SREE NARAYANA GURU

a saint for our times ...

Sree Narayana Guru is one the most dynamic holy men India has ever produced... He was a saint,a philosopher, a poet and a social activist... He fought for the under privileged, tore down barriers of bigotry and discrimination and opened the doors of the temples of worship and learning to millions.

He preached 'One Caste, One Religion, One God for Man'... If you have never heard of Sree Narayana Guru ... here is some background stuff on him that makes him a person of interest even in our times.

Narayana Guru was born on September 15,1854 in a small village in Kerala which is a state in southern India.During his life, he fought a caste system that was far more cruel and far more entrenched then the apartheid system in South Africa... His courage and determination inspired people like Gandhi and many others.

Narayana Guru build temples and schools where anyone from any caste could attend... He was constantly on the lookout for ways to break down barriers that separated people... At one temple he consecrated a mirror because the people could not agree on which idol they should worship.

In learning about Narayana Guru .. one of the things that impressed the most .. was his concern for the environment... Even way back then ... around 1900 ... he condemned industry for its total disregard for the land and the animals that lived there.

The fact that people would build factories and these factories would destroy the surrounding eco-system was an abomination to him.. and he spoke out against it.

Narayana Guru lived in and around Varkala, which is considered one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Sree Narayana Guru was declared a National Saint in 1911... He died in September 1928... His Samadhi Sthal ... or the place of his remains .. is located in Sivagiri .. a place that he built on a hill overlooking Varkala.

THE WILD BOHEMIAN

Not only a Website ... but a Place on the Web

The Wild Bohemian is the creation of Colin Pringle, a sixties hippie with long hair that reaches well past his shoulders and who wants us to think that his brain .. or at least part of it .. is parked somewhere in acid heaven.

What Pringle has done here ... is not only build an interesting website .. but a virtual place that allows us to get into the mindset of the hippies and all the stuff that went along with it ... Here you can travel back in time and get the scent .. the feel of what is was like during that short but spectacular period called the 60's. It's like walking into a headshop .. where you feel free to hang out and take in the sounds .. the people .. and places that were all part of that magic carpet ride that followed Alice .. the rabbit into and beyond the looking glass.

This is a directory link format website. It has a 'hip dictionary', tells stories about Haight-Ashbury, Ken Kesay, the Hell's Angels, the Beats, the Hippies, the Grateful Dead and has links to pages to just about everything Bohemian.

This is one of the better sites on the Internet simply because, for lack of a better word, it's organic. Pringle uses Haight-Ashbury as a seed and over the years has allowed it to branch out into all sorts of directions never losing sight of the roots and the seed that they all sprung from.

This site has been around since 1995 and Pringle, to his credit, has not messed with the design of the site at all. This is an excellent source providing an important window into American culture in the sixties.

If you're into history or something like that, this site is perhaps the best reflection of the counter-culture movement that was so dominant during that turbulent period. It's a zillion times better than anything you will ever read in any book on the sixties.

The Wild Bohemian is a comprehensive website and for all its un-seriousness it connects us in a serious way to an important time in history.

Colin Pringle provides us with a map, a compass, some instructions on how to use the map and even tells us, to some degree, about some of the places, people and things we might see along the way. But like a well placed guidepost he never intrudes he just points here and there and then sits back and let us do the navigating.

This is an easy place to hang out in ... it's not heaven .. but neither is it earth.