About the Book:

The volume embodies a highly stimulating mystic composition: Atmopadesa Satakam, literally "One Hundred Verses of Self - Instruction", unfolding magnificently the relationship of man with cosmos. Written, originally in Malayalam, by Narayana Guru: a mystic, philosopher, visionary, and poet of yester-years, these verses are like the eternal beacon showing us the way to know the meaning of life through Self-awareness.

The title, Neither This Nor That But …Aum, is derived from the last: the hundredth, verse of Atmopadesa Satakam. The 99 verses that precede it clearly explain the "This" and "That" in which our lives become entangled. But as we progress from verse to verse, we find unveiled before us "the untold magic of the silent Word: the secret of supreme realization".

Guru Nitya, who is a key figure in the spiritual hierarchy of Narayana Guru, here reproduces all these ever-enlightening verses of Atmopadesa Satakam : each in its Roman transliteration, together with its English translation, meaning and, besides these, also the guidelines for meditation.

"Each verse (of Atmopadesa Satakam)", observes Edda Walker in her Foreword, "is as perfect and complete as a rare pearl, and these perfect pearls are linked by the golden thread of pure essence, which is my essence, your essence, our inheritance.

About the Author:

Narayana Guru, 1854-1928, was a mystic, philosopher, visionary, poet, and social reformer: all rolled into one. Born in Chempazhanti (Kerala), he envisioned human solidarity not on the basis of religion, nationality or race, but on the commonalty of human sentiments. And, more importantly, on the irrefutable unity of the Self.

Writing his works in Sanskrit, Malayalam and Tamil, Narayana Guru gave literature a new tilt and meaning to trumpet the message of social, political and economic change. In his campaign against caste taboos, Mahatma Gandhi personally attended and offered the historical satyagrah at Vaikom, Kerala. And the Noble-Laureate Rabindranath Tagore found in this guru at Sivagiri the most ancient of rsis (seers), reliving the wisdom of Advaita.

Nitya Chaitanya Yati is today one of the leading exponents of Advaita Vedanta and other systems of traditional Indian philosophy. Himself a poet, philosopher, psychologist, and author, he is the direct disciple of Nataraja Guru. And thus holds a key position in the spiritual hierarchy of Narayana Guru. In their togetherness, the three Gurus : Narayana, Nataraja and Nitya have interpreted India's spiritual and philosophic expressions in contemporary scientific idiom.