SNDP is a unique organization in the sense that it stood for reformation, progress and above all, fought against untouchability, superstitions and religious dogmatism. Many of the top stalwarts of SNDP in early days firmly stood for these ideals (Mahakavi Kumaran Asan, T.K.Madhavan, Dr Palpu, C Krishnan Vakeel, K Ayyappan, C Kesavan, CV Kunjuraman, R Shankar, CR Kesavan Vaidyar just to name a few..). This being the case, it is irritating to see that the current leaders of SNDP are bowing their head in front of religious cheats and godmen and false 'gods' and mafia leaders. Many of the activities of the current leaders goes against the principle of "One God". The current leaders have gone to the extent of washing the feet of cut_throat cheats and godmen, mostly for material benefits. Some devotees are also competeing to donate kilos of gold to temples where mythological gods are the deities (God may have to run around to find the reward equivalent to the gold donation!). Last week, one of these god women, Divya Joshi committed suicide in Trichur after amassing crores and crores from the so called foolish devotees.

Here is a disgusting picture of the current SNDP Secretary Vellappilly with the deceased godwoman Divya Joshi. It is pathetic to see where SNDP has reached after 100 years!

Beware of Godmen, Cheats etc - Gopinath Muthukad

Recently during the Munch Star Singer, Junior (Asianet), the well known magician Gopinath Muthukad commented against psuedo godmen, cheats and others who create 'bhasma' and 'sivalingam' out of nothing amd fool the public! People should have the wisdom to know that these are pure magic tricks, Mr Muthukad added.

Guruforum congratulates Mr Muthukad for his outright comments against the godmen who are otherwise fooling not only the public but even influencing and controlling our political and social leaders at the highest level. It is a shame our intellectuals are keeping quiet against such evils. Some well known personalities are spreading misleading message among the youngters of India by going to organizations controlled by godmen and the international financial mafia controlling them! In the 70s and 80s Magician P.C.Sorcar(Jr) came openly against godmen and cheaters like Yuri Geller etc-

Well done, Muthukad! keep it up!!

Expose the fake spiritualists..! Editorial in Magic Weekly by Muthukad

Here is a copy The same article with pictures and some other news

Yugapurushan

Yugapurushan, the film based on the vision of Sree Narayana Guru, the mystic and social reformer of Kerala, started at Ottapalam on Wednesday. After the pooja at Varikkaassery Mana, the first shot was taken. The pooja started at 9 a.m. Mammootty, Navya Nair, Kalabhavan Mani, Saikumar, Thalai Vasal Vijai, Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri, Producer A.V. Anoop, Director R. Sukumaran, Ottapalam and M.L.A A.M. Hamsa attended the function. Niece of Social reformer Ayyankali Ponnamma lighted the lamp. In the second shot Mammooty enacted the role of K.C. Kuttan, a revolutionary who lived and supported the guru’s principles and teachings in the same period. Mohanlal dons the character of Swamy Vivekananda while Babu Antony is in the role of Ayyankali, a Harijan leader in Kerala. Navya Nair is cast in the role of a Brahmin lady named Savithri Antharjanam, who loves and marries a 'pulayan' named Koran. Tamil actor Thalaivasal Vijay will don the role of Sree Narayana Guru in his seventies.

The movie will also present historic personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore, Chattambi Swamikal, poet Kumaranasan, T.K. Madhavan, Ayyankaali and Mannathu Padmanabhan. Also in the cast are Jagathy Sreekumar, Kalabhavan Mani, Saikumar, Siddique, Devan, Saiju Kurup, Sukumari and Shobha Mohan.

