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.