As the SNDP Yogam progressed with numerous initiatives for community upliftment, many young people stepped forward to bolster its activities and disseminate Guru's teachings. In 1928, Sree Narayana Guru himself founded the Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham, a collective of his monastic disciples. He gave it a name notably linked to Buddhism. Through this organization, Guru presented a caste-less model to the people.
The Guru's monastic disciples comprised individuals from diverse castes, non-Hindus, and even foreigners, demonstrating that the qualification for Sangham membership was sacrifice, not caste, religion, or race. He entrusted the administration of his institutions and properties to these monks, defining a Sanyasi (monk) as a public servant, a philanthropist, and a renunciate.
The Dharma Sangham's objectives were to work with people irrespective of caste or religion, to train them for global usefulness, and to strive for the educational, communal, and spiritual upliftment of all. While he initially requested others to formulate the Sangham's guidelines, their failure to materialize led Guru to personally draft some rules for the collective, also penning the work 'Ashramam' to describe them. Guru insisted that the Sangham should never devolve into a mere sect of Hinduism.
Guru envisioned these Dharma Sanghams as powerful forces capable of eradicating hatred and division fueled by religion. His ultimate desire was for his work to contribute to the progress of society as a whole, not just his own community.
Gurukulam is equivalent to the Mutt (Monastery) or Ashram of the Hindu religion. Its main objective is to directly acquire Brahmavidya (the knowledge of the Absolute) from the Guru and to provide opportunities for others to acquire it.
When the Guru emphasized communal organizations and the Dharma Sanghams, his disciples began to realize how pivotal such ideas were for the good of society. This led to one of the Guru’s disciples, Nataraja Guru, establishing the Narayana Gurukulam. It was a model educational institution centred on the symbiotic nature of a Guru-disciple relationship.
When Nataraja Guru initially approached Narayana Guru for permission to start the Gurukulam, he was given three instructions: Don’t hinder marriage, the Guru and disciple should live in harmony like a family, the whole world should be the Gurukulam. Adhering to these guidelines, Narayana Gurukulam was established and first started functioning in Coonoor, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Bodhananda Swami, another Sanyasi disciple of the Guru, supported Nataraja Guru in starting the Gurukulam.
Today, the Narayana Gurukulam has branches in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and foreign countries like America, England, and Singapore. Since Nataraja Guru regarded the Sivagiri Mutt as a model institution, the main office of the Narayana Gurukulam is located in Sreenivasapuram, Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram district.
After the death of Nataraja Guru, Guru Nithya Chaitanya Yathi and Sri Muni Narayana Prasad tried to unify the activities of the sect. A large library named East West University is functioning in Varkala to realize the Guru's vision. Every year in December, a convention is organized at the Varkala Gurukulam during the Sivagiri pilgrimage season. The objective of this convention is to impart philosophical knowledge related to the Guru's vision.
