Thiruvananthapuram: Chief minister V D Satheesan on Monday said his govt would work to free Keralam from regressive ideas and the constraints of caste and religion, drawing on the social reform vision of Sree Narayana Guru.Inaugurating the 99th Mahasamadhi conference, he said Guru’s teachings had become deeply embedded in the minds of Malayalis and could not be erased. “I consider myself a Sree Narayana disciple. When people were walking centuries backwards, the renaissance leader told them – ‘You should walk forward’. That transformed Keralam,” the CM said.Satheesan said Keralam had been trapped in caste, religion and social superstitions and that Guru had brought light into that darkness, marking the beginning of social change. “All the progressive thinking and social renaissance that we experience today, and the sense of pride that we are walking forward, have their core in the Guru’s vision. There is no doubt about it and nobody can change that,” he said.Referring to Guru’s approach, Satheesan said his apparent gentleness had the strength to create a social storm. Quoting a remark attributed to Mannath Padmanabhan in a book on Guru by writer P K Balakrishnan, he said Guru’s heart became “like a diamond” when it came to fighting for social renaissance and for the oppressed. “There was no compromise there. It was not gentleness, but a firm stand in the fight for the oppressed and in the struggle to bring them into the mainstream of society,” he said.Satheesan said Guru’s message of “one caste, one religion, one god” had become deeply rooted among a majority of people in Keralam. The state’s secular character also owed much to Guru’s ideas, he added.Referring to Guru’s response when his disciple Sahodaran Ayyappan said, “No caste, no religion and no God”, Satheesan said Guru responded that Ayyappan had the right to say so.Satheesan said the search for the essence of life could take different paths, including devotion, action and knowledge, but ultimately involved discovering one’s inner self.He said Guru’s legacy was a source of pride for Malayalis and that he considered himself a successor to that heritage. “When I take new political positions, I feel that this heritage fills me with strength, energy and the firm confidence needed to take those decisions,” Satheesan said.
