59.Swami Earnest Clark

Disciple of Sree Narayana gurudevan

Swami Earnest Clark


Earnest Clark was the only foreigner who was a direct Sanyasin disciple of the Guru. He admired many spiritual leaders in India . He came to India and joined Annie Basant's Theosophical Society. While working there he traveled to many sacred places in India and happened to visit Sivagiri.

Earnest Clark met Guru there and told Guru about his intention to stay there and Guru arranged the facilities for him. Swami Dharma Theerthar and Shri. K.M. John were Guru's interpreters. Shri. K.M. john, who was a teacher by profession, was staying at Sivagiri and teaching Bible. At that time Guru was thinking about how to use the assets of Sivagiri for the benefit of the people in a useful way. He consulted many people about it and appointed a committee to prepare a project. Earnest Clark was the convener of that committee and he played a major role in preparing and presenting the, ‘Sivagiri Free Industrial and Agricultural Gurukulam', project to Guru.

It was a project to connect Agriculture and Industry to Education. Even Mahatama Gandhi never thought about vocational education at that period. Shri. P. Natarajan (later become Nataraja Guru) was responsible for the educational matters. Later Earnest Clark became a Sanyasin, but Guru never asked him to change his name. In 1927 the ‘Sivagiri Free Industrial and Agricultural Gurukulam' project started to function, but Guru's Samadhi affected it and the project was abandoned.

After Guru's Samadhi Swami Earnest Clark left Sivagiri due to the court case and politics. He moved to Coimbatore and founded Sree Narayana Ashram there. From there he started a publication, ‘Life', which gave importance to Guru's philosophy. Swami Dharma Theerthar wrote the ‘Prophet of Peace' owing to Swami Earnest Clark's request. In 1942 he was removed from the Dharma Sangham by the authorities of the Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham. It did not stop Swami Earnest Clark propagating Guru's words.