Kalia Nayanar and message of the Nayanars

Nayanar’s Message
[By Swami Venkatesananda]


"There have been many ‘intellectuals’ even in India who have looked down upon the path of Bhakti (devotion) as something inferior to Jnana (wisdom). Their short-sightedness becomes at once apparent when we study the lives of the great Four Teachers (Appar, Sundarar, Manickavachagar and Sambandar) and realise that these great Jnanis, too, were great Bhaktas who loved to visit Temples and sing the glories of the Lord. Look at the humility of Appar who carried Sambandar’s palanquin. It is not born of the weakness of the ignorant: but it is the culmination of true knowledge!

How shall we understand the wonderful spirit of renunciation that characterised the lives of many royal Nayanars, if we regard them as weaklings? They had understood the true nature of the world, and wanted only God . . . This great truth has been beautifully brought out again and again in these lives — love of God completely removes the devotee’s attachment to his own body.

Let us also never forget that in the case of all the Nayanars devotion invariably meant expansion of the heart, and, therefore, service and charity. It is essential that, in our study of these great lives, we take them as a whole: the sixty-three blending into one marvellous scripture on devotion. . . . Nayanars have to be read with this caution: we have to take them as allegories exhorting us to rout out the inner obstacles to our Sadhana, ruthlessly. The story of Eripatha Nayanar, for instance, should be taken as an exhortation for us to kill lust, anger and greed, the powerful impediments on our spiritual path which, in the twinkling of an eye wreck our worship of the Lord.

If we approach these saints with faith and devotion in our hearts, we shall grasp the message they have for us. We shall also understand why they gave such a great place to externals like the sacred ash, Rudraksha, etc. These symbols remind one constantly of God: and, when they are said to remove our sins, they remove our sinful tendencies, too, by constantly reminding us of God, and keeping evil out of our mind."



Kalia Nayanar


Kalia Nayanar is another of one of the 63 Nayanars whose story is associated with deepams and lamps maintained in praise of the Lord.


“Kalia Nayanar was an oil monger of Tiruvotriyur. His adoration of the Lord, to who he was highly devoted, took the form of lighting the Temple lamps daily. The bhakta was rich. But, in order to reveal his greatness the Lord impoverished him, so, Kalia began to work as a labourer in order to earn money to purchase oil for his worship. But even this became impossible. His depths of poverty were so dire that the bhakta even tried to sell his wife, but no-one would buy her.






At last, in despair at his plight at not being able to maintain the Temple lamps, Kalia decided to cut his own throat and use the blood instead of oil, to burn the lamps. In his attempt to do this, Lord Siva caught hold of his devotee’s hand and blessed him.

What greatness, and what intensity of devotion is portrayed in this simple life! Self-forgetfulness is the key-note in devotion. Remembering God always, the devotee is so thoroughly absorbed in Him, that nothing but God and His worship matters to him. By all means His worship must go on: no obstacle shall stand in the way. The devotee’s heart and mind are always positive, never letting a negative thought enter them. He sees opportunities in difficulties and is never beaten by any obstacles which serve him as steps to God!”
[By Swami Sivananda – abridged]

Saints and Devotees

In connection with the last post about the Subramany Temple at Tiruvannamalai which I recently visited; though Arunachala is primarily regarded as a Shiva Sthalam, this place has also been the home of saints who were devotees of other Gods. One of the most famous of these saints is Arunagirinathar, a Murugan bhakta who lived at the foot of Arunachala in the fourteenth century.

"Arunagirinathar was born in Tiruvannamalai and spent the greater part of his life there. He was reputed to be the son of a courtesan called Muttammai. As he grew up he found the company of courtesans so attractive, he spent most of his time in their houses. When his mother died, all the properties he inherited from her were squandered to pay for his lust. Arunagirinathar had a sister, Adi, who was very fond of him. Taking advantage of her affection, Arunagirinathar persuaded her to part with her jewels and all her other possessions so that he could continue to indulge his appetite for the local courtesans.

He continued with this way of life for many years. As he became older, his body became diseased and the better class of courtesan began to jeer at him and avoided his company. The major turning point in his life occurred when he had spent all his sister’s money. Not knowing that she was destitute, he approached her again in the hope of getting another hand-out. His sister, who had nothing left except the clothes she was wearing, told him that her funds were exhausted. Since she still loved her brother, and since she still wanted to be of assistance