Chandramoorthy (Chaos)

The renowned guru and philosopher Chandramoorthy was born 1869 in . His family was from the traders' caste. While he had a happy childhood, it would end very soon, when during the (1876-80), his parents were killed in 1877. After their death, the priest caring for their proper burning (whom Chandramoorthy had given their last money), told him that his parents had to die, and himself become an orphan, because of their bad karma. The boy Chandramoorthy who had loved and revered his parents got angry at the priest, starting his life-long rebellion against the high-caste Brahmans. Shortly after, he approached a Buddhist monk, who told him that all life means suffering. Again, the boy was disappointed and decided for an outlaw's life on the streets of Puducherry, joined the other street kids. After his gang's original leader was killed in the Civil War 1879, Chandramoorthy became new leader of the gang. In the next years, he expanded the gang and made alliances with other kid gangs. In his gang, he eventually had low-caste Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, but no Brahmans or Buddhists; and while he ordered his students to study the teachings of the Sikhs, Christians and Muslims too, he never forgave the Buddhists for their life-hating philosophy.
But in 1882, the New Romans who had taken control of Puducherry decided to break down on the kid gangs. Chandramoorthy was caught too, separated from his gang members, unsure about their fate; he managed to escape from prison, but had to leave the city and went to (near OTL Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh).
In 1883, Chandramoorthy found a job as a manservant in the house of an old Italian officer. His boss was a lover of history, philosophy (esp. that of Epicure) and arts (including erotic arts). Chandramoorthy learned Italian and later taught himself a lot about diverse topics from the library of his boss. When his boss died in 1887, Chandramoorthy was unemployed again. He found another job, this time at the central library which the New Romans had built meanwhile. In the next years, he'd study about all possible topics he could find.
His life improved enough so he could have his first marriage in 1892. (Until his death, he'd marry twice again [while having a lot of extramarital affairs too], and father seven kids [not counting illegitimate ones].)
1896, Chandramoorthy decided to share his newly acquired knowledge with his countrymen and became a teacher. The decision to become a teacher came when Chandramoorthy, who had spent the last years living among and working for the European occupiers, suddenly recognized one of his former gang members begging on the streets. Filled with remorse (he had witnessed many an Imperial-Catholic church service, meanwhile), he decided to use his position in the Central Library to help his fellow Indians and thus restore justice. He "smuggled" knowledge about modern science, economy and administration out of the library, thanks to his extraordinary memory. As he said: "By this way, they lose nothing, but we gain a lot." In 1900, while the New Romans celebrated their new century, Chandramoorthy's followers set up their first school, having translated European works. And 1905, they set up the first school in his old home city Puducherry. Since 1908, his philosophy started to spread to (culturally different) Northern .
In late 1916, the Germans took over most of South India, including Golkonda and Puducherry. 1921, they started to become suspicious of Chandramoorthy and his circle of followers. Chandramoorthy left the city to teach as a guru in the wilderness, leaving his followers claiming him to be dead. Until his death, he stayed the "grey eminence" for the growing network of his students, who started to make careers in economy, politics, military and science.
Since 1922, some Indians had demanded independence, and in 1923 the great discussion about how to achieve independence broke out among his followers, too. The guru told his students to slowly collect power over the years until they'd be strong enough, and otherwise stay peaceful, if possible.
In the following decades, he'd refine his philosophy. (Some people described his "just philosophy for life" [1] as "anti-Buddhism": Chandramoorthy advocated enjoying life, founding families, considered accumulating power and war legitimate instruments - although not as means in itself, pointed out the importance of business flourishing, allowed using tricks of all kind in desperate situations [2], was generally more concerned with worldly affairs [he didn't condemn the Hindu gods, even prayed until the end of his life to Ganesha, Rama and other gods, but didn't seem to care that much about them in general] and most importantly, told his followers "not to spoil the joy and fun of others".)
[1] which the Germans simply dubbed the "Tschander-Kult" (=cult of Chander, short for Chandramoorthy)
[2] which is the reason that quite some people are wary against his followers, fearing them to be unreliable at best and crooks at worst.
In a story from his later life, Chandramoorthy told his best students to make a list of all the undoubtedly good things on Earth (another version tells the same story with the difference that he explicitly mentioned bad things; many believe both stories to be true, or even merge them). One week later they returned: The first one had made a list of thousand things, the second one with a hundred things, the third one with ten things, and the fourth one only mentioned one thing. His favorite student, however, desperately confessed not having been able to think of one undoubtedly good thing. But the guru declared him the winner - because all things in the world can be used for both good and bad purposes.
In 1947, one of Chandramoorthy's followers managed to become professor at the German university of - the first non-white to do so.
In 1952, Chandramoorthy died.
At first his philosophy was restricted to India, but when his followers had risen to influential positions, the world started to pay more attention; and in the 60s finally, his philosophy had reached core . Its spread here had other reasons, however: While the Indians were more interested in his idea of reconstructing justice by using western inventions to catch up with their former occupiers, the Germans and other westerners disappointed by Christianity were more interested in the lure of Tantra sex and the promise of justice (as demonstrated in his quote "don't let the innocent suffer"), which sounded awfully Socialist for the Technocratic government. (Ironically, Chandramoorthy's philosophy was forbidden in the .)
Category:People from India (Chaos)
Category:Philosophers (Chaos)