Many customs that were followed in various communities were related to women. One of these celebrations was the elaborate ‘Thirandu Kuli’ ceremony performed when a girl attained puberty. These rituals were very expensive and difficult for the poor to afford. It turned a private moment of a girl's physical and mental change into a public celebration, thus destroying their privacy. The wise Guru was able to put an end to this practice. He asked his community members to end such unnecessary and outdated customs.
‘Pulikudi’ (Tamarind Drink Ceremony), prevalent in the Ezhava community, was a custom related to a woman's pregnancy. The ritual entailed the expectant mother, in her seventh month, drinking a specially prepared tamarind water that was poured into her husband's cupped hands. This custom was celebrated with great pomp.
Guru understood that such rituals only served to make the financially backward people poorer. For the wealthy in the community, these customs were merely an opportunity to display their grandeur. There was no scientific logic behind these rituals, and the Guru strove to stop them. Recognizing that the root cause of these practices was the limitation of knowledge, the Guru gave the utmost emphasis to education. He realized that only by gaining knowledge could the people overcome these practices. That is why he called upon them to be enlightened through education.
The consecration ceremony at Aruvippuram instilled in the people of Kerala the realization that Dharma (righteousness) was a universal right. This pivotal event, marked by Narayana Guru's consecration of a Shiva Lingam in 1888, signaled the dawn of a significant transformation in Kerala's social history. The upper-caste leaders, however, strongly opposed a non-Brahmin performing priestly duties, a challenge Guru met with rational thought and interpretations.
Following the Shiva consecration, a meeting was convened at Aruvippuram on ‘Karikidaka Vavu’ (new moon day in the Malayalam month of Karkidakam) to discuss arrangements for honouring the deceased (‘Bali Karma’) on the auspicious day. This assembly became known as the ‘Vavuttu Yogam’. By the next new moon day, it evolved into the ‘Kshetra Yogam’ (Temple Association). Beyond managing temple affairs, the Kshetra Yogam's agenda expanded to include strategies for uplifting backward sections of society. Guru firmly believed that the activities of the SNDP Yogam would greatly benefit the community's transformation, and the organizations he led stand as prime examples of how organizational efforts can drive communal progress.
