Gurucharanam Saranam
Discovering Sanatana Dharma
(From the Teachings of NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)
Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru said: “Till now we had been living behind the system in which there were different gods for lower castes and higher castes…. Kaliyuga requires the culmination of the faith in a single God.”
Speaking about the corruption in the spiritual practices, consequent to deviated worship and social customs, Guru said:
'The Sakteya, the man of the Sakti cult, made his cult into a complete system. Then Vedanta entered into it. Along with Vedanta was blended into the system, the helplessness of having to invoke ‘Matan’ (a tribal spirit worshiped in South India) as the Lord. That is how the Saiva blended Matan and Natesa.
The Vaishnava introduced more cultural refinements into his system. He also became an exponent of Advaita. With this development, the people had to accept everything that was written by the pundits. And, if they continued to be in a proto-Dravidian state, how could they evolve?'
‘The Sakteya and the Saiva traditions each took up different viewpoints which suited themselves. The Sakteya tradition regarded the Goddess as everything. Siva was everything in the Saiva tradition. The Vaishnava tradition considered Vishnu above all others. The learned pundits and their ilk had to accept what these three traditions proclaimed. All this has happened by way of expiation for not being able to discover the Error in perceiving the Brahmic Will.
Also, Yuga dharma is the Dharmic code of the Yuga, the Age. Now the Yuga dharma should be what pertains to Kali. From the beginning of the Kali itself, we failed to discern the transition of the Age. What we had to discern was the fluctuations in the human processes in the past three Ages. Now, what is the pervading nature of the present Kali? We might have been able to understand this from the beginning itself. That we could not get this awareness was because of the failure of the way in which we were governed.
The present Kaliyuga is the Kaliyuga of the 28th Chaturyuga in the Manvantara of Vaivaswata Manu, the seventh Manu. The state of society depends on its comprehension and assimilation of the wisdom of the sages, which is encoded in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Our rulers kept us away from this knowledge. As a result, we as a people degenerated; we lost the capacity to understand the words of the wise. This is why we were not able to discern’.
The fundamental aim of Santhigiri Ashram founded by NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru is to reveal and rectify the spiritual error that had befallen Sanatana Dharma.
Mukundan P.R.
A View of Santhigiri Ashram
Lotus Parnasala and Sahakarana Mandiram , Santhigiri Ashram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
The Manus and Yuga Cycles
Gurucharanam Saranam
The Manus and Yuga Cycles
(From the teachings of NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)
‘The present Kaliyuga is the Kaliyuga of the 28th Chaturyuga in the Manvantara of Vaivaswata Manu, the seventh Manu. The state of society depends on its comprehension and assimilation of the wisdom of the sages, which is encoded in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Our rulers kept us away from this knowledge. As a result, we as a people degenerated; we lost the capacity to understand the words of the wise. This is why we were not able to discern’.
(NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)
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 Conception that manifests as the Subtle Being (the Impersonal Truth), Godhead (Manifested Truth), as a Deva (Deity), Sanyasi (Sage) or a Rishi and accepts worship through these mediums down the course of ages. But, there is a concept known as Yuga Dharma. Different eons like Satya, Treta and Dwapara had their characteristic dharmic dispensation, which in the present age – Kaliyuga – undergoes change. These changes in the dharmic code (Yuga Dharma) are brought about by sages and seers of transcendental wisdom, who manifest as the embodiment of enlightenment and Godly abstraction. NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru said.
According to the Rishis, the transition of Yugas, propelling the wheel of dharma, happens according to the Will of God and in accordance with the laws of Manu – the primordial human ancestor and preceptor. It is mentioned that the time period of a creation consists of 14 Manvantaras, or cosmic time segments. Each of this time segments is under a Manu, hence it is known as Manvantara.
There are thus 14 Manus in a creation. Each Manvantara is again divided into 71 Chaturyugas. One Chaturyuga consists of four yugas – Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali.
The preceptors or Rishis coming under the Manu lineage are known as Manu Parampara and the Dharma revealed through them is called Manu Dharma, or Sanatana Dharma (eternal dharma). Because of the error of a preceptor in the lineage of Manus, the real spiritual experience and grace of God was lost, as explained below in the words of Guru. This occurred in the 3rd Chaturyuga of this Manvantara. A great spiritual void followed subsequent to this, and mankind lost the knowledge about Manu and Manu Dharma.
'The present is the seventh Manvantara. In the third Chaturyuga of this Manvantara, a great soul in the tradition of Manu perceived that there is no action in this world that is not Manu’s. He saw this in all planes – the sookshmam (subtle), sthoolam (corporeal), kaaryam (cause), and kaaranam (effect). Out of this experience came the Chaturvakyas, or the four great enunciations. The very first one is, Aham Brahmasmi – I am the Brahman, the Absolute. He proved it to the people with the power of logic. He was full of his oneness with the Brahman, which he went on to mistake for himself being the Brahman.
