunakara Guru is a Teacher in the absolute sense of the term, in the tradition of revelations and prophecies, and the acceptance of this in a civilization overwhelmed by chemical and mechanical cleverness is perhaps the initial hurdle before the reader. If one accepts the Supreme, its immanence in our midst becomes familiar reality. In his life and mission Karunakara Guru exemplifies this familiarity; he does not speak a language of theology, or at least keeps it to the minimum and discourses on practical paradigms.

Santhigiri Ashram he has set up near Trivandrum has no doubt a core of renunciates and seers, but is sustained by a large number of resident householders. They are the task force of the Guru and he expects them to cleanse themselves through right action and right thought and become vehicles for a purer progeny in which will be born the evolutes of the future. The Ashram’s mission is predicated on the certitude of such births as the revealed Will of the Absolute.

Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru is no island in the flux of prophecy and Revelation. There have been Teachers earlier who said much the same thing, but perhaps not with such immediacy and fullness. The purpose of creation is the elevation of all creatures through tortuous stages to the realization of the Absolute which is the Supreme Light. The ancient Indian called it the Brahman. In other ethnic bowls the same has been known as Allah, the Holy Spirit and so on.

The simplicity of man’s communication with the Supreme Light was lost by the very process of historical duration. Evolution has left us with different orders of beings, from the visible and gross creatures to tiers of astral entities. These represent stages with all the impermanence, and passing, that we witness in the biological world. The Supreme Light alone endures.

The intermediacy of revelation has caused the limitation of human vision and its confinement to these different stages. Thus the cosmic gods, which the Hindus call the Trimurti and the devas have been mistaken for the Supreme - an instance of arrested vision.

All religions, to a lesser or greater degree, have thus been seduced but in the case of Indian religion - Hinduism if we might use a convenient term - the investiture of the cosmic gods has been widespread and spiritually retrograde. By mistaking the Trimurti and the devas for Brahman, and their revelation with the Revelation of the Brahman, Hindu society has put limits on its spiritual growth.

This spiritual retardation in turn has led to widespread societal distortions. It is the bane of social sciences to keep the mind out, certainly the spirit out, and embark on analysis with purely secular historical tools. Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru does not repudiate these tools, but tries unobtrusively, and in the language of the wood hewer and the earth-tiller, to link these tools with tools of the supreme consciousness.

The cosmic beings namely the Trimurti and the devas are rejected as objects of ultimate worship by the Guru but he does not deny their veracity or the spiritual eminence they have achieved. Theirs is a splendorous astral world, and if the worldly human is overawed by it, it is understandable. Their eminence too is sanctified by the Supreme as a necessary stage in astral evolution. But they are not the Supreme and the path of the jeeva or the soul is not to end in them, or at their stage of astral evolution. If worship leads to such a destination, it will fall short of the realm of Truth.

These are the spiritual pitfalls in the practice of religion. The splendorous deva is mistaken for a manifestation of godhead, and the epiphany for the exercise of God-energy. In fact God does not manifest Himself in Trinity; the Absolute God in the Trimurti will be a contradiction in terms. Creation, Sustenance and Destruction are not separately structured processes, but coexistent aspects of the same evolutionary process. It is almost mechanical to designate these as separate tasks to separate gods.

The idea of the Supreme Godhead manifesting itself as avtars has caused havoc in the Indian’s response to Brahman. We have the reality of designated World Teachers, some of whom were spiritually higher than the Trimurti.

An example is Krishna. He has been degraded by the ritualists into an avatar of Vishnu, one of the Trimurti. Krishna was a human Guru, sent to relate humanity to the Brahman. Incidentally, if we go by the lore of Krishna, we find him exhibiting the miracles of the devas but all the while going beyond them, and prophetically proclaiming the path of the Teacher-the path of the Brahman.

Many such Teachers have been sent to many ethnic communities and regions, some of the most significant in recent history being Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and Sankara. One says recent history because there is a calendar infinitely vaster, awesomely so, than the historical one. This is the Manu Calendar, made up of age quartets, the chaturyugas, and quarter clusters, the manvantaras.

Many manvantaras make a kalpa. The modem man with is limited historicity, will find this hard to accept, but such is the mindboggling trajectory of the jeeva, the soul.
The Gurus are human who have been given visions of these spans of Time, and the relative stature of each Guru varies with the extent of revelation he has received. Very often it will not be possible for a guru to receive it all in one life time. So he repeats his life or stays content to remain in whatever stage of spiritual evolution he has arrived at. However some gurus, by the grace of the Supreme, are able to take in their visions in relatively short spells of time. Thus we have a hierarchy of gurus, which is really a hierarchy of the Absolute’s instruments.
According to Revelation a major error occurred in the Guru tradition. This was in the third age quarter of the present manavantara and in the Manu-lineage. This recoiled on the Manu-lineage, and its, memory ceased to be alive.

From the seventh through to the eleventh quarter the Supreme evolved the cosmic gods to rectify this error. However, lulled by the adoration they received from the humans these cosmic gods perpetuated that worship and failed the Supreme.

The last five thousands years were the ongoing Kali, the concluding age of the quartet. It is during Kali that the karmas of the quartet are resolved and hence the Absolute enriches it with prophecy and redemption. A fresh attempt has been made in this Kali, starting with the advent of Krishna and following through the prophets worldwide, to redeem the Error of the Manu-line.

All this is precarious as secular history. But the Santhigiri Ashram and its Guru have borne testament in numerous experiential cameos to which we can only invite the reader’s attention by first stimulating his primary receptivity. To those who might think it absurd, we would only request to take a humbler look at the absurdities our present civilization is founded on: chemicalization, pollution, genetic distortion, environmental degradation and the constant possibility of the nuclear holocaust.

(Quoted from the Introduction by Sri O.V. Vijayan to the book 'A Dialogue on Human Prospect' of Navajyotisree Karunakara Guru, Santhigiri Publications)

(Late Sri Padmabhushan O.V. Vijayan is a well known writer, novelist and cartoonist. He won several literary awards including Kendra Sahitya Academy Award)