One in Essence: An Analysis of Nancy Yeilding’s Narayana Guru, A Life of Liberating Love

Abstract

Sri Narayana Guru (1855-1928) is arguably the most discussed and celebrated Malayali ever and no wonder there is a burgeoning field of literature on him in Malayalam and other languages. The endlessly fascinating, inscrutable life of the Guru presents a daring yet endearing challenge to the art of the biographer. A life as complex and multidimensional as the Guru’s cannot be reduced to a written biography but many writers have taken up this daunting task over the last 100 years and one of the latest additions to this seemingly indefinite list is Nancy Yeilding’s Narayana Guru: A Life of Liberating Love. This article argues that Yeilding’s work is unique among Guru’s biographies as it locates Guru in the borderlines of socio-politics and mysticism, rather than presenting him as a mere socio-political engineer or a miracle man. By employing unitive philosophy as both its subject matter and narrative methodology, Fielding’s narrative overcomes many of the limitations of biographical literature on Guru and establishes itself as a rare exercise in philosophical biography.