Santhigiri Ashram - The Hill of Peace

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Sources : http://www.nairs.org/home.php?a059 From Udayor Newsletter, February 2006 Santhigiri Ashram - The Hill of Peace Special Correspondent It is an unusual place, the Santhigiri Ashram near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Translating the vision of Shri Karunakara Guru the Santhigiri Ashram today runs several institutions including medical college and ayurvedic manufacturing facilities. With luminaries like writer O V Vijayan and former President K R Narayanan ardent followers of Shri Karunakara Guru Santhigiri has in a short span of time caught the imagination of the people. The followers are from all castes and communities and this

order has a futuristic vision. Santhigiri amalgamates the good of all religions though rooted in the Sanathana Dharmam. They take the avatars of the Hindu pantheon as also the prophets of others, Judaism, Christianity and Islam as a unifying whole. What results is a universal paradigm of human spiritual development. How the followers of Santhigiri consider the faith to be of immense relevance in days to come, that across the world. It has in it the flowering of what many other saints, Swami Sivananda of Vatakara in particular, have said long back. That all the saints, Hindu, Christian or Islam, came to reunite the people with true faith, alienated by rituals and priesthood. It is also the core strength of Sanathana Dharma, which accommodates all the one-prophet one-book religions as an integral whole. Karunakara Guru, who was with us till a few years back, is originally from the Sree Narayana order and was at Aruvipuram and Varkala ashrams. Later dissociating

with the order and forming another school of thought. Interestingly Karunakara Guru considers a Muslim fakir, Pattani Swami, as his own Guru. There are many Muslim mystics in Kerala who transcends the narrow concepts of religion and ritual. Just like the ‘avadhootas’, true ascetics, in Hinduism they too roam the streets with no regard for money or fame. Karunakara Guru is believed to have met Pattani Swamikal near the Bima Palli mosque in Thiruvananthapuram who imparted him deep insights about life. Islam as one of the youngest religions of the world has many positive attributes though the Muslim followers have made it have an image of violence and intolerance. Or they were portrayed as such. Islam was born mainly as a reaction to the injustice of the ancient Christian church which made profits and commerce central. How in India there are many shrines of Islam frequented by Hindus, where the polarization has not shut each other up. Islam painted black by vested interests

is another lacuna. Deeper spirituality and religion are indeed different. The Santhigiri Ashram is a unique order of seekers who wear simple white. They all, from different communities, live in a compound and are different from other conventional ashrams. They are permitted to marry and use their own language of spirituality. Thus the demise of Karunakara Guru is not taken as a ‘Samadhi’, as usually done with self-realised souls, but as having been merged with ‘satya prakasam’. The pictures at Santhigiri have Krishna, Rama and assorted Hindu godheads and also Jesus and the Islamic sacred texts inscribed. It is man making at its best and is similar to the Sivananda Order of Vatakara, started by Swami Sivananda Paramahamsa. Here again a silent revolution is on since generations aimed at a fuller human life for the future. Here too there is no bar on male – female relationship though this is highly regulated. What conventional concepts of ‘Brahmacharya’ in

ascetics, evolved in the recent past, negates. Where life giving man –women union is taken as sin. Putting women to undue sufferings, also men. Thus it is a correction in the deviance and where the Sivananda order remains silent Sathigiri has made it have an outreach to larger society. Followers of Karunakara Guru of Santhigiri believe that the Hindu faith had some aberrations which need to be corrected. How there is unnecessary human suffering at present. There are various ways of achieving this and various rituals undertaken. They do not follow idol worship though there is no ban on this to lay followers. The huge Ashram complex provides food, annadanam, every day to thousands of people who come there and stay there. Many of them have shifted to the Ashram after selling off their properties back home. The chief of the Ashram now is Amrita Janani, chosen by the founder himself. The chief who has been selected is supposed to be considered as the Guru himself,

what is an attempt to prevent the decadence of the order, what has happened at many places where the gap left after the Guru pass away proves damaging. The Ashram has a well designed system of selecting children with extra-sensory vision whose help is sought in deciphering problems of the devotees. With all the turmoil in Kerala Santhigiri is an abode of peace and the crowds reaching here endorse their experiences of liberation. (See the members area for a more exhaustive report on Santhigiri and its philosophy. Ed.) From Udayor Newsletter, February 2006

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