Narayana Guru

who opens his eyes to the horrors of untouchability.

The second person who moves him even further is the great Kerala thinker and says Narayana Guru, whose followers say, you must start a campaign to have untouchables.

They were not known then as Dalits.

They were called Panchamas and other kinds of names, depressed classes, not yet Harijans, which is the name Gandhi gives them in the 1930s.

to enter temples.

So then Gandhi hesitates, but encouraged by Narayana Guru's followers, gives his endorsement to people entering temples.

So it is equality in the eyes of God, which low caste never enjoyed previously.

Then comes Ambedkar and radicalizes him even further.

You know, he makes a distinction between, uh, Desi Advaitavadis and Advaitins.

Desi Advaitavadis are like Narayana Guru in Kerala and Allama Prabhu, Sarapada, Bhima Bhoi and Shishunala Sherpa in, in Kannada milieu.

They, they are Desi Advaitavadis.

They used what he calls, what Nagaraj calls Laghu mode of expression, means light modes of expressions like narratives, sh- stories, short lines, free verses like Vachanas.

The, the idea-- the question is not whether it is plausible or not, right or wrong.

The manner in which he makes-- he weaves these different parts is exciting and excellent, you know? Now, uh, uh, uh, now, and, and it's a method of assembling diverse ideas to build arguments which enables Nagaraj to read a variety of text and facilitate a dialogue between different traditions.

[coughs] Accordingly, Nagaraj's perspective on Allama weaves together Shaiva philosophers, including Shankara, Abhinavagupta, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Shakila, Bhima Bhoi, Sri Narayana Guru, and Buddhist philosophers like Sarhapada and Nagarjuna.

He draws connections between pre-modern and modern, Vedic and non-Vedic, folk and classical, Western traditions and Indian, Desi and Marga, all within a highly contrapuntal reading of twentieth-century vachana-- uh, sorry, twelfth-century vachanas.

I mean, Swami Chinmayanda has this nice story, right? Of how he just went, sat in front of him and walked back.

I mean, there is a story of this very famous Kerala Advaitin, Sri Narayana Guru.

who went to meet Ramana Maharshi.

And both of them didn't speak a word.