90th anniversary of Sivagiri pilgrimage and Golden Jubilee of Brahma Vidyalaya

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a programme to mark the 90th anniversary of the Sivagiri pilgrimage and the golden jubilee of the Brahma Vidhyalaya.

About Sivagiri pilgrimage:

• Sivagiri is the holy abode of one of the great saints and social reformers of India, Sree Narayan Guru.
• Established by Narayana Guru who propagated the message of ‘One Caste, One Religion and One God for Mankind’, the Sivagiri Mutt is a major spiritual-cum-pilgrim centre of the backward Ezhava community in Kerala.
• Subjects: The pilgrimage focuses on eight subjects vis-a-vis education, cleanliness, piety, handicrafts, trade and commerce, agriculture, science and technology and organised endeavour.
• The pilgrimage started with a handful of devotees in 1933 but now has become one of the major events of south India.
• Every year, lakhs of devotees from all over the world irrespective of caste, creed, religion and language visit Sivagiri to participate in the pilgrimage.
• Shri Narayan Guru had also envisioned a place to teach the principles of all religions with equanimity and equal respect.
• The Brahma Vidhyalaya of Sivagiri was set up to realise this vision.
• Brahma Vidhyalaya offers a course of seven years on Indian philosophy including the works of Shri Narayan Guru and scriptures of all important religions of the world.

Architecture and distinctive features of the temple:

• The Sivagiri Sarada temple is octagonal in shape.
• It was planned and designed by the Guru himself.
• The Sarada temple here has windows, which were very uncharacteristic of a temple.
• The Guru called it Sarada Mutt and he wanted to dedicate it to Saraswathy, the Goddess of knowledge.
• The goddess is seated on a white lotus, indicating the knowledge blossoming on purity.
• The rituals are also is different from that of other temples.
• While other temples perform nivedyam (offering of food to the deity) or abhishekam (pouring oil, ghee and such on the idol), Sharada temple is devoid of all such rituals.
• The devotees are free to worship the goddess reciting hymns.
• Guru, himself a writer and poet, wrote Janani-navaratna Manjari, in praise of the Goddess.
• Apart from consecrating a symbolic idol and shunning all tantric rituals, the Guru also insisted on keeping high hygiene standards on the temple premises.
• His followers adhere to the Guru’s words now too and the temple is thus very different from other temples in the world.

 About Shree Narayana Guru:

• He was born in 1856, in the village of Chempazhanthi near Thiruvananthapuram as the son of Madan Asan, a farmer, and Kutti Amma. 
• He was born into an Ezhava family, in an era when people from backward communities faced social injustice in the caste-ridden Kerala society. 
• He led the Reform movement in Kerala, revolted against the caste system and worked on propagating new values of freedom in spirituality and social equality which transformed Kerala society.
• He became a ‘Parivrajaka’ (one who wanders from place to place in quest of Truth) after the demise of the father and wife.
• He passed away in 1928.

Contribution in anti-caste revolution

• Narayana Guru consecrated the first temple of Lord Shiva in 1888 where an idol was ordinated by a non-brahmin in Aruvippuram village of Kerala.
• His step sparked off the anti-caste revolution against the upper-caste Brahmin communities.
• In 1903, he established the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) as the founder and president.
• The organization continues to mark its strong presence to this day.

Contribution to National Movement:

• He was in the forefront of the movement for universal temple entry and against the societal ills like the social discrimination of untouchables.
• He provided the impetus for Vaikom agitation, which was aimed at temple entry in Travancore for the lower castes.
• He captured the essence of Indian-ness in his poems, which highlighted the unity that lies beneath the world’s apparent diversity.

Literary Works:

• He wrote various books in different languages. Few of them are:
  • Advaitha Deepika
  • Asrama
  • Thevarappathinkangal
  • Brahmavidya Panchakam etc.

Philosophy of SreeNarayana Guru:

• Sree Narayana Guru became one of the greatest proponents and re-evaluators of Advaita Vedanta, the principle of non-duality put forward by AdiShankara.
• In 1913, he founded the Advaita Ashram at Aluva. This was an important event in his spiritual quest.
• This Ashram was dedicated to a great principle – Om SahodaryamSarvatra (all men are equal in the eyes of God).