Muni Narayana Prasad

Muni Narayana Prasad was a philosopher, writer and the head of the Narayana Gurukula, a teacher-student community following the vision of Sree Narayana Guru. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of literature and education, from Kerala ^[1].

Engineer turned monk

He was born on 9 December 1938 and worked as a civil engineer in Kerala’s public works department ^[2]. Drawn to philosophy, he resigned in 1968 and joined the Narayana Gurukula ^[2][3].

The Gurukula was founded in 1923 by Nataraja Guru, a direct disciple of Narayana Guru, and has its headquarters at Varkala, with centres elsewhere in India and abroad ^[2]. Muni Narayana Prasad became its head in 1999 ^[2][3]. He taught Indian philosophy widely in India and abroad, and ran the Gita Ashram in Fiji from 1989 to 1991 ^[2].

Writer

He wrote about 130 books, 100 in Malayalam and 30 in English ^[2]. They include commentaries on the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, works on Narayana Guru, and books on general philosophy ^[2]. He also wrote Christ the Guru, reading the Gospels through Vedanta, and In the Name of Allah, on the hundred names of God in the Quran ^[2]. The National Book Trust published his Narayana Guru: Complete Works ^[2].

He won two Kerala Sahitya Akademi awards: for translation in 2015 and for his autobiography, Atmayanam, in 2018 ^[2].

Muni Narayana Prasad died in Thiruvananthapuram on 25 April 2026, aged 87 ^[3].