Nitya Chaitanya Yati was a philosopher, psychologist, author and poet. His writings have made him one of the world’s leading exponents of Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...

 including how it dovetails with modern scientific discoveries.

Biography

Nitya was born as Jayachandran Panicker on 2.11.1924 in the matriarchal compound of Vakayar, near Konni, Kerala, South India, as the first son to Vamakshi Amma and her husband, the poet Raghavan Panicker.
As a youth, Nitya left home and wandered India for eight years as a mendicant, meeting and studying with Sufi, Jain and Buddhist teachers, as well as [Mahatma Gandhi] and Hindu masters such as [Ramana Maharshi] and Nityananda. After attaining his master's degree in social psychology at Bombay University, he continued his spiritual search in earnest. Among other posts, he served as director of the Indian Foundation for Psychic Research in New Delhi in the mid-1960s, charged with investigating the claims of yogis and fakirs.
In 1951, he had accepted Nataraja Guru as his spiritual preceptor and after Nataraja Guru died in 1973, he became the Guru of the Narayana Gurukula. Throughout his life he has been instrumental in sustaining Narayana Guru's legacy as the emancipator of women and eradicator of caste distinctions, as well as interpreting his unsurpassed mystical vision for the modern seeker of truth. He traveled throughout the world as a teacher, with a special flair for the meaning of the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible, and continued to welcome seekers of truth to his retreat at the Fernhill Gurukula, near Ooty, until his death on 14.5.1999.

Legacy

Nitya published over 120 books in Malayalam and more than 20 in English, as well as a number of articles on philosophy, psychology, social ethics and aesthetics. He established numerous Gurukulas in India as well as two in the US, in Portland, Oregon and Bainbridge Island, Washington. He was the founder-chairperson of the East-West University of Brahmavidya, and also worked as the Commissioner for World Education and as a sponsor of the World Government of World Citizens. Of world citizenship, Nitya wrote:

Nitya believed that mysticism should be brought to bear in the everyday world as a force for justice and understanding between people. He addressed many meetings convened between Christian, Muslim and Hindu leaders to help them diplomatically work out their differences. Some credit him, as the torch-bearer of Narayana Guru

Narayana Guru

Sri Nārāyana Guru , also known as Sree Nārāyana Guru Swami, was a Hindu saint, sadhuand social reformer of India. The Guru was born into an Ezhava family, in an era when people from backward communities like the Ezhavas faced much social injustices in the caste-ridden Kerala society...

’s wisdom, with being a major force for peace in South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

, which has been relatively free of the violence plaguing the North.

Selected books in English

• That Alone, the Core of Wisdom
• Love and Blessings (Autobiography)
• Meditations on the Self
• Psychology of Darsanamala
• Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
• In the Stream of Consciousness
• Saundarya Lahari
• Bhagavad Gita
• Living the Science of Harmonious Union