the hands of the priests who managed them, not for the public good but for oppressing and exploiting the public for private gain, they have become bad, detestable., The Guru built scores of temples, big and small, and demonstrated how they could be used for the uplift of the community in all directions. His temples became centres of all-round public activity. They were surrounded by monasteries, schools, lecture halls, banks, dispensaries, libraries, rest houses, gardens and similar things which ennobled and enriched the collective life. The influence and resources of the temples were used for the good of the worshippers. The Guru used the temples, not to perpetuate but to demolish old superstitions and introduce reforms. Even idolatry could be abolished by having temples without idols or without priest-craft. The temples can be made a source of blessing in this world much more than in the next. That is the great teaching of his temple movement.
The Sannyasins and Service.—The Guru did not encourage the old ideal of ascetics, who tried or pre-tended to live out of the ordinary world. He said that a Sannyasin should be a man of renunciation whose life is dedicated to the service of humanity. A few exceptional individuals may be allowed to experiment with their own lives in solitude. But the public monasteries or Mutts should be homes of no less than of spiritual exercise. The Sannyasins should be missionaries of a new life and a new light. They should work among the people with all the ardour and purity of renunciation. His own wonderful life set an example to his followers of what could be achieved by a true Sannyasin. He lived always in the midst of work, and yet he was as free, composed and happy as if he was in a forest, hermitage. Though a man of God, he appeared to be immersed in -the things of the world in order to help the poor and the ignorant. His prayer, his meditation, his spiritual aspirations, were all ex-pressed in the life of helpfulness wherever he was No saint has set a nobler example of service to humanity. No teacher sanctified selfless work more than he. He taught hardly anything in words, but every act of his was a lesson to those around him. “Religion is life and life is religion,” seemed to be the one truth he silently proclaimed. He refused to make any difference between the good of this world and of the next. What is truly good here must be good there also. What is not really good now cannot be good hereafter in another existence. Bad practices and superstitious beliefs should not be justified by alleging a cause in the previous life and promising a benefit in the future. Man’s duty is to take care of his life here and now, and the life hereafter will take care of itself. It was in this spirit that he wanted his followers to work for the making of their present lives healthier and richer. This attitude of his was expressed in the saying: “It matters little which religion a man follows provided it makes him better and better.”
The philosophy of his mission is contained in the motto “One Race, One Religion, One God for man.” This teaching of the Guru has become the inspiring faith of many lalchs of humble people, who though unable to realise its vast significance or visualise the consequences of its application, are yet staunch in the adherence to it. One Race pleads for a recognition in every sphere of the life of the solidarity and unity of humanity, not only as a spiritual truth but as a fact in nature, as a feature of our origin and evolution. It calls upon us to for-get the silly barriers of caste, creed, race and nationality which separate man from man and to strive for the growing realisation of universal brother-hood. The fact of natural unity having been asserted, One Religion demands of us the embodiment of that truth in the laws and institutions which regulate life. The fundamental laws of mind and body are common to all mankind. The spiritual truths are the same. The economic, political and ethical laws also must be essentially identical. To that consummation we must direct our aspirations and endeavours. The soul of civilisation and progress which should be ever present before our mental vision as the eternal unifying bond in the midst of superficial differences and temporary antagonisms should be a living faith in the One Supreme Being, the Highest Truth, the One God. These teachings were not meant to be merely a doctrine to be piously believed and cherished in the heart. They were to be used to test and justify every step of our progress, every measure of reform, every effort of reconstruction, and he himself did not teach anything of which he did not set an example.
Sree Narayana Guru occupies a distinct place in the history of Hindu culture and the successive attempts made by great teachers to consolidate the peoples of India into a united nation. As In the case of individuals, so of nations, the first preparation for greatness is the cultivation of ethical ideals, the purification of the heart, the attainment of moral eminence. The Buddha gave the desired impetus in this direction. His moral precepts shone above’ all distinctions of caste, sect, creed, race and country and embraced all humanity in its sublime appeal to the heart of man. They have been accepted by the best peoples of all nations as the essence of true religion. That Righteousness alone exalteth nations as well as individuals has become the faith of good men and women the world over.’ Faith in the efficacy of the righteous life to give salvation has become universal among the Hindus in spite of their differences in leadership and contradictions in theology.
