*** Welcome to piglix ***

Sree Narayana Guru

Sree Narayana Guru
Narayana Guru.jpg
Sree Narayana Guru
Religion Hinduism
Personal
Born ca. 1856
Chempazhanthy, Travancore (now Kerala, India)
Died 20 September 1928
Varkala, Travancore (now Kerala, India)

Narayana Guru, also known as Sree Narayana Guru (c. 1856 – 20 September 1928), was a social reformer of India. He was born into a family of the Ezhava caste in an era when people from such communities, which were regarded as Avarna, faced much injustice in the caste-ridden society of Kerala. He led a reform movement in Kerala, rejected casteism, and promoted new values of spiritual freedom and social equality. He stressed the need for the spiritual and social uplift of the downtrodden by their own efforts through the establishment of temples and educational institutions. In the process, he denounced the superstitions that clouded the fundamental Hindu cultural convention of caste.

There are many legends surrounding the life of Narayana Guru but few certain facts until his rise to prominence in 1887. He was born probably in 1856, the son of an Ezhava peasant, Madan Asan and his wife Kuttiyamma, in the village of Chempazhanthy near Thiruvananthapuram. Most likely, he was educated at least in part by a Nair teacher from a nearby village. He was deeply influenced by Vedanta and by ideas of social equality and social and religious reform. He taught religion and Sanskrit to local children and studied yoga with notable ascetics such as Chattampi Swami. He was an itinerant yogi for some time and Cyriac Pullapilly says that he was probably married for a few years but "his worshipful biographers ignored this part of his life out of reverence for his later ascetism".

In the course of his wanderings in search of enlightenment, Narayana visited Aruvippuram, where he and his followers erected a temple dedicated to Shiva in 1888, defying the tradition that this was done by Brahmins alone. As a youth, Narayana Guru turned away from the temple rituals of his local village and travelled widely, living an ascetic lifestyle and seeking religious understanding. He eventually became a schoolteacher and then a religious reformer.


...
Wikipedia

...