THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday urged the public to be on guard against deliberate attempts to misinterpret the teachings of Sree Narayana Guru.
The people who are making a bid to unite Hindus by distorting the ‘I have no caste’ proclamation of the Guru are in fact insulting him, the Chief Minister said, unveiling the foundation stone for a museum commemorating the historic proclamation at Varkala. He cautioned the monks of the Sivagiri Math to be on guard against such bids.
“The monks of Sivagiri Math are different from the saffron-clad men who view it as a short-cut to power. They are people who follow the path of Narayana Guru. But tricksters may try to take advantage of their innocence,” he said. Even during his lifetime, Narayana Guru was conscious of the attempts being made to misinterpret his vision and relegate him to a particular caste. For him, nothing would have been painful than that. That is why he proclaimed he had neither caste nor religion, Pinarayi said.
“What sets Narayana Guru apart from other leaders of the renaissance in Kerala is his eternal relevance. The ripples that his teachings created in Kerala society should be subjected to close study in the contemporary situation. Such was his persona the history of the state can be divided into ‘Before Narayana Guru’ and After Narayana Guru’ eras, he said.
The five-storey museum is coming up on the 81-cent plot housing the Muthaliyar Sathram. The `20 crore project will have libraries, research facilities, lecture halls, and archives. Sree Narayana Dharma Sanghm Trust president Swami Vishudhananda presided over the function. Also present were V Joy MLA, Varkala municipal chairperson Bindu Haridas, Trust general secretary Swami Sandrananda, former general secretary Swami Rithambarananda, former president Swami Prakashananda, Swami Guruprasad and Swami Saradananda.