The spirit behind Narayana Gurukula, Bengaluru (the concept of the gurukula originated in the mind of Nataraja Guru, the first chief disciple and a great scholar-philosopher in his own right), is the same as the one that imbues the other gurukulas elsewhere. Any institution based on this savant’s ideals cannot be anything but ideal for people who want to rise above their crass materialistic concerns and rise to a higher plane of consciousness and look at everyone as self. The philosophy that is the life-line of the Gurukulas is one that unites knowledge and a way of life that matches it. To lead life to the full, meaningfully and happily and bring the same meaningfulness and happiness to others.
Verse 24th from his most famous spiritual-philosophical work, Atmopadesa Satakam (The One Hundred Verses of Self-Instruction) makes clear what pulsates the gurukulas.
“That man,” “this man” – thus, all that is known
in this world, if contemplated, is the being of the one
primordial self
what each performs for the happiness of the self
should be conducive to the happiness of another.
Non-discrimination.
Narayana Guru is reputed to have been a great Ayurvedic physician. But more than that, he was a greater physician of social maladies. He prescribed education as the one remedy for all the ills of the depressed classes. He was the unwearied champion of modern education for the people. This was to pave the way for their humanistic, economic and social advancement.
“Himself a monk; and a man of God, in virtue of which he rose above all social conventions and obligations, he yet descended to the level of his fellowmen in an attitude of compassion, and lent his loving hands to drag them out of their misery. In this great work of reform and consolidation in the wider field of India, the ideals and methods of Sri Narayana Guru are bound to be an unfailing source of redemption to the depressed classes of India,” thus wrote Swami Rangnathananda of Ramakrishna Mission.
At first flush, any Narayana Gurukula may be taken for a close-knit commune; but it is not, except that the spirit behind is that of a vibrant commune that sees itself as a close-knit family. Or, as it is said in Sanskrit, Vasudaiva Kudumbakam – one having the entire world for family. Bengaluru Gurukula is no different. Everyone who stays here, however long or short, is part of the group living here at that moment, without any differences based on caste, creed, education, wealth or other divisive factors. Everyone shares everything and in everything.
An institution based on a Guru’s teachings?
How realistic can such a place be a question many a skeptic may ask who feels that life should be lived according to one’s wish and not based on some philosophy of a philosopher, guru or savant. For them such institutions are Utopian. But are they? If you can give credence to the words of a man like Romain Rolland your skepticism might diminish a bit. He said this about Narayana Guru: He was, one might say, a jnanin of action, a grand religious intellectual, who had a keen living sense of the people and of social necessities, In fact, the Guru regarded that the foundation of all progress lay in reforming religious practices, social customs, and the daily habits of the people. This is not certainly Utopian; he and his disciples like Nataraja Guru and Nitya Chitanya Yati proved the practicality of their ideal. They were not aiming at an other-worldly spirituality. In fact, his foremost disciple Nataraja Guru, with his western education, further strengthened his Guru’s philosophy with a modern sensibility
can you please give me the contact address or the phone number or email id of this institution? and if possible details about education in here?
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contact this number:09902242428
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