Nitya Chaidhanya Yati
Nitya Chaitanya Yati (Jayachandra Panikkar) (November 2, 1923–May 14, 1999) Nitya Chaidhanya Yati was a thinker, philosopher, Advaitic scholar, and spiritualist. Belongs to Narayana Guru's school of thought. Student of Nataraja Guru. Nitya Chaitanya Yati applied the new Advaitic approach developed by Narayana Guru and Nataraja Guru to modern psychology and literature. The second head of the Narayana Gurukulam, which was founded by Nataraja Guru.
Birth And Education
Birth
Nitya Chaitanya Yati's birth name was Jayachandra Panikkar. On November 2, 1923, Nitya Chaidanya Yati was born to Pandalam Raghav Panikkar and Vamakshi Amma in an Ezhava feudal family of Pandalam Panikkars in a village called Murinjakal near Konni in the PathanamThitta district of Kerala.
Ancestors
Nitya Chaitanya Yati's father, Pandalam Raghav Panikkar, served as a teacher. Pandalam Raghava Panikar was famous as a poet and essayist. The maternal grandfather of Nitya Chaidhanya Yati was a Pali linguist. The famous poet Mulur Padmanabha Panikkar was the maternal uncle of Nitya Chaitanya Yati.
Education
Nitya Chaitanya Yati did his primary education at the school of a teacher named Nanu Pillai. After completing his matriculation at Kulatungal High School near Pandalam, he left home in 1939 and wandered for 8 years in British India, North India, today's Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
He returned to the field again in 1947. He joined Union Christian College in Aluva for a Bachelor of Philosophy. He then completed his Masters in Philosophy from Thiruvananthapuram University College in 1952. Psychology was an optional subject.
In 1956, he received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Bombay.
Educational works
Nitya Chaitanya Yati worked as a philosophy teacher at Srinarayana College, Kollam,Kollam in 1952. In 1953, he worked as a professor of philosophy at Vivekananda College, Chennai, for one year.
He was the founding president of the Centre for the Study of Alternative Psychology in 1959, on the orders of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Nithya Chaitanya Yati has worked as a professor in the fields of philosophy and alternative psychology at several universities, including Portland and Chicago. He has served as a visiting professor in England and France.
Spiritual Life
When Nitya Chaitanya Yati was a child, his father took him to see Gandhi. Nitya Chaitanya Yati sang a prayer before Gandhi. Nitya Chaitanya Yati had also seen Narayanaguru as a child.
Nitya Chaitanya Yati spent some time at Ramana's ashram at Tiruvannamalai and at Gandhi's ashram at Sabarmati during his post-school wanderings. He met various spiritual teachers during that period.
When Nitya was working as a teacher at Sreenarayana College, Kollam, he met Nataraja Guru, who came to lecture there. While serving as Professor of Philosophy at Ramakrishna Math's Vivekananda College, he resigned in 1953 after a philosophical clash with Dr. Radhakrishnan.
With Nataraja Guru
In 1953, Jayachandran went to the Ooty Frenhill Gurukul and became a direct disciple of Nataraja Guru. Both of them spent many years in Ooty alone in extreme poverty. Jayachandran abdicated (sanyasa) from Natarajaguru and took the name Nityasaitanya Yati. In 1956, when Nataraja Guru went on a world tour, Niyta went to Mumbai and did his doctoral research.
World travel
In 1969, Nitya Chaitanya Yati was taken to Australia by a sailor and embarked on an unplanned world tour. After living in Australia for a year, he moved to America. He has worked as a professor in the fields of philosophy and alternative psychology at several universities, including Portland and Chicago. He has worked as a professor in England and France. He was in correspondence with Russell and Karl Popper.
Narayana Gurukulam
Nataraja Guru had formed an organisation called Narayana Gurukulam in the Nilgiris in 1924. In 1936, he built a small hut in a gifted tea garden at Fern Hill,Ooty and restarted the Narayana Gurukulam. The headquarters of the organisation was later shifted to Varkala, Kerala, near the Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Sabha headquarters started by Narayana Guru. In 1970, Nataraja Guru decreed that Nitya Chaitanya Yati should serve as the head of the organisation after him.
In 1973, when Nataraja guru's health declined, Nitya Chaitanya Yati returned to India and assumed the leadership of the Narayana Gurukul. Nitya Chaitanya Yati later stayed mostly at Ooty Bern Hill Gurukul. The Narayana Gurukulam flourished during the period of Nitya Chaitanya Yati. Its branches were located in many towns like Ezhimalai, Aluva, Thotupuzha.
Muni Narayana Prasad who was the third in the leadership position according to Nataraja Guru's order, is the leader of the Narayana Gurukul after the death of Nitya Chaitanya Yati.
