Karunakara Guru – The founder guru of Santhigiri Ashram of Kerala

Karunakara Guru (1927 – 1999) also known as Navajyothi Sree Karunakara Guru was the founder guru of Santhigiri Ashram of Pothencode, Thiruvananthapuram.  He followed Sanathana Dharma or Eternal religion. The functioning of Santhigiri Ashram started in the late 1950s, and later branched to a big organization and transformed into an international pilgrimage and spiritual centre.

Karunakara Gurudevan hailed from Chandiroor Village, Cherthala of Alappuzha District. He lost his father as an infant. He started getting spiritual experience from his early childhood. It’s said that he used to see the figure of Lord Krishna in an aura of bright light and regularly communicate with him, which he believed that it’s common. He was a mute child then, and was not sent to school for this reason. He started talking like a normal child at the age of 9, when his vision of Krishna disappeared. At the age of around 10, his mother remarried and he started living with his stepfather. He left home at the age of 14, and started living like a wandering yogi.

One of his school teachers advised him to go to Swami Agamananda of Kaladi Ashram. But as there was no place for new occupants he went to Advaita Ashram, Aluva, a branch of Sivagiri Mutt founded by Sri Narayana Guru. He spent nearly 18 years with the Mutt handling different jobs. He received spiritual enlightenment at the age of 25 and he met a Muslim wandering monk, Khureishi Fakir while he was staying at Aruvippuram branch Ashram of Sivagiri.

He left Sivagiri in 1957 and moved to a land at Varkala donated by a well-wisher, where he started Santhigiri Ashram. When the same person gave him a piece of land at Pothencode, he shifted there. Started in 1973, Santhigiri Ashram later transformed into a pilgrim centre.

Karunakara Guru – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. He was a strict vegetarian and gave so much importance to cleanliness from his childhood days.

2. Gangadharan Mutalali was the person who gave him piece of land to build Ashram both at Varkala and Pothencode. Inauguration was done by his spiritual guru, Khureishi Fakir.

3. He believed in Dharma (DivineLaw) and karma (Mode of action) of present Kalyug age.

N.B: I couldn’t find a picture of Karunakara Guru.