Director said, The film is not to meant to describe the complete life of Sree Narayana Guru, but to portray how the vision of Guru changed the history of the society. Thus the new generation can understand the significance of Guru's vision. The movie also aims to break the notion that Sree Narayana Guru belonged to a particular segment in the society. Unlike common entertainment film, Yugapurushan will guide the forthcoming generations. Other locations are Kannur, Cherthala, Mysore and Srilanka. The film would be released in connection with the Guru Jayanthi celebrations in September. The estimated cost of the film is five crore. Earlier films of R. Sukumaran are Padamudra and Rajasilpi. The script of Yugapurushan is by R. Sukumaran and lyrics by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri. Music is by Mohan Sithara and Camera by Ramachandra Babu. Banner of the film is AVM Productions. Yugapurashan is based on the history of Sreenaayana Guru

Geocities Closing - Yahoo Informs! - Unfortunate News from Yahoo! (May 2009)

New Home page under preparation at

http://guruforum.webs.com July 2009 - will be ready by October 2009

Yahoo informs that "We have decided to discontinue the process of allowing new customers to sign up for GeoCities accounts as we focus on helping our customers explore and build new relationships online in other ways. We will be closing GeoCities later this year."

This is bad news for all free home pages. Geocities was the very first site to offer a free space of 2 MB very early in the history of internet. Geocities offered free email address even earlier than hotmail. GeoCities began in mid-1995 as BHI, which stood for "Beverly Hills Internet", a small Web hosting and development company in Southern California. On December 15, 1995, BHI became known as GeoCities offering home pages located at virtual 'cities' named after real cities! In January 1999, Yahoo purchased Geocities. The domain oocities.com attracted at least 177 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a study.

Though free home pages, geocities was recognized by Google and many Geocities pages appeared on the Google search on the first page itself.

This being the case, Yahoo's decision to close Geocities is unfortunate, unfair and deplorable. Here is Yahoo's statement.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/geocities/geocities-05.html

We hope Yahoo will reverse the decision. Alternative arrangements will be made to keep the Guruforum homepage in tact!

Sree Narayan Samskarika Samithi, Trivandrum - A period of Reformation

A book has been published on the activities and history of Sree Narayana Samskarika Samithi, which played a pivotal role in organizing cultural and educational activities througout Kerala a decade ago. This was followed by SN Clubs, Educational and Charitable Trusts, Public School (Trivandrum) etc. The pioneering efforts were done by Sri K.R.Narayanan (then at Secretariate, TVM) and Sri Nedumkunnam Gopalakrishnan. The authors narrate the history of the movement, where it is now and where it should go in future.

More on this and other books click here

Counter Reformation in Kerala ?

Though Narayana Guru is known and respected by many more people around the world today because of internet related information, in Kerala itself a counter-reformation seems to be in progress! Organizations started by Guru or Guru's early followers seem to be drifting or deviating from their original direction. SNDP has been in the forefront of the reformation process in Kerala and been acceptable to people of all castes and religion. Today we understand that the 'other caste/religion' people are kept away from SNDP (mentally, which is against Guru's own objective). Gurukulam and SN Dharmasamghas too have been involved in cheap controversies. Self-procliamed pseudo gurus with no understanding of the ground reality or the common man are at the helm of many organizations. Ordinary man, fed up with all these things and challenged by daily hardships, turn to new 'gods' and new comforts. Superstitions are on the increase. Rituals are reintsated in many places. Many temples, some even started by Guru, have diluted their objectives and motto. Brahminishm and 'sacred thread' and idol worship, even 'kuttichathan' are very much back. Some 'ezhavas' act as if they are some 'abhinava brahmins'! Even small temples are calling the services of a brahmin to install a deity or to do some astrological mantra! Liquor lords decide what is good for the society and do the preachings!! All this appears quite repulsive, considering the fact that Narayana Guru was crystal clear in his opposition to superstitions, astrology, muhoortham, idol worship and destruction of the society by liquor!!!

On the other hand, Guru's ideals cannot be destroyed by any of these. They will outlive any organization. They will outlive even if the whole Kerala (not just one community) ignores and goes away from those! That should give comfort to those who are disturbed by these developments.

An in-depth article in in progress!