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Sree Subhananda Gurudevan

The birth of Subhananda itself was something wonderful, very peculiar and special. His parents had no issues for a period of 24 years since marriage. Subhananda’s father Ittyathi, of Malayilthara house, Padinjare Venpaala Village, Nedumbram Panchayath, Thiruvalla Taluk, Alappuzha District, Kerala State (then Travancore), South India, was a simple and noble astrologer, and Mother Kochuneeli (Kulakkal House, Budhanoor Village, Chengannur Taluk) was a very humble, pious and cultured woman. The holy couples were leading a life of prayer, fasting and penance from 14.11.1869 (1045 Vrischikam 1) onwards they had been deeply and continuously praying for the gift of a child, visiting the holy places and temples, performing several Poojas and Bhajans. At last Kochuneeli performed 41 days continuous rigorous Bhajan, from 15th November 1880 (1056 Vrischikam 1) onwards, at a Saalagramma* (* A kind of stone sacred to Vishnu, found in the river Gandaki) )Temple at Changanassery.  On the 41st day, on 26.12.1881 (1057 Dhanu 12), the priest of the temple after giving Prasad of two banana fruits to her, and on knowing that she chose the smaller fruit to eat, predicted that she will soon give birth to a worldly renowned child.  Thus after the long twenty four years of worshipping and holy awaiting, the fortunate Kochuneeli at the age of forty gave birth to the blessed child.

Thus by the Grace of God, as predetermined, the Incarnated, Lord Subhananda was born on 28th April 1882 (1057 Medam 17), Friday on Pooram Nakshtra (Star), in the scheduled caste Sambava (Paraya) family; (Kulakkal House, at Budhanoor villate), to the devotee Sambava couples Ittyathi and Kochu Neeli, blissfully named as Darayanan (A synonym of Lord Maha Vishnu).

Narayanan was smart, handsome individual and very perceptive of all that was happening around him.Through he was a little naughty during his childhood; his parents never punished him even with harsh words.His father had given him primary literacy as low caste children were not allowed to school at that time. His childhood was an ordinary uneventful one till he had an enlightening experience of Divine Transition at the age of 7.

DIVYA MAHAL DARSAN

At the age of seven, from the 16th November 1988 Friday evening, the child had a strange Heavenly Holy Darsan. While he was on half asleep he had seen a very deep beam of light, like that of billions of sun’s brightness together, had immersed into his body. In that splendor he saw five divine bright rays; a Crescent Moon, Triple Stars, a milky white Conch, the Blue Circle, and the Morning Sun, one after another. And these beams of light moulded together as a Mahabindu, a fire ball, the fire of power, the fire of wisdom, Jnanangni, the Sarva Jnana had entered into his soul and slowly settled there as a Universal Power and Holy Spirit of God.This experience had lasted for three days continuously till he returned to normal life only on the forth day of this eternal sight of Para_brahma.The bewildered parents though that some indivisible evil power had entered their son and took the child to temples and renowned astrologers to seek remedy.The strange experience had His soul exposed to the lustrous all pervading beam of light. Thease rays were omnipotent and its strength bespeaks of Kalki.To him, this was opening of the path to self-realization.This path was pursued to its full extent to attain enlightenment accompanied by severe penance as well.

During his childhood he had witnessed many horrible scenes of brutal torturing being suffered by even his close relatives, and even slaughtering of the slaves by inhuman means of the landloards. Even as a child he showed the tendency to teach and correct others. From the very small age the “child” started giving spiritual discourses and did wonders. Ever since the Holy Darsan the body craved for loneliness to think about the inner meaning of the Five Divine Rays, the bodies and rays of holy spirits that had immersed into his soul.

He loved his mother very dearly. Following mothers sad demise in 1894 at the age of 12 Narayanan, who was a lover of seclusion, went on to pilgrimages inquest of study the super holy spirit that immersed in him. The determined boy visited various holy places and met different spiritual scholars and religious bodies, but ehre were none who could give an explanation about the meaning of the revelation of Brahmachaithanya that he had experienced.

During this period he was attracted by the messate of Christian Missionaries and did mission works in the name of Pathrose for nine continuous years. At last he found even Christianity unsatisfactory to solve his spiritual enthusiasm. Therefore, he once again went on a long pilgrimage to several important centres of workship.

