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Guiding Lights
SREE NARAYANA GURU
Kerala’s most affluent, spiritual and gracious contribution to the lineage of the sages of our country is Sree Narayana Guru. To the southern tip of the present Kerala state, in the district of Thirivananthapuram, in a blessed village named ‘Chempazhanthi’, Sree Narayana Gurudev was born in a well-known apothecary family, ‘Vayalvaaram’in the year 1855. The young and wise guru made himself a scholar, poet, yogi and social reformer. The birth and life saga of Guru is an exact copy of any social reformer who was given the chalice of responsibilities of a community as a whole. If one could say, Kerala managed to shackle its monstrous caste hegemony, the torch was held in the hands of Guru himself.
The 19th Century Kerala was notorious for its inequalities and oppressions. The weaker sections of the society, in other words, people who were socially engineered to be doomed in the society, were not allowed to learn, read or write, pay a visit to the temples, walk freely in the public ways, nor were they allowed to even dress properly. The centuries-old draconian ‘Brahmanical oppressions’ were starting to be questioned only in the beginning decades of the 19th Century.
Coincidentally, or destined by the divine justice, Guru walked into the reformations with the weaponry of wisdom and spiritual awareness, unlike the old blood-shedding uprisals. Temples were the social institutions where caste monopoly was rooted and from where it was emanating its poisonous glares. Sree Narayana Guru tactically handled this social engineering by establishing more temples where weaker sections were allowed to walk in, worship, and feel blessed.
The first ever established temple by Gurudev was at Aruvippuram, demolishing all the established rules and dominations and carving on its wall the epitome of his philosophical teaching,
“Here is the place where-
Mankind dwells in brotherhood
With no caste-divide
Nor religious fumes”
It was the chant that the whole of Kerala chanted ever since the day of its creation unlike the ‘unreachable, untouchable, perhaps even unthinkable Vedic chants’.
Not only are these his famous lines or thoughts, they are as follows,
‘One caste, One religion, and One God for mankind’
‘Do not seek one’s caste, reveal nor think’
‘Strengthen with organization, enlighten with knowledge’
These are the founding pillars of the modern-day Kerala culture and society. It undoubtedly is the root of Kerala’s standards of the education sector, health and social justice. It is in the name of such a great philosopher, poet, yogi, and unparalleled social reformer who was later proclaimed as the founding father of modern Kerala, this college was established and still prevails.
R. SHANKAR
‘Emancipate through education’ was the most echoed and powerful call from Narayana Guru to the weaker communities. R. Shankar was the genius who was born with the destiny of fulfilling this. He was a clear visionary who knew education is the only solution to terminate all atrocities encountered by the downtrodden.
R Shankar was born in an ordinary family at Puthoor village, district of Kollam in 1909. He not only exposed his intellectual brightness but also resonated deep self-motivation and immense courage. He held this courage high throughout his student life and socio-political leadership.
Teaching and legal profession adorned his official life . It was at this stage he stepped in and became highly active in the political arena of Kerala, which gained him the chief ministership of the state at a later stage . Being the chief of the State Congress and SNDP Yogam, Shankar indulged in socio-political issues as well and gained statewide recognition.
Once Sri.R.Shankar assumed the leadership of S.N.D.P Yogam , he looked into the plight of Ezhavas in the realm of education. Guru’s words ‘emancipation through education’ always resonates in his mind.He triggered an education revolution in Kerala, when he established the Sree Narayana College at Kollam.It was the first among the series of higher educational institutions established under Sree Narayana Trusts, Kollam. By his initiative, Sree Narayana College,Cherthala was established in 1964, along with other SN colleges at Chempazhanthy, Nangiarkulangara and Varkala.
