Bards of Guruvayur: Poonthanam Nambootiri
The Vedanta Kesari|February 2022
One of the facets of our spiritual tradition is the apotheosis of devotion as a hallmark of divinity.
SULINI V NAIR
Bards of Guruvayur: Poonthanam Nambootiri

The story of mortals becoming immortal through choicest and self-effacing effort has glorified the story of many a mahatma and mahima sthali. The peerless treasure of the nectarine precepts of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda was bequeathed to humanity, thanks to the selfless aspiration of Sri Mahendranath Gupta and Mr. Goodwin. When the unparalleled piety of Rani Rasmani found expression in the magnificent Dakshineswar Kali temple, it became an absorbing theatre for the life and lila of Sri Ramakrishna. Sister Nivedita, an embodiment of the ideal disciple, went on to become the very voice of her guru’s teachings.

In another succession of centuries that predates the incarnation of Sri Ramakrishna, in the idyllic shrine of Sri Krishna at Guruvayur in distant Kerala, another story of a kindred aspiration and devotion played out to reverberate through time. The entrancing glory of Sri Krishna at Guruvayur became part of the lore, lyric, literature and life of generations through the lives of a handful of saintly devotees. One of them was Poonthanam Nambootiri.

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