Shree Narayana Guru
Sree Narayan Guru born (1856-1928) in Chempazhanthi near Trivandrum was the only son of his parents he learnt Tamil, Malayalam, and Sanskrit from his father. The society at that time gave more importance to caste, Nanu as he was called by his family belonged to the Ezhava sect. His teachings started from home itself, his father use to tell him about Ramayana and Mahabharata in simple languages. Later he moved to Karunagapalli, a village fifty miles away from his native place for continuing his studies. He studied the Vedas and the Upanishads and earned the wealth of knowledge. After some years Nanu got married to girl from a small nearby village.
His life took a turn after his father’s death, he continued his life wandering from place to place and meeting new people and gathering new things. He gained a vision of life which enlightened him the wisdom of life. Soon ‘Nanu’ became ‘Narayana Guru' he preached the message that all are equal and there is no distinction between high or low.
He started his mission to eradicate all those social evils that were existing in the society at that time. 'Untouchability', animal sacrifice to please the gods, and the evil of drinking all existed at that time. He met people and made them realize the ill-effects of all these bad practices. Slowly he got success in his efforts to stop these malpractices going around, he made them pull down the temples meant for such sacrifices. Soon new temples and schools were built on the very spot by them.
Narayan Guru traveled for over fifteen years in Kerala to try and stop all the superstition and ill-practices, his vision was for a clean and healthy society. He transformed the society to a better one, several schools and other such institutions were built to help people and uplift the backward class people.
Soon people started treating him like God and devotees used to visit him seeking relief to their problems thus how he was better know to be ‘Sree Narayan Guru’.
Several temples like Varkala temple for Anjengo (Anjaneya) and other temples at different places including Trichur, Cannanur, Tellicherry, Calicut, Mangalore were built. Devotees used to worship at such temples and inculcate the moral lessons taught by ‘Sree Narayan Guru’.
