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Word of the Guru

The Life and Teachings of Guru Narayana by: Nataraja Guru

The book is a biography of the eminent saint-philosopher of modern India, Guru Narayana. It deals with the meaning and essence of guruhood and gives rational explanations for many baffling aspects of life. It reveals the significance of his Advaita Vedanta method for introducing a new science of wisdom dialectics. It also describes the physical and psychological conditions of South India and explores the spirituality of India.

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Year Of Publication: 2017
Edition: 3rd
Pages : xx, 451
Bibliographic Details : Appendices; Glossary; Bibliography; Index;
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Foreword By : John Spiers
Size: 23 cm.
Weight: 800

Overview

Millions of people have been deeply affected by the life and teachings of the Guru Narayana, who is the central figure of this book. This is a biography, not only of the Guru Narayana, but of Guruhood itself. Religions and philosophies have their sources in such men, and the aim here is to clarify this fact, without being sentimental or sensational. In doing so, many hitherto baffling enigmas of Indian life are given a rational explanation for the first time. Nataraja Guru, the disciple-successor of the Narayana Guru, uses the contemplative discipline which was characteristic of the Guru Narayana, and brings the Advaita Vedanta method into the forefront of global thought as understood today, introducing a new science of Wisdom-Dialectics. Nataraja Guru’s scheme of correlation between science and mysticism amounts to an epochal advance in philosophy. This book represents the voice of the Guru. The Word of the Guru provides a quantity of original material for study, including fully annotated and carefully translated writings of Guru Narayana. It describes the physical and psychological conditions of South India with great brilliance. The spirituality of India is set forth here in its clearest terms, unambiguous and shorn of all limiting frontiers, suitable for readers in all parts of the world.

Contents

Foreword
— John Spiers
Preface
— P. Natarajan
List of Illustrations
Part-I
The Way of the Guru
1. Introductory
2. The Guru at Home
3. Two Random Impressions
4. Brotherhood
5. Mystic Experience
6. Guru Role Begins
7. Principle and Practice
8. From the Past to the Future
9. Later Reminiscences
Part-II
THE WORD OF THE GURU
10. The Dialectics of Advaita Vedanta
11. The Word and the Silence
12. Distant Drums and Word Enigmas
13. Guru and Sisya
14. The Far-flung Affinities of the Word
15. The Ascending Dialectics of Stone Language
16. Blast and Counter-Blast
17. The Guru-Trio of South India
18. The Duality of Ends and Means
19. The Living Method
20. More Intimate Jottings
Part-III
SOME POEMS OF THE GURU
21. Translator’s Foreword
22. A Critique of Caste (Jati-Mimamsa)
23. Prenatal Gratitude (Pinda-Nandi)
24. Kindness to Life (Jiva-Karunya-Pancakam)
25. Song of the Kundalini Snake (Kundalini-Pattu)
26. Thought and Inertia (Cit-Jadangal)
27. Scriptures of Mercy (Anukampa-Dasakam)
28. The Science of the Absolute
(Brahma-Vidya-Pancakam)
Appendix-1
Essential Biographical Data of Narayana Guru
Appendix-2
Works of Narayana Guru
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Meet the Author
avatar-author
1895-1973
Nataraja Guru is the disciple-successor of Narayana Guru (1854-1928), whose dialectical revaluation and restatement of Sankaracarya’s Advaita Vedanta conformed for the first time to the requirements of a normative or experimental science, to the extent that will probably ever be possible. Sankara himself may be said to be a continuator of Vyasa, who in his turn revised and restated the wisdom of the Upanishads as understood in his time. Nataraja Guru is thus a representative of the same pure, direct and vertical line of succession of philosophical revaluators extending back through time to the most ancient phase of the recorded history of human thought. The Guru may thus be seen to be uniquely qualified to undertake the present work, which he did at the instance of Narayana Guru himself. Sent by Narayana Guru to study in the West, Nataraja Guru was awarded the D. Lit. degree from the University of Paris. In 1923 he established the Narayana Gurukula, with headquarters at Varkala in Kerala State, a Guru-disciple foundation which welcomes all who seek the wisdom of the Absolute in open and living terms. The Guru has translated into English and commented on all of the major works of Narayana Guru, and has written on a wide variety of subjects, employing throughout a protolinguistic or structural approach which could be said to be his unique contribution to the perennial wisdom heritage of mankind.