Nitya Chaitanya Yati

Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati (1924-1999)

A well-known poet, philosopher, mystic, psychologist, and author, Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati was born on November 2, 1924, the first son (named Jayachandran) of Vamakshi Amma and Pandalam Raghava Panicker in Vakayar, a village of rice paddy fields and running brooks surrounded by verdant forests and green hills in Kerala, South India. Vamakshi Amma, a pious, austere, forgiving and generous woman, encouraged and supported young Jayachandran's journey toward becoming a renunciate. Pandalam Raghava Panicker was a poet and professional teacher from a family of poets and scholars whose ancestors had taught in traditional gurukulas, and he held a progressive, modern, and egalitarian outlook on the world.

He was led to Dr. Mees, also known as Sadhu Ekarasa, a Dutch disciple of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi who was researching comparative traditional psychology and writing his three-volume work The Revelation in the Wilderness. In typing this manuscript, Jayachandran was introduced to the boundless riches of the spiritual and cultural heritage of the world.

In 1951, he accepted Nataraja Guru, founder and head of the Narayana Gurukula, as his spiritual preceptor. In Guru Nitya's own words: "When I remember what life was like with him during those years, I think more of the transcendent quality of each day than of any particular day... He found mystery in every field, music, theater, and even in cooking. To him, mythology was as valid as science."

In the mid-1950s he spent eighteen months in secluded silence, contemplating each verse of Narayana Guru's Atmopadesa Satakam, before returning to life in the Gurukula, with sojourns in Bombay, Sri Lanka, the Himalayas, New Delhi, Singapore, Australia, and the United States. In 1973 he succeeded Nataraja Guru as head of the Gurukula, a world community of spiritual seekers.

Between 1970 and 1980 he taught psychology, philosophy, yoga sastra, and aesthetics at universities including Portland State, Sonoma State, Stanford, and the University of Hawaii, and gave seminars across the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, and South India. He completed commentaries on Narayana Guru's Atmopadesa Satakam, Darsanamala, Svanubhavagiti, and Siva Satakam, and, from the mid-1980s, settled primarily at Narayana Gurukula in Fernhill, where he wrote, counseled seekers from all walks of life, and mentored young aspirants toward their natural vocation (svadharma). He also completed commentaries on the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, Isavasya Upanisad, Mandukya Upanisad, the Bhagavad Gita, and Patanjali's Yoga Sastra.

Guru Nitya published over 120 books in Malayalam and 80 books in English, along with countless articles on philosophy, psychology, social ethics, and aesthetics. He served as chairperson of the East-West University of Unitive Sciences and as Commissioner for World Education. His autobiography, Love and Blessings, offers further insight into his life and teachings. Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati attained mahasamadhi on May 14, 1999, at Fernhill.