Shorter Philosophical Poems of Narayan Guru

by Swami Muni Narayan Prasad

The work collects Narayana Guru’s most important shorter philosophic poems into one volume. They are respectively, the Brahmavidya Pancakam (Science of the Absolute), Advaita Dipika (Lamp of Non-Duality), Arivu (Consciousness Examined), Homa Mantram (Fire Oblation) and Daiva Dashakam (Ten Verses Addressing God). The verses are rendered into English and commented upon extensively by Swami Muni Narayana Prasad. Alongside the Guru’s Atmopadesha Shatakam (One Hundred Verses of Self-Instruction) and the Darshana Mala (Garland of Visions), these poems are intended to transmit the wisdom of the Upanishads to the earnest seeker of the modern age. As a rishi of the modern age, Narayana Guru deals with issues pertinent today, including how social ethics and other contemporary problems are to be treated in light of the Absolute. As such, the Guru’s poems may be said to be both ancient and modern at the same time.
Each poem contained in this book may be said to deal with a specific philosophical problem or a set of problems that may be encountered in the search for the Absolute. Each problem is consistently answered in light of the Absolute. Such elucidations include the prerequisites of both a true seeker and a true guru, the nature of the rapport to be established between each, and how the Absolute is sat, cit and ananda together. Other elucidations include the ultimate nature of Reality examined in terms of Consciousness, how Vedic ritual may be understood properly so that it may lead one to the highest realm of non-dual wisdom, and how to pray to God in the Absolutist sense.