Each one of us, each blade of grass, is full of the Brahman. But, is the Will of the Almighty confined to an individual evolute? One concludes: this sage did not have the grace to discriminate between the Absolute and the individual even if the individual has had the realization of the Absolute. Thus was blurred his awareness of the Will of the Absolute’.
Guru has further revealed that the cosmic time calculation of yugas was subsequently altered by a preceptor in the Trimurthy tradition. Only a ‘Kalanthara Guru’ – a Guru who brings about epochal changes – could see far deep into the cosmic time segments and evaluate this error.
‘What we are going through is the time-order of Manvantaras. That is our perspective or cognition of the world. In the Manu tradition, a great spiritual evolute fell from grace. As a result, the Brahman initiated a corrective in the seventh Chaturyuga, which was brought to a completion in the eleventh Chaturyuga. Thereafter, astral matters related to Mukti were revealed, which got codified as Vedas, Sastras and the Upanishads, without changing the old Manvantara order (to reaffirm that order).
Since the sages could not transcend those who received these astral matters, they did not inquire into the reason why they had received such knowledge, but used their intellect in understanding the path shown by the Almighty and charted their version of the Manvantara time-order – Chaturyugas, Manvantaras and Kalpas – as subservient to Brahma. Thus, they could not invoke Manu, the First Guru, and grasp the Error and correct it. This is a peril that has befallen us. The Error was repeated again and again as the evolutes, who were the spiritual authorities of revealed knowledge, could not discover the mystery and unravel it in full before us’.
Mukundan PR
The Manus and Yuga Cycles
(From the teachings of NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)
‘The present Kaliyuga is the Kaliyuga of the 28th Chaturyuga in the Manvantara of Vaivaswata Manu, the seventh Manu. The state of society depends on its comprehension and assimilation of the wisdom of the sages, which is encoded in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Our rulers kept us away from this knowledge. As a result, we as a people degenerated; we lost the capacity to understand the words of the wise. This is why we were not able to discern’.
(NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru)
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 Conception that manifests as the Subtle Being (the Impersonal Truth), Godhead (Manifested Truth), as a Deva (Deity), Sanyasi (Sage) or a Rishi and accepts worship through these mediums down the course of ages. But, there is a concept known as Yuga Dharma. Different eons like Satya, Treta and Dwapara had their characteristic dharmic dispensation, which in the present age – Kaliyuga – undergoes change. These changes in the dharmic code (Yuga Dharma) are brought about by sages and seers of transcendental wisdom, who manifest as the embodiment of enlightenment and Godly abstraction. NavajyotiSree Karunakara Guru said.
According to the Rishis, the transition of Yugas, propelling the wheel of dharma, happens according to the Will of God and in accordance with the laws of Manu – the primordial human ancestor and preceptor. It is mentioned that the time period of a creation consists of 14 Manvantaras, or cosmic time segments. Each of this time segments is under a Manu, hence it is known as Manvantara.
There are thus 14 Manus in a creation. Each Manvantara is again divided into 71 Chaturyugas. One Chaturyuga consists of four yugas – Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali.
The preceptors or Rishis coming under the Manu lineage are known as Manu Parampara and the Dharma revealed through them is called Manu Dharma, or Sanatana Dharma (eternal dharma). Because of the error of a preceptor in the lineage of Manus, the real spiritual experience and grace of God was lost, as explained below in the words of Guru. This occurred in the 3rd Chaturyuga of this Manvantara. A great spiritual void followed subsequent to this, and mankind lost the knowledge about Manu and Manu Dharma.
'The present is the seventh Manvantara. In the third Chaturyuga of this Manvantara, a great soul in the tradition of Manu perceived that there is no action in this world that is not Manu’s. He saw this in all planes – the sookshmam (subtle), sthoolam (corporeal), kaaryam (cause), and kaaranam (effect). Out of this experience came the Chaturvakyas, or the four great enunciations. The very first one is, Aham Brahmasmi – I am the Brahman, the Absolute. He proved it to the people with the power of logic. He was full of his oneness with the Brahman, which he went on to mistake for himself being the Brahman.
Each one of us, each blade of grass, is full of the Brahman. But, is the Will of the Almighty confined to an individual evolute? One concludes: this sage did not have the grace to discriminate between the Absolute and the individual even if the individual has had the realization of the Absolute. Thus was blurred his awareness of the Will of the Absolute’.
Guru has further revealed that the cosmic time calculation of yugas was subsequently altered by a preceptor in the Trimurthy tradition. Only a ‘Kalanthara Guru’ – a Guru who brings about epochal changes – could see far deep into the cosmic time segments and evaluate this error.
‘What we are going through is the time-order of Manvantaras. That is our perspective or cognition of the world. In the Manu tradition, a great spiritual evolute fell from grace. As a result, the Brahman initiated a corrective in the seventh Chaturyuga, which was brought to a completion in the eleventh Chaturyuga. Thereafter, astral matters related to Mukti were revealed, which got codified as Vedas, Sastras and the Upanishads, without changing the old Manvantara order (to reaffirm that order).
