India has produced no nobler teacher, no bolder reformer, no holier saint, and above all no greater nation-builder than Sree Narayana Gurudev of Malabar. His life, work and teachings have a re-freshing uniqueness combined with naturalness, and a sublime simplicity tinged with mystery, which render them peculiarly interesting and profoundly instructive to students of Hindu Nationalism to whom they offer ideals and methods of realising them which none else has so clearly and successfully demonstrated in recent centuries.
The chief results and lessons of his eventful career may be summarised thus: (I) Born among humble peasants, without the benefit of any kind of modern education, of wealth, of social influence or other advantages which bring success in life, he rose by virtue of his self-culture and love of humanity to the highest position of respect a man can attain in this world, the position of one who was looked upon as a very incarnation of God and revered as such by many lakhs of people in his own lifetime. He assumed no robes of saintliness, he initiated no disciples to be his obedient flag-bearers, he wrote no books to show his wisdom, he followed no mystic methods to impress the credulous. Born among simple rustics, he kept his simplicity unchanged unto death. But wherever he went he attracted thousands of people towards him and made them work out their own salvation in a hundred different ways. Wherever he went he gave consolation to the sick, cast out evil spirits, rescued the drunkard from his vice, encouraged the poor to persist in efforts at self-improvement, raised the low to a sense of freedom and equality with their fellow-men, healed differences and closed up ranks for united endeavours, inspired the rich and the poor to sacrifice their wealth according to their means for the common good, gathered honest workers to serve the community, and always kept sowing seeds of new ideals and aspirations which went deep into the hearts of his listeners, took root and brought forth giant trees with fruits and flowers, giving shelter to numberless people and adding beauty to their lives. He himself ever remained an embodiment of simple living and high thinking. No attempt was made to create an impression, to advertise his greatness, or attract followers. The reverence he gained was the unsolicited homage of all classes from the peasant to the prince whoever had occasion to see him, or listen to his words or benefit by his influence. He exemplified to what divine heights even the humblest of men could rise by sell-culture and love of humanity.
(2) He had to fulfil his mission among a people numbering about 23 lakhs in the west coast of India. They had been forced for many centuries to live outside the pale of civilisation, they had been denied. education, denied freedom to walk along roads and touch tanks and wells, denied true religion and culture, and by all the forces of society, religion and the state kept down to a life of subjection, ignorance and degradation. The Guru worked among them in a way no other teacher did, and made them in his own lifetime a nation of self-respecting men and women, who could not only .work out their own salvation, but nroudly point the way to the emancipation of all Hindus. He moved among them for over forty years, never stopping in any place continuously for more than a few weeks or months. In his daily conversations he told them the injurious’ customs which had to be given up, the superstitions they had to abandon and the beneficial habits they had to cultivate; and how they were to work for their own and the community’s uplift. He addressed no meetings. His presence was sufficient, and his teachings spread from mouth to mouth and the people organised themselves in every place to carry out his casually given instructions. Thus he reformed their domestic and social life, abolished superstitions and bad customs and wasteful ceremonies, encouraged temperance and economy, created a yearning for knowledge and power, strengthened industrious habits, promoted public spirit, co-operation and union, and made their lives in all ways purer, richer and stronger. He gave them all the institutions they wanted for their progress which Hindu society had refused to give them in all the past centuries—temples of pure worship, schools where they could learn ancient Sanskrit as well as modern English, local associations which taught them how to organise and govern themselves, missionaries to work for the common weal and preach a new life, priests who ministered to all their religious needs, and a new social and religious philosophy which they could hold up before the world with pride and confidence, and to which even the greatest of men bowed their heads with approbation and admiration.
They saved themselves and were enabled to take the lead in saving the whole of Hindu society in that part of India. Harijan uplift, temple entry, inter-mingling of castes, prohibition, fraternal relations with other religions, social reform, .reform of temples and reform of Mutts of Sannyasins, all these and many similar movements were started and worked with permanent good results under the Guru’s inspiration long before the Indian National Congress turned its attention to social questions. In half a century, the Guru’s followers have become ‘chiefly instrumental, in that part of the country, in achieving the most momentous reform of Hindu religion and society since the days of Buddhism the opening of all temples in Travancore to all Hindus without distinction, the annihilation of untouchability and the practical destruction of caste restrictions in general, though their shadows continue to obsess the public mind.
(3) The third striking feature was that the Guru hardly ever condemned anything or attacked any one. He said what was the right thing to do, and he showed how to do it. He demonstrated how the worst of institutions could be used to good purpose by intelligent men. Whether it was the caste, or a ceremony, or a temple or the Sannyasin; he was always constructing something fresh and useful out of the old so that no one even among the orthodox was provoked, no one had a word to say against him. He created a revolution before anybody knew its exact nature or consequences, without antagonising any one, or demolishing any doctrine or attacking any sect or creed. No other great teacher ever accomplished his mission so peacefully.
