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Seer as Psychologist

Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati, the 68-year old secular Hindu sanyasin is making waves in Kerala. Yati’s writings are a hit with the reading public. His column ensures roaring public. His column ensures roaring circulation for magazines, and his books earn publishers hefty profits. Perhaps, he is the best-paid writer in Malayalam, getting as much as Rs. 3000 for a magazine piece. He is the top-grosser among the Malayalam writers in royalty earnings from his books. And he is also a great crowd puller, as the Sneha Samvadam – the Dialogue of Love – that he holds with the public shows.

In an increasingly violent world of regions, Yati is vehemently opposed to the appropriation of faith, in the name of religion, for narrow political ends, despite his strong conviction in the traditional treasures of Indian culture that is the Upanishads.

Jayachandran (Yati’s original name) traveled extensively all over India. During these wanderings, he had close encounters with Gandhiji and Ramana Mharshi. But at that time he was more hopeful of the dawn of a day when the downtrodden would be the rulers. “I said to Gandhiji, your Ramarajya would never come true. That would only lead India to a fool’s heaven.”

But sooner he realized that he is more comfortable with Gandhiji. “From Gandhiji I learnt not to allow others to decide what we want.” Later, he completed his MA from the University College, Thiruvananthapuram and had a short stint as a lecturer in some colleges.

The turning point in his life was the meeting with Nataraja Guru, who was closely associated with Sree Narayana Guru, the social reformer and philosopher. Nataraja Guru had taken PhD from the Sorbonne University in Paris and taught science for five years in the International Fellowship School of Geneva. It was from Nataraja Guru that he learned to accept the more beneficent aspects of modernity and science. Yati joined the Narayana Gurukulam of Fern Hills, Ooty, in 1952, which he heads now, after the death of Nataraja Guru.

‘Sneha Samvadam’ is the title of his recent column in Malayala Manorama, the largest circulated daily in the country. The column discusses the traumas of modern civil society and the nuances of human existence. “Though there were harsh reactions at first, the response to the column was overwhelming, letters were pouring in from all over the world. A kind of fraternity was slowly evolving between us.”

Despite suggestions from many people, initially he was against any kind of organization. “But later I thought if I could attempt a dialogue of love with people, I may help them in understanding their problems a little better.” Thus the column was extended as ‘Sneha Samvadam’ all over the State. These dialogues of love are small get-togethers of people from all walks of life. It is an amazing mixture of talks by Yati and the participants, solo musical performances and birthday celebrations of children.

Yati’s ashram at Ooty is the headquarters of the East-West University established by Nataraja Guru, where people from all parts of the world are studying philosophy. Gurukulam, a publication of the ashram is also brought out monthly.

Yati never allows himself to be least circumscribed by the exigencies of the real politics, while holding on to his faith. Without loosing his deep convictions in Upanishads, he delves into the philosophical nuances of life in stark contrast to the sectarian secularists who inevitable associate faith with fundamentalism. He says, “Man have never developed a more comprehensive and total concept than that of God. The cause of the problem lies not in God, but in the wrong portrayal of God. Man becomes the rival of man by his ignorance.”

Even a cursory look at the works by Yati will reveal his astonishing range, from Vedanta to Marxism, and from Freud to Anna Akhmatova. He reaches straight into the heart of the readers with his innate poetic and simple style. He writes about Van Gogh and Beethoven with the same passion that is evident in his psychological counsellings in magazines. Literary aesthetics is his other forte. Another arresting feature of Yati is that his readers include the lowest common denominator – the people who are mostly enthusiastic about serialized pulp fiction. The latest addition to his voluminous works include an interpretation for the of Brihadaranyakopanishad, for which he had to refer “books from geophysics to cybernetics.”

The Indian Express

Sunday Magazine

4 December 1994