When he was twenty, he fought against superstition and compained against casteism and untouchability, which were rampant at that time. He was terribly indignant at the social injustice, slavery, inequality, caste and class discrimination and many other social evils of man as a result of ignorance and superstition. The saint in him was being moulded to cope with a socio cultural task to benefit the humanity as a whole. All this time, he was continuing his endless endeavour to understand the spiritual meaning of human life and its ultimate end, Jivanmukthi, the liberation from bondage of the lower worlds. So at last he decided to go for meditation and penance to find out the Absolute truth, the Ultimate Reality.

THAPAS (PENANCE)

Thereafter during 1914, at the age of 33 he reached Cheenthalar, a remove forest area near Peermade in Idukki District where the mystic went on to a deep mediation and intence penance which lasted for a period of 2 years, 11 months and 22 days, (beginning from 16.11.1915 to 07.11.1918) underneath an Alexandrian laurel tree, for the realization of the Divine Light which he had experience at the age of Seven. This place is now known as referred to as “Tapogiri”. While he sat for hours in the same posture in the solitude, he was guarded by wild animals and a huge cobra. There occurred many miracles during the period of this deep penance. He had experienced Messages from God through Divine Visions (Darsanam), Prophesies (Pravachanam), voice from the heaven or sky (Assareeri), Dreams (Swapnam), Revelations etc. from the unknown Divine Power, and all the questions and problems regarding man, heaven and hell were solved for ever. As a saint of great spiritual achievements he acquired wisdom and knowledge through the communion with God. Thus after this intense meditation he attained the heavenly enlightenment which was the birth of Kaliyuga Avathaara, the Saviour of Humanity, the Jnana Khalki. His last days in Thapogiri were very similar to the days of the enlightenment of Sidhartha. Sidhartha become awakened under the Bodhi tree of Gaya and become Gautama Budha. Likewise Narayanan become enlightened of the eternal spiritual knowledge under the laurel tree in Thapogiri at Cheenthalar forest and attained Atma Bodhodayam and become Sree Subhananda. Since then he assumed himself the name swami Subhananda. He realized himself that in the inner self of every individual, sparks the Heavenly Light Jeevatma, which is burning, but latent in him, hidden by maya. He wanted to enlighten the light of self realization in each and every ignorant soul and make them wise.

As Swami Vivekananda had said “Kerala is a Mental Asylum”, a land of innumerable untouchable and unapproachable castes and social inequalities of the worst type, where lakhs of people lived in utter poverty and ignorance and as slaves with out any of the basic amenities of life or human rights. They lived like numb driven cattle horn to work and suffer for the upper class and they were even bought and sold in markets as slaves. Swami Subhananda had immense sympathy for these poor and the afflicted that he declared himself as their friend and savior. After his Tapas he bid farewell to the cobra and tiger who befriended him, and Gurudev reached at his Janmastan (Native place) and started a spiritual mission centre in 1918. He addressed spiritual gatherings and conveyed his teachings for the liberation of the downtrodden. Swami Subhananda started his noble mission of liberating the untouchables from the misery they suffered due to evil practices. He severly condemned hypocrisy and exposure in meaningless religious rituals and customs, superstitions, exploitation and discrimination in the name of religion, the social injustice inflicted on the poor and depressed and suppressed and all other wrongs found in the society. He was indignant to social injustices, inequality, caste and class discrimination to arrogance and human vanities and many other social evils of men sprouting out of ignorance and superstition. He mingled with the underprivileged and so called untouchables, to educate them and to enlighten them that God has no distinction between and that all creations are equal to Him.

Guru indeed did not belong to any organized religion and His vision was far beyond any community or religion. Because of existing social structure during His time, Guru favoured for the upliftment of the downtrodden communities especially within the ‘religion’ Hinduism prevalent during that time. Subhananda’s religion was so simple and devoid of all sophistry. The ideas and ideology of Subhanand and his philosophy, the concept of unity and solidarity of mankind is practical and his influence is so powerful in purifying the lives of his followers. His own life was pure and simple and full of kindness for the poor and helpless. Besides his spiritual mission he did many miraculous divine powers over nature and to his needy followers with different mundane and spiritual problems. He proved that he could cure diseases, caste out evil spirits, escape from the threats and dangers from the enemies, stop rain during public meeting and do such other wonderful and miraculous things. Due to these unbelievable super human deeds he came to be known as a miracle-worker among the public, and more and more people were attracted towards him.

