Guru Charanam Saranam

SANTHIGIRI ASHRAM

Profile

Santhigiri Ashram was founded by Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru, near Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala state in India in 1968. His endeavor was completely centered on the development of life situations of the people. It combines spiritual, physical, economical and cultural uplift of society. People, especially from the lower strata of the society, approached him with all kinds of issues such as physical and mental illness, poverty, financial crisis, and other familial and social issues.

 

Guru could identify from his spiritual experiences that all these problems that people suffer arise from the spiritual crisis of the inner life-force, (Jeeva or Soul), of the individual. Guru’s fundamental endeavour was how to remove this crisis through a new cultural set up as the basis of life pattern that consequently and gradually purify the life-force and energize the person to improved dynamism. He established this, eradicating bad cultural practices that prevailed in the society such as evil worship, black magic, and other low level practices including casteism and religious discriminations.

 

His endeavor of purification is extended to the generations to come through his highest spiritual task of ‘Gurupuja’- the purification of the ancestral lineage (genetic tree) of a family. It enables the family members to get rid of the karmic as well as the worship influence of the ancestors and to beget children with purified life-force of better social dynamism for the evolvement of an international community. For this purpose at present he has started several branch ashrams in different parts of the country with head quarters at Thiruvananthapuram.

 

His endeavor comprises spiritual and social aspects. He has established different kinds of employment opportunities for the better economic conditions of the members. It includes schools, hospitals, medical colleges, medicine manufacturing centers, handloom, publishing house, printing

press, coir factory, herbal garden, agriculture, social and industrial research centers for supplementing better methodologies time to time.

 

His social set up include individuals from different walks of life fulfilling their own duties up to their capacity contributing to the well being of the whole society. It includes members from different castes of Hindu religion and from other religions as well and practices no discrimination. All these are based on the ideology of brotherhood of all under the one Almighty and solidarity of the whole humanity in an international level with human dignity, social justice, and non violence promoting participatory governance of each and every individual.

 

Guru recognizes family as the basic unit of society. The concept of family envisaged by Guru is of Dharma oriented for fulfilling the duties of the life-force for its progress in a house hold situation. For this purpose he has established an association of house-holders, Grihasthashrama Sangham, where they unite together with the issues related to the family in its interactive dimension inside as well as outside the family. It is meant to fulfill the duties of all kinds of familial relationships such as husband, wife, father, mother, children, etc. This association has units in all branches and districts.

According to Guru, house-holders are very important since they mould the coming generations. He entitles parents the sole responsibility of bringing up children not only by feeding and education but also by inculcating values that pertained to spiritual development by fulfilling duties in a family with a broad societal outlook.  According to him, mother is the first guru who inculcates values and fathers the one who shows the path to God. This is the dharma of the parents making themselves as the models to the children. For this he has established different institutes  for the better education of the children and for all age groups such as kinder garden, school – Santhigiri Vidyabhavan, a residential school, a higher secondary school, medical colleges, Guru Kanthi a center where children are taken care of after school or college hours providing different games and moral lessons.

 

Health is an important aspect in Guru’s mission since there is an emphasize on karma for which the human physicality is the basis. Karma or the righteous action as the only medium of the evolution of the life-force, health is primarily important. Guru has established research centers to bring timely modifications and discoveries. Navajyothisree Karunakara Guru Research Center for Ayurveda and Siddha at Uzhavur in Kottayam district in Kerala is established in the place donated by the late President of India Sree K.R. Narayanan. There is one Siddha medical college at Trivandrum affiliated to Kerala University and an Ayurveda Medical College at Palakkad affiliated to Calicut University. It is aimed at imparting new curative skills to professionals and to adopt a coordinated approach to health related issues in international fora. The treatement method adopted is a holistic approach that includes Ayurveda, Siddha, Homio, Alopathy, etc incorporating matching items from all these systems and suitable to particular case.

 

Santhigiri health care unit has adopted Chandiroor, a village in Alleppy District which guarantees 100% free health care to the village consisting 3000 house holds. Santhigiri runs several mobile health units throughout the country. It enables to respond urgent health issues and out break of communicable disease such as the outbreak of chicken gunia in Kerala and Dengue at Delhi.  In effect Santhigiri support progress and protect people and communities with diverse cultures, beliefs, and traditions.

 

It may be the only one spiritual oriented social organization that accommodate women and give prime importance to them than male members as reply to the age old marginalization of women in India especially in spiritual tradition in Hindu religion.  Guru’s programmes improve, broaden and ensure the participation of women in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural as equal partners. Guru has instituted several organizations exclusively for women such as Mathrumandalam for married women, Santhimahima for unmarried women for their evolution through participating in group activities avoiding all possibilities of male interruption.

 

His organization also accommodates elderly persons in different units according to their capacities as work supervisors, managers, etc. There are

several senior citizens who got appointed in various Santhigiri departments after their retirements from government sectors, private sectors, army etc. They get an opportunity to live a meaningful life and enjoy all rights without discrimination.

 

If true uplift and social change of the society can take place only through a fundamental cleansing involving spiritual wisdom and brilliance, cutting asunder the barriers of tradition and religion, lifting the human soul to sublime spiritual experience which the present age demands, Santhigiri Ashram holds the hope to humanity and the blueprint for a  better world order.