The first part of this book was written when the Guru Narayana was still living. I was then on a tour of Europe and, under the general title of ‘The Way of the Guru’, these first nine chapters appeared originally as contributions to ‘The Sufi Quarterly’ of Geneva in 1928. The articles aroused much interest, and were later reprinted in book form, first in Geneva in 1931 and later in India in 1942. Sir Francis Younghusband was one of the first to welcome their publication and in a letter to the Editor of the Geneva journal he said:

‘What an excellent number your January number is! I look forward to further instalments of Sri Narayana’s life. There are wonderful people in this wicked world still…’

The celebrated French writer, M. Romain Rolland, also noticed the articles in his now famous work on the life of Ramakrishna, in which he admirably summed up the import and significance of the Guru’s life as follows:

‘Glasenapp does not say anything regarding the new religious manifestations in South India, which are not negligible: such for example is the great Guru Sri Narayana, whose beneficent spiritual activity has been exercising its influence during the past forty years in the State of Travancore on nearly two millions of his followers (he passed away in 1928). His teaching, permeated with the philosophy of Sankara, shows evidence of a striking difference of temperament compared with the mysticism of Bengal, of which the effusions of love (bhakti) inspired in him a certain mistrust. 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. He has contributed greatly to the elevation of the oppressed classes in South India, and his work has been associated at certain times with that of Gandhi. (Cf. the articles of his disciple P. Natarajan in ‘The Sufi Quarterly’, Geneva, December 1928 and in the following months.)’¹

No doubt the reader will be aware of a difference in style and method between these chapters written more than twenty years before those that follow in the remainder of this volume. These early chapters were written unpremeditatedly, with very little intellectual planning, with the sole purpose of presenting something of the personality of the Guru, fresh from the anvil while he was still living, and before the intensity of the actualities of the Guru’s presence evaporated by lapse of time and the mellowing of memory. The attempt was then made to delineate in broad outline a first-distance view of the whole of the Guru’s personality, stressing perhaps certain emotional and intellectual highlights, including some of his personal traits in a rather sketchy, general way, and without too much emphasis on any deeper philosophical aspects.

The Guru passed away at Varkala after the first two chapters had appeared in print, while I continued to live and teach in Switzerland. My studies in individual psychology on the one hand, and on Vedanta and philosophy in general on the other hand, taken together with preoccupation with bricks and mortar in connection with establishing two idealistic institutions called ‘Gurukulas’ in India, one at Fernhill, Nilgiris and the other at Varkala, Travancore, kept me occupied for nearly fifteen years thereafter.

Now that these years of necessary action have come to a natural close, I have been moved again to attempt the completion of my long-cherished ambition of presenting the teachings and theoretical aspects of the Guru Narayana’s life in a form which I hope will be acceptable and understandable to seekers of truth in the West, as well as to those in the East who are trying to comprehend, in terms of Western values, their own rare heritage of wisdom in revalued and restated language. The hospitality of the Gurukula founded by my friend. Harry S.Jacobsen, at the Schooley’s Mountains in New Jersey, USA, in 1949, gave me just that needed quiet retreat and access to libraries and books which has made it possible to write with some seriousness. In dealing with the present work and with future projects, I must take the reader into my confidence, so that the general aim intended here will be understood.

The personality of the Guru is of such a rare kind that it does not fit itself into the usual scheme of biography. As a personality he is elusive and enigmatic and therefore hardly capable of being appreciated with the hasty publicity which even ephemeral figures get. But on the other hand, as has always been the case with the teachers of the perennial wisdom, his deeper message with all its real values will persist, like a glowing subterranean fire which will influence thought through time.

In writing the life of a Guru it is essential for all readers, particularly those outside India, to know not only the background of the personality, but the background which is the setting for the teaching, in which the wisdom has its first meaning. To that extent, background details are relevant, enabling the reader to surmount the merely personal and rise into the region which might be described as the biography of the Word-Wisdom.

I have three volumes altogether in mind, of which this is the first and perhaps in some ways the most difficult to write. I have here retained the earlier impressions and pen-pictures which constituted my first presentation of 1928, and this, being a section by itself, can be regarded as a preliminary introduction to the second part of this volume.

In the second part, as far as possible, I have attempted a rambling treatment of the whole subject-matter, lapsing wherever possible into personal anecdote, and intentionally and consciously refusing to confine myself to any conventions of style, or what might be called an academic form. Such liberties as I have taken in these matters may be excused in the present work, which is only meant to introduce the person of the Guru together with his teachings grosso modo rather than by way of a ‘close-up’.

For the ordinary reader some of the terms, phrases and ideas may at first sight appear unduly heavy. The wisdom-philosophy was so much part and parcel of the life of the Guru that such initial terminology is unavoidable if a true picture is to be presented. The loading of heavy or unfamiliar expressions has not been done on purpose. The wisdom-teaching has been lost or has been confused with much vestigial or irrelevant matter, all of which needs reasoned clearing and a fresh restatement of relevant values made before the Guru and his Word can be understood in its authentic grandeur.

In the third part of this volume, translations of some of the writings of the Guru Narayana will be found. These are only samples from the large body of writings left by the Guru. They have been selected and graded to illustrate some of the mystical yet always human values presented by the Guru. The last of the selections on ‘The Science of the Absolute’ or ‘Brahma-Vidya’ sets the limit, as it were, to this volume. This science requires deep and critical study, of which only a foretaste is provided here. The major literary works of the Guru were concerned with this science, and the two further volumes which I hope to publish later will deal with this in extenso. In connection with this present work, my indebtedness to friends is great, both directly and indirectly, and I shall not attempt to enumerate them all here. Above all it is to the Guru that I am mainly indebted, and in acknowledging his personality, conceived in general terms, I include all others who love wisdom. In this sense I incline inclusively before all in the One.

During the summer of 1949 I was in Paris, still working at my manuscripts, translating and taking notes. I availed myself of the use of the library at the Musée Guimet and also at the Institut de Civilisation Indienne at the Sorbonne. I frequented the lecture-rooms of the Collège de France and contacted thinkers such as Prof. 0. Lacombe whose recent work, ‘L’Absolu Selon le Vedanta’ (The Absolute according to the Vedanta), has been of considerable help to me. I have also had the benefit again of sitting in the study groups round Prof. Masson-Oursel. My indebtedness to these academic foundations of Paris has to be recorded here with gratitude

Such subjects as physiology, Assyriology, Egyptology, atomic physics and general philosophy interested me at Paris, and to the various professors who have enlightened me I acknowledge my gratitude. The kindness, encouragement and hospitality of Madame L. Morin of Paris, who introduced me to the various intellectuals of that city, is not to be forgotten.

In April 1951 I arrived back in India and reached the Gurukula at Fernhill, Nilgiri Hills, in May. My friend and colleague John Spiers, with whom I had already established intellectual and, if I may say so, spiritual, contact for nearly five years, and who even substituted and deputised for me at the Gurukula there in my absence, was sufficiently interested and strangely well-qualified to look through the manuscripts I had brought back.

Much editorial revision, additions, including many footnotes, and ordering to make the meanings more explicit, are to be attributed to the labours of this friend who comes from that same part of the world from which originated John the Scot in the ninth century and whom I consider as a God-send in the context of the Word of the Guru. I have largely relied on him for all work requiring editorial sagacity and a sense of the public mind, from the stage of typing out the manuscripts in their final form to that of seeing them safely through the press.

To him and to all others I here express my thanks.

P. NATARAJAN

1 Translated from the French from: ‘La Vie de Ramakrishna’ par Romain Rolland, p.160. (Librairie Stock, Paris, 1980).1