.(4) Another remarkable character of the movement was that, though in its wider external manifestations it was confined to one of the Hindu communities, it was hailed by all classes of people, Hindus, Christians and Muhammadans, all of whom recognised in the Guru one of those great beings who shape the destinies of men. His was a mission which by its own intrinsic purity and universality rose above all distinctions of caste, race and creed and –appealed to the soul in Man. Its influence pervaded all societies and created a new era of social and intellectual freedom. The now famous motto of his teachings “One Race, One Religion, One God for man,” has come to occupy the same place in Hindu nationalism as that of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in European Nationalism.
(5) One more feature deserves a special mention. Though a saint and a religious man all his life, he was no dreamer. Though a great scholar and philosopher, he was always at his plough doing good to the world and making others do likewise. Holding his head above ordinary humanity, his hands were ever engaged in ministering to the humble and the abandoned. Though wielding extraordinary spiritual powers, he was ever teaching his followers to attend to the little things of daily life. A mystic of mystics, and a mystery even to those closest to him, his external life was as prudent, disciplined and vigorous as that of a great general leading his forces to victory.
His distinctive contribution to Hindu National-ism may be observed in his handling of the three great problems—the caste, the temple and the Mutt (monastery).
Abolition of Caste.—We often think that caste is a divinely ordained institution or one of such hoary antiquity that it is almost impossible to change it. The Guru used to say it was all a silly phantom. Where is the so-called caste to be found, in men’s body or mind or speech or action? -There is no earthly means of ascertaining a man’s caste unless he confessed it, for caste has no reality in the facts of life. It does not correspond to any ascertainable difference in men’s condition – whether mental or physical. It is a mere convention, and its sole support, as of all conventions, is the willing recognition we give to it. If we take away that recognition caste will disappear in no time. The life of joint stock company depends on its name and the legal “soul” given by the state to the ideal corporation. So is caste but a corporation name. It asserted its hold on the people when kings gave it legal value and validity; it survives because the state continues to recognise it, and not because it has any positive merit of its own; it will disappear when the state abolishes its active recognition. This teaching, he put in his own pithy words thus: “There is in truth nothing like caste. Ask not, say not, think not caste.” This seems quite impracticable at first sight and yet it is the most practicable, and probably the only means of solving the caste-problem. The Christians, the Muhammadans and the Buddhists have no caste distinctions. Many millions of Hindus have become casteless by joining these creeds. It is happening every day around us. The untouchable and the Brahman lose their castes and become brethren when the Christian father sprinkles on them the water of baptism. If a few drops of water can so effectively drive out caste forever why should we suppose that it is adamantine or inevitable?
Some Christian converts in Travancore claimed the concessions allowed by the state to the “Depressed Classes.” The question went up even to some members of the House of Commons in London. All were agreed in holding that there were no depressed classes among Christians. In a case which went up to the Madras High Court, caste-Hindu converts claimed to exclude non-caste converts from being seated along with them in the Church! If in such cases either the Government or the Court had given their approval to the observance of these distinctions, in a few years the Christian society would have become as caste-mad as the Hindus. In a few’ places where Catholic churches tolerated caste pretensions among their converts the evil has taken root, but because the state does not recognise these aberrations they gradually disappear.. It is so with the-entire caste system of the Hindus. There is no necessity to advocate inter-marriage and inter-dining. What is wanted is that nobody should have a right to prevent or condemn inter-marriage, and inter-dining. Restore to the Hindus their individual freedom to decide where they should marry or dine without being persecuted by any one; take away the legal values you have given to an imaginary classification; in a few years the community will solve the problem without any reformer telling them what to do. All public recognition of caste by the Government as well as society should be stopped. A Hindu should be no more than a Hindu, just as a Christian is a Christian only and a Muhammadan a Muslim, without caste qualifications tacked on. The state alone can abolish the present practice which is mainly a result of previous state influence;
“The survival of the Hindu peoples, is dependent on their organisation into a community through national legislation which will reemphasise the secular character of Hindu organisations and sweep away the dead customs which through misunderstanding have come to be identified with their religion.”*
Reform of Temples. Temples are what we make of them. They are themselves immaterial things and can do neither good nor evil., If we are foolish, the priests will use them to encourage idolatry, to increase superstition, to exploit the ignorant. If we are wise, we ourselves may use them to instruct the people, to ennoble their lives, to abolish caste differences and unite them, to give them recreation as well as education, and increase their devotion to God as well as enthusiasm for work in this world. Because the temples fell into
*Page 17, Hinduism and the Modern World, K. M. Panikkar.
