THE WAY OF THE GURU - By P.Natarajan (later Nataraja Guru)
Introductory
Where is happiness? Where is rest from the fever of life? Where is the image of perfection? Where is the fountain-source of wisdom from which the thirsty traveller can drink? Where is that luminous something, in which we can live apart and be free—free from sense of want and suffering?
These seem to be some of the eternal questions echoing and re-echoing through the ages within the heart of humanity. Some think that the answer can be found in material comforts. Some search for the answer in books. Some sit in meditation trying to tune their life-breath in unison with the Great Knowledge. Some others “scorn delights and live laborious days”. All these attain degrees of success.
Once in a hundred years, solitary, among a hundred thousand, there arrives at the caravansary of life one, at the sight of whose features the seekers intinctive1y arise from their varied occupations and greet him and see in him and his ways a clear commentary, a silent interpretation, a radiant centre of all that they were seeking for. He becomes the object of reverence and common pride. He is able to dispel age-long doubt and darkness by his words: and the hearers smile and for a moment feel a strange happiness. Literature and art and science grow round his person. Historical events find a centre round which to turn
The Sri Narayana Guru was one of such He was one of those who followed in his life the ancient and immemorial programme of oriental saints and prophets. He left his home in search of truth. He lived in the lonely forests for years, unknown to men, performing Tapas1. He emerged from the forest having solved some great riddle in life and he wanted to give his solution to the world at large.. Therefore, without any sort of hesitation whatever, he called himself Guru or Teacher. Penniless himself, he began to command an influence over rich and poor, educated and uneducated. People flocked to take the dust of his feet.
To-day his words are recognised as a most modern echo of the ancient wisdom of the Orient In him we had, combined once again, a bard who sang about the aspirations of the soul of man, a philanthropist whose one aim- in life, night and. day, was to devise ways to minimise human suffering, and a seer whose daily food, and drink was the highest form of Truth. .
Although out of reach of newspaper-men and propagandists, this silent sage was the recognized spiritual leader of more than two millions of people in South India to whom his word was more imperative than law. Within a period of less than a decade he had established more than one hundred places of worship on the West coast of. India alone, which are day by day growing into centres of educational, philanthropic, and economic activity Crowded meetings are held in which his name is the unifying element His message to the people is the subject of weekly comment on a hundred platforms, and more than a. hundred associations, at least, have been organized - in various parts of South India to spread his ideals. By the spell of his name, young and old are seen to join hands in a common undertaking rich and poor, high and low, are seen to rub shoulders It can be asserted that he has set in motion a force that is bound to spread into a new mission for the regeneration of India and the world.
Introductory
Where is happiness? Where is rest from the fever of life? Where is the image of perfection? Where is the fountain-source of wisdom from which the thirsty traveller can drink? Where is that luminous something, in which we can live apart and be free—free from sense of want and suffering?
These seem to be some of the eternal questions echoing and re-echoing through the ages within the heart of humanity. Some think that the answer can be found in material comforts. Some search for the answer in books. Some sit in meditation trying to tune their life-breath in unison with the Great Knowledge. Some others “scorn delights and live laborious days”. All these attain degrees of success.
Once in a hundred years, solitary, among a hundred thousand, there arrives at the caravansary of life one, at the sight of whose features the seekers intinctive1y arise from their varied occupations and greet him and see in him and his ways a clear commentary, a silent interpretation, a radiant centre of all that they were seeking for. He becomes the object of reverence and common pride. He is able to dispel age-long doubt and darkness by his words: and the hearers smile and for a moment feel a strange happiness. Literature and art and science grow round his person. Historical events find a centre round which to turn
The Sri Narayana Guru was one of such He was one of those who followed in his life the ancient and immemorial programme of oriental saints and prophets. He left his home in search of truth. He lived in the lonely forests for years, unknown to men, performing Tapas1. He emerged from the forest having solved some great riddle in life and he wanted to give his solution to the world at large.. Therefore, without any sort of hesitation whatever, he called himself Guru or Teacher. Penniless himself, he began to command an influence over rich and poor, educated and uneducated. People flocked to take the dust of his feet.
To-day his words are recognised as a most modern echo of the ancient wisdom of the Orient In him we had, combined once again, a bard who sang about the aspirations of the soul of man, a philanthropist whose one aim- in life, night and. day, was to devise ways to minimise human suffering, and a seer whose daily food, and drink was the highest form of Truth. .
Although out of reach of newspaper-men and propagandists, this silent sage was the recognized spiritual leader of more than two millions of people in South India to whom his word was more imperative than law. Within a period of less than a decade he had established more than one hundred places of worship on the West coast of. India alone, which are day by day growing into centres of educational, philanthropic, and economic activity Crowded meetings are held in which his name is the unifying element His message to the people is the subject of weekly comment on a hundred platforms, and more than a. hundred associations, at least, have been organized - in various parts of South India to spread his ideals. By the spell of his name, young and old are seen to join hands in a common undertaking rich and poor, high and low, are seen to rub shoulders It can be asserted that he has set in motion a force that is bound to spread into a new mission for the regeneration of India and the world.
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