Sree Narayana Guru Jayanthi

Kerala is celebrating 156th Jayanthi of Sree Narayana Gurudevan today.

Kerala witnessed the birth of this great saint and social reformer in the year of 1856, Malayalam month Chingam on the Chathayam star. 

Gurudevan is revered for his vedic knowledge, poetic proficiency, openness to the views of others, non-violent philosophy and most importantly his unrelenting resolve to set aright social wrongs. He was instrumental in setting the spiritual foundations for social reform in the Kerala and was one of the most successful social reformers who tackled caste in India. He demonstrated a path to social emancipation without invoking the dualism of the opressed and the opressor.

Gurudevan stressed on the upliftment of a community through its own efforts by the establishment of schools and temples. In the process he brushed aside the Hindu religious conventions based upon chaturvarna. His transformation of the social face of Kerala relied on emphasizing the Adwaita philosophy of Sankara.

Sree Narayana Guru’s teachings and leadership prevented the exodus of conversion to Christianity and the unification of Hindus, who were divided on the basis of caste and sub-castes.

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