He declared that there is only one Supreme Spirit and that is the creator, protector and savior of all mankind. He said in unequivocal terms that one need not go far or wander in search of God. God, who is everywhere, is also within oneself. There is no heaven and hell other than this world. Evil action begets hell in life and spirituality leads to heavenly bliss. Man’s destiny depends entirely on his actions. It is only faith and inner purity, and not visiting temples and holy places or making holy pilgrimages that is essential for spiritual attainment.

Due to lack of Atmabodha and righteousness when the world deteriorates to the condition of hell, God incarnates in human form and gives Jnana or knowledge to mankind destructing evil and establishing Dharma through righteous deeds and thereby saving the world from the clutches of hell. He declared that Lord Himself has taken birth in the lowest Sambava caste in order to eradicate the injustice prevailing in a caste ridden society.Like Sree Narayana Guru, he proclaimed that man is ‘One’ and there can not be any difference due to caste or community.The work he initiated assumed proportions of a huge spiritual renaissance movement. Gradually more and more people took refuge at His feet and got attracted to His devine power and large crowds attended the prayers. Prayer meetings and congregations become frequent, attracting people of all religions, castes and creeds from far and wide. He could give peace and security to all of them who were suffering from distresses due to sins, diseases and recurrent attack of devils. He advised his followers to worship One God and to discard evils from within.He had to face stiff resistance and vehement opposition from the so called upper caste class. He went round the country like a wandering mendicant Bhikshamdehi, wearing only a loin cloth and nothing else. However, Swami Subhananda was determined to establish truth and righteousness, Sathya Dharma, and continued it with increasing vigor, and Gurudev by his divine wisdom, destroyed the ignorance of mankind and taught them to be conscious of the Atma, which is God with in onself.Gurudev advised them to abandon all evil thoughts, get purified and thereby attain Bliss. i.e. Moksha during one’s life time itself.

Being born in the ‘lower caste’, the Sambava Community, Gurudev and his followers were vehemently opposed, threatend and ridiculted by the upper class questioning their rights to preach vedantha. His Holiness had a struggle for existence, in abject poverty, facing all sorts of oppositions. Yet Gurudev ardently fought superstitions and campaigned against casteism and untouchability which were rampant at that time and continued the march of “Aswamedha”, capturing “Atmas”, and spontaneously conforting, counseling, consoling, purifying, enlightening and uplifting them with ‘Atmabodha’, by directing them from the darkness of ignorance towards the light of knowledge.To achieve this purpose He founded the organization Atma Bodhodaya Sangham, and began to set up several Subhananda Ashrams which stand for ideal which are acceptable to people of all walks of life, cutting across the barriers of caste, creed, religion and nationality.It helped to mould with humanity and rationality of believing in the great holy principle of advaitha, One Caste, One religion and one God. It spreads the message of love and compassion, to propel a renaissance of Indian culture and holistic values. Thus the Atma Bodhodaya Sangam, as its name implies, helped the people to see the way to self-realisation and attainment of Salvation.

WORDS OF WISDOM IN GURUDEV’S POEMS

Subhananda Gurudev was a bon poet and hundreds of spiritual hymns spontaneously sung by him during prayer meetings were written down and collected by the devotees. They are very famous for their philosophic contents and sweetness.

CREATION

In the beginning, before creation there was only knowledge, “Atma Bodham”. It was the supreme figure, a luster of consciousness. Soul and mental power itself is knowledge. Out of that ‘Atma Bodhan’ this clearly visible and non-visible universe was born. The universe is glittering in that knowledge. Knowledge gets into it. Knowledge is immortal life force. That knowledge of self has included in the programme of creation, a scheme of action to free from sorrows of birth and death. It has divided the universe in four divisions i.e. hell, earth, man and women (Narakam, Naralokam, Naran and Naari). Before the creation of the world it was lying everywhere in deluge. And it was then a hell. The place of birth of hell is hell self. Hell means sin. The sin in the previous birth follows on in his rebirth. The earth was formed from hollowness. It is an illusion of magic. Illusion has no existence. But knowledge of self (Atma Bodham) is not like that. It is a phenomenon of eternal universal soul. Before the creation of man his faultless seeds were the souls. The supreme soul embraces morality and created the universe. The seed to knowledge is in ignorance because its origin is from Hell. So the word was a hell.

When one takes birth in the world one become blind. The Guru is the relative, who is there to eliminate blindness, to free from sorrows of birth and death. Within His creation Guru is the creator. Guru is the creator of the world. The aim of creation is to give chance to all the souls to become human beings and then to realize God who is absolute Bliss. They can realize God by doing absolute good actions and surrendering to Him. But the reign of harmony stood as if it is in heaven.