Since the sages could not transcend those who received these astral matters, they did not inquire into the reason why they had received such knowledge, but used their intellect in understanding the path shown by the Almighty and charted their version of the Manvantara time-order – Chaturyugas, Manvantaras and Kalpas – as subservient to Brahma. Thus, they could not invoke Manu, the First Guru, and grasp the Error and correct it. This is a peril that has befallen us. The Error was repeated again and again as the evolutes, who were the spiritual authorities of revealed knowledge, could not discover the mystery and unravel it in full before us’.
Mukundan PR
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.
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.
Friday, June 18, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Clairvoyance - Its Dimensions in Hinduism
Gurucharanam Saranam
Clairvoyance – Its Dimensions in Hinduism
The human being is the depository of eternal wisdom. Spiritually highly evolved Rishies in ancient India had developed the faculty of clairvoyance (darsan). The stream of knowledge that came out of them is known as Self-knowledge – Atma jnanam. Atmajnanis means those who realized the Ultimate Truth or the knowledge of the Self..This spiritual tradition of self-knowledge is known as ‘Aarsha Bhaaratha Samskaara’or Sanatana Dharma. The origin of this spiritual legacy has been traced back to Manu, the first Archetypal Guru and his spiritual lineage. The Manus are the first projection of the impersonal God and the creators of solar system/s .The Gurus appearing in the lineage of Manu impart dharma to humanity according to the requirement of each Age or Yuga. But in course of time this spiritual path has disappeared which had its negative repercussions in the life of man .This lost spiritual path has been restored by Navjyothisree Karunakara Guru by perfecting and gifting to humanity a new spiritual path for its spiritual evolution.
With regard to spiritual visions, Guru taught that the source of clairvoyance (vision) differs.Spiritual visions may originate from various astral powers - bhoothas (ghosts), pitrus (ancestral souls), devi-devas (angelical beings), rishis, sages, sanyasis etc.Most of the spiritual seekers get stuck in these intermediary astral worlds. The ultimate source of vision is The Supreme Light of God. A Guru who has realized the Supreme Light of God alone could know the source of spiritual visions that a truth seeker might experience. Knowledge of the entire creation, dharma, karma, as well as the errors and their correction etc.are known through spiritual vision. Knowledge about all astral matters, diseases and its cure and even awareness about the past, present and future time can be known through spiritual visions. Such a Guru tradition with the power of spiritual visions can help us in our spiritual growth in this age of spiritual transition..
After Navajyotisree Karunakara Guru merged with the Supreme Light of God in the year 1999, it is Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini who mediates between Guru and the followers through the power of clairvoyance.
Mukundan P.R.
Clairvoyance – Its Dimensions in Hinduism
The human being is the depository of eternal wisdom. Spiritually highly evolved Rishies in ancient India had developed the faculty of clairvoyance (darsan). The stream of knowledge that came out of them is known as Self-knowledge – Atma jnanam. Atmajnanis means those who realized the Ultimate Truth or the knowledge of the Self..This spiritual tradition of self-knowledge is known as ‘Aarsha Bhaaratha Samskaara’or Sanatana Dharma. The origin of this spiritual legacy has been traced back to Manu, the first Archetypal Guru and his spiritual lineage. The Manus are the first projection of the impersonal God and the creators of solar system/s .The Gurus appearing in the lineage of Manu impart dharma to humanity according to the requirement of each Age or Yuga. But in course of time this spiritual path has disappeared which had its negative repercussions in the life of man .This lost spiritual path has been restored by Navjyothisree Karunakara Guru by perfecting and gifting to humanity a new spiritual path for its spiritual evolution.
With regard to spiritual visions, Guru taught that the source of clairvoyance (vision) differs.Spiritual visions may originate from various astral powers - bhoothas (ghosts), pitrus (ancestral souls), devi-devas (angelical beings), rishis, sages, sanyasis etc.Most of the spiritual seekers get stuck in these intermediary astral worlds. The ultimate source of vision is The Supreme Light of God. A Guru who has realized the Supreme Light of God alone could know the source of spiritual visions that a truth seeker might experience. Knowledge of the entire creation, dharma, karma, as well as the errors and their correction etc.are known through spiritual vision. Knowledge about all astral matters, diseases and its cure and even awareness about the past, present and future time can be known through spiritual visions. Such a Guru tradition with the power of spiritual visions can help us in our spiritual growth in this age of spiritual transition..
After Navajyotisree Karunakara Guru merged with the Supreme Light of God in the year 1999, it is Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini who mediates between Guru and the followers through the power of clairvoyance.
Mukundan P.R.
Monday, June 14, 2010
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
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
Sunday, June 13, 2010
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)
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)
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