When it was time to give an intellectual basis to. the moral convictions and elevate the peoples’ passive faith in virtue to a dynamic will to know the Truth and to realise the Truth, Sree Sankaracharya appeared, and by his philosophical teachings gave to the Hindus a common intellectual outlook and instilled into their minds a spirit of broad toleration, mutual appreciation and compromise, in addition to the self-reliance which has become the bed-rock of the highest Hinduism ever since.
But the Righteousness of the Buddha and the Wisdom of Sree Sankara lacked a human society to thrive in. Their influence lies deep down in the inner springs of the nation’s soul and has not yet found any adequate expression in the organised life of Hindu society. Organised Hinduism and organised Hindu society have never been in consonance with Dharma (Righteousness) or Satya (Truth). The Hindus, both as individuals and as a nation have two distinct existences : the spiritual life prompted by the best sentiments, by the boldest aspirations, but decaying beneath the. impenetrable debris of soul-crushing customs and enforced bondage; and the social life rising like. the Himalayas in silent mockery of human, ambitions in defiance of Dharma and Satya, over the heads of its prostrate devotees, making the Hindus contemptible pigmies in a world of proud freedom and joint enterprises. To this day the Hindus have hot succeeded in evolving’ a social order substantially consistent with the teachings of their Mahatmas, and if ever the Hindus become a really great nation once more, it will be only when they have succeeded iri reconstructing, their collective life in accordance with the fundamental ideas of Righteousness and Truth, that is, offering justice and equality and freedom to all man and woman, strong and weak, and seeking the highest Truth in the manifestations, activities and institutions of life no less than in its inner impulses and intellectual pursuits. Sree Narayana Guru has started the work of reconstruction.
India cannot live in the spirit alone. She must have a body strong and healthy enough to embody the spirit. She must make her organised existence social, religious and political an expression of her spiritual aspirations, and not their negation as it is to-day, The social order, the religious system, and the political state must become embodiments of our national Dharnia and Wisdom and cease to be engines of exploitation and injustice, citadels of selfishness, oppression and superstition as they are to-day. We require no more illumination; we need no new truth. We have only to live in the light which has been shed around us, and build on the truths which have been disclosed to us by our Saviours. Till now we have preferred to live in the darkness of caste-prisons and build on the falsehoods of priestcraft, and so long as we do not abandon our allegiance to these we but deserve to remain in chains. A life based on human brotherhood and the recognition of the fatherhood of God, Brahma, or Allah and seeking its highest fulfillment here in this world, in our individual and national life is the true religion, the only religion which can save mankind. This is the essence of the Hindu Nationalism of Sree Narayana Guru, the path to unity, freedom and peace. The Buddha made us one in Righteousness; Sree Sankara made us one in the spirit and Truth; Sree Narayana Guru seeks to make us one in the living brotherhood of a free nation.
The institutions and forces which the Guru have left behind are so numerous, scattered and various in character, that they hardly possess any common shape and seem to move towards no definite goal in their present condition. It is too early to say whether they will or will not assume an organic form and institutional individuality of their own. In their present apparently chaotic condition they have been saved from degenerating into a well-marked sect or creed. The Guru and his teachings have not come to be claimed as the sole monopoly of an organised group. No single body has yet been developed to hold the heart; no temple has yet been built to enshrine the soul, The spirit of the Guru is working in diverse ways and forms, in places far and near, through persons and organisations, seemingly unconnected, but all aspiring to the same glorious end, the breaking down of the barriers to human fellowship and the realisation of a greater freedom and truth in life and knowledge. To Hindu society this may prove a great blessing. Unlike other movements which have become separate sects more or less outside the pale of Hinduism and thus lost their capacity to influence Hindu life, the Guru’s mission continues to be a dynamic power within it. It stands out as an expression and exposition of Hindu Nationalism, bolder than many hitherto attempted but in full harmony with its previous manifestations from the days of the Upanishads through the Buddha and Sree Sankara down to Dayananda Saraswati.
