Followers
Today,
Narayana Guru is understood, believed and followed different people
in different ways. There is only little agreement between the representatives
of the major groups and organizations that have taken upon themselves
the responsibility of spreading the word of the Guru.
Close at home, Narayana Guru's name is rightly and wrongly associated
with the S.N.D.P. Yogam. From the very name, it is easy to see that
the founders of the organization derived their inspiration from Narayana
Guru and wanted to foster his teachings as something similar to the
dharma of the Buddha. In the course of three-fourths of a century,
the Yogam has gone in a tangent that is now considered by many people
as an unfortunate deviation to exclusive communalism, the very rancor
that the Guru wanted to cure the people of. In the fifties, when the
public lost all their faith in the leadership of the Yogam, its enthusiastic
General Secretary Mr. R. Sankar, tried to infuse new blood into it by
making the Yogam an advocate for literacy and service to the ailing
masses. With this intention, he started the Sree Narayana Trust. The
Trust was successful in founding a number of educational institutions
like schools, arts and science colleges and institutes of technology.
Now there are a number of leading colleges of the Kerala University,
Cochin University and Calicut University which are ably managed by the
S.N. Trust. Afterwards, Mr. Sankar was directly and indirectly responsible
for founding hospitals with all modern equipments for surgery and nursing,
in a number of places. But for these colleges and hospitals, many people
who were socially and economically handicapped, would have had to live
in misery, resigned to their fate.
Sivagiri
was the headquarters of Narayana Guru and it is also in Sivagiri that
his mortal coil rests. The sannyasin's order that was founded by the
Guru himself manages the affairs of the Sarada Temple and the Brahmavidyalaya
of the Sivagiri Mutt. The last hierarchical head, Mahadhipati, was
Swami Sankarananda. During his lifetime, the Kerala High Court ordered
that a trust be constituted to manage Sivagiri Mutt and all the ashrams
and temples managed by the Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham. That trust
has given away the office of the Madhadhipati. The sannyasins now elect
one among them as a president for a term of five years.
For political purposes, India was divided into linguistic regions. The
language barrier is a big handicap for the dissemination of culture.
Only the followers of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Dayananda Saraswati
succeeded in effectively breaking that barrier and bringing the ideas
of their Gurus to all people all over India. The Sree Narayana Cultural
Mission, a movement started recently under the leadership of Mr. K.K.
.Viswanathanis trying to disseminate the teachings of the Guru on a
national basis.
The only organization that works as an international movement is the
Narayana Gurukula founded by Nataraja Guru, a direct disciple and spiritual
successor of Narayana Guru. The Gurukula has expanded its function by
founding the East-West University a unique educational movement, which
is very much more a university of the people anywhere than one managed
by a group of people somewhere. The present head of this Gurukula is
Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati. The main Gurukula centers are in India,Singapore,
Malaysia, Fiji, Australia, Europe and America.
Another
powerful expression of Narayana Guru's call for one world came through
the sacrifices of the world citizen, Garry Davis. The World Service
Authority and the World
Governmen1 for World Citizens, now having bases in Washington, London,
Paris and Basel, are gaining momentum as a refuge for the stateless
people of the world.
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