Writings
Nitya Chaitanya Yati wrote eighty books in English and one hundred and twenty books in Malayalam. Nitya Chaitanya Yati's writings belong to the four domains ie, literature, art, science and spirituality. He posited a reality that perceived all knowledge as one. He defined it as a symphony of values
Literature
Nitya Chaitanya Yati has written more than fifty books of literary criticism and studies in Malayalam. They range from studies of western literary authors like Maxim Gorky and Simone de Beauvoir to studies of the Indian literary tradition. He has also written on literary principles and theories of criticism. Nitya was awarded by Kerala Sahitya Akademi for his book on poetry of Kerala poet Kumaran Asan.
Art
Nitya Chaitanya Yati, who was also a good painter, has written books on the Russian painter Marc Chagall and the Indian Bengali painting tradition.
Science
Nitya Chaitanya Yati was a psychologist. He has written a lot of introductory books on psychology. He has written books on the integration of psychology and Indian wisdom and books on the philosophy of modern physics. He has also written simple psychological counselling books also.
Spirituality
Nitya Chaitanya Yati's primary works are spiritual. He is famous for his elaborate texts on ancient Indian Gnana texts and works written by Narayana Guru. He wrote texts for books like the Bhagavadgita, Upanishads, Vivegasudamani, and Soundarya Lagari. He has also written detailed texts for books like Darsana Mala and Atmopadesa Satakam by Narayanaguru. Nita wrote books explaining and renarrating the Vedanta tradition. He has also written a biography of Narayana Guru.
poems
Nithya Chaitanya Yathi has written musical songs in Malayalam. They are in two books named 'Nitya Chaitanya Geetha' and 'Sankeerthanas'.
Nitya Chaitanya Yati's poems in English are titled 'My Inner Profile'.
Autobiography
Nitya Chaitanya Yati wrote his biography in Malayalam in short volumes. Later, they were compiled into a single book. In English, they have been published as a single book titled 'Love and Blessings'.
philosophy
Vedanta tradition
The Vedantic idea has been present in the tradition of Indian thought since ancient times. Srishty Gita of Rigveda is considered its starting point. Then the Upanishads developed Vedanta philosophy. Badarayana defined Vedantic concepts through his Brahmasutra. Then came the rise of Jainism and Buddhism. Shankara created the Vedanta tradition, which developed in discussion with those traditions. It is called Advaita. There are Advaita monasteries built by Shankara all over the country.
Later, Ramanuja created Visishtadvaita, a school of Vaishnavism. Madhva created Dvaita, another branch of Vainavisam. Nimparkar's Dvaidatvaita and Vallabha's Suttadvaita are the other schools of Vedanta, which are also Vaishnaivisams. There are monasteries built on their traditions all over India.
After a long gap, the Vedanta tradition emerged in a new form in the modern era. This is known as Nava Vedanta, i.e., Neo Vedanta. Its chief personality is Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Neo-Vedanta took strong root in India through the Ramakrishna Math, founded by his student Vivekananda, and other monasteries that developed through it. Sivananda Math, Chinmayananda Math, and Dayananda Math are the organisations that come in that order.
For the past hundred years, many more Neo-Vedantis have emerged in India. Narayana Guru was one of them. Narayana Guru's Neo-Vedanta philosophy was developed by his student Nataraja Guru and Nitya Chaitanya Yati, a student of Nataraja Guru.
Philosophy of Narayana Guru
Narayana Guru's Vedantic vision is a modern form of Shankara's Advaita vision. But a slight difference was presented by Narayana Guru. Advaita is pure Brahmavata. 'There is only one immaterial, unknowable thing called Brahman. The universe is an illusory form of Brahman' is the basic principle of Advaita. Although Narayana Guru accepted that this universe is an illusion, he said that illusion is not just an appearance, but another type of reality.
Sankara presented the parable of the serpent and rope and explained Brahmavada. When a person fears the rope as a snake,at that moment the rope remains a snake, and when the fear is gone, it is shown to be a rope. Similarly, one who is delusional thinks the universe is real. When the illusion is removed, it becomes clear that it is Brahman. Narayana Guru instead presented the parable of the flower and the garland. When looking at the flowers, the garland is not visible. Even though the flowers are visible when looking at the garland, they become a garland. Through it, Narayana Guru said that this world is not a lie; the worlds here are not mere appearances. It was because of this vision that he engaged in social reform and educational work.
Narayana Guru's vision is not dependent on a particular religion or particular cult. He tried to create a unified vision by combining all religious principles and philosophies. He called it 'Tattva Samanwayam'. (Unified Vision)
Philosophy of Nataraja Guru
Defining Narayana Guru's philosophical view as absolutism, Nataraja Guru explained it in great detail by comparing it with the theories of Western scholars. He also explained it in connection with Indian scriptures like the Gita and Soundarya Lahari. Nataraja Guru wrote extensive commentaries on Narayana Guru's texts and the ancient canonical texts. As a scientist, Nataraja Guru also brought modern science to the study of philosophy. (See Nataraja Guru.)
Vision of Nitya Chaitanya Yati
It was Nitya Chaitanya Yati who implemented the new Advaita approach by engaging in a dialogue with modern psychology, the arts, and literature. The holistic approach developed by Narayana Guru and Nataraja Guru was refined by Nitya using modern artistic and scientific theories. Nitya Chaitanya Yati developed a methodology for learning the holistic view presented by Nataraja Guru. He called it the Symphony of Values.
Nitya created methods for learning the basic wisdom of Advaita with knowledge of the arts, science, philosophy, and meditation all together. He said that truth manifests itself in all the ways we know it : truth, perfection, and beauty. That is the rhetoric of Satyam Shivam Sundaram. So the best way is to learn and evaluate one against the other. 'The irrefutability that we see in everything is Brahman' is the popular quote of Nitya.
The intellectual movement
Nitya Chaitanya Yati's interest and practice were extensive in poetry, painting, and music. In his writings, the artistic aspect prevailed over the philosophical aspect. He had a profound knowledge of Indian thought and literary tradition and was equally well versed in Western thought and artistic tradition.
A central current in the Indian intellectual arena is the belief that the best course of action is to accept Western ideas and aesthetic ideals as they are. Against this is the belief that all knowledge is inherited from our glorious past and that it is enough to learn and apply the tradition. At a time when these two opposing positions were growing and Indian thought was stagnating, the intellectual movement created by Nitya Chaitanya Yati was against these two stagnations and opened a new way of dialogue and assimilation
Students, Desciples
Narayanaguru's school of philosophy has been developed for the third consecutive generation in Indian thought. A number of important students who work on multiple platforms in this school. Among Narayana Guru's students, Poet Kumaran Asan, T.K .Madhavan, 'Sahodharan' Ayyappan, Nataraja Guru, Bodhananda, Vakbhadananda, Dharma Thertha were foremost.
Prominent among Nataraja Guru's students were John Spears, Nitya Chaitanya Yati,Swami Mangalananda Swami, Chidambara Tirtha, Muni Narayana Prasad, Swami Vyasaprasad, Freddy Van Der Borght , and Vinaya Chaitanya.
Among the disciples of Nitya Chaitanya Yati
- Peter Oppenheimer
- Peter Moraes
- Nancy Yielding
- Emma Walker
- Swami Tanmaya
- Shaukat Ali
- Deborah Buchanan
- Scott Teitsworth
are the few important to mention.
Many Malayalam writers Like Ashita and JTamil writers like Jeyamohan, were students of Nitya Chaitanya Yati.
Death
Nitya Chaitanya Yati passed away on 14, May 1999
Memoirs, Monuments
- In the Ooty Fern Hill Narayana Gurukula complex there is a Japanese-style mausoleum of Nitya Chaitanya Yati.
- Aluva Union Christian College, where Nitya Chaitanya Yati studied, has a Chair named after him
- Nitya Chaidhanya Yati Memorial Cultural Center is functioning near Andhiyur in Tamil Nadu under the name Nityavanam.
- A Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati Law College near Kayangulam in Kerala functions in memory of Nitya Chaitanya Yati.
Place in history
”The approach of the Nitya Chaitanya Yati is a well-balanced middle path. As much as he was against blind westernism and anti-Indian traditionalism in Indian thought, he was also against Hindu orthodoxy and religious fundamentalism. But in the tradition of Narayana Guru, he was never in the mood to engage in polemics—with the exception of a small pamphlet against the intrusion of religious sectarianism into Indian politics. His method is to constantly present creative work. A hundred years ago, Narayana Guru's philosophy emerged as the voice of human equality and complete spiritual liberation. It was later expanded by Nataraja Guru into a modern absolutist philosophy and began to address world thought. During the period of Nitya Chaitanya Yati, it developed as an objective and balanced methodology to unify modern world thought and arts without disowning the Indian tradition.” Jeyamohan estimated.
Books
English
- The Bhagavad Gita: A Sublime Hymn of Yoga Composed by the Ancient Seer Vyasa(1981)
- Brhadaranyaka Upanisad: with Original Text in Roman Transliteration (2000)
- Saundarya Lahari: of Sankaracarya: A Translation and Commentary on the Anandalahari
- Living the Science of Harmonious Union (Patanjali’s Yoga Shastra)
- That Alone, the Core of Wisdom (2003) A Commentary on Atmopadesa Satakam, the One Hundred Verses of Self-instruction of Narayana Guru.
- Love and Blessings: The Autobiography of Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati (2000)
- Neither this Nor that But ... Aum: One Hundred Meditations Based on Narayana Guru's Atmopadesa Satakam (1995)
- Meditations on the way: a contemplative and personalized study of the Tao teh ching (1981)
- Meditations on the Self (1974)
- In the Stream of Consciousness (1976)
- An Intelligent Man's Guide to the Hindu Religion (1976)
- Marxism and Humanist Nonarchy (1980)
- Sri Narayana Guru: A Brief Biographical Sketch (1984)
- Love and Devotion(1995)
- Psychology of Darsana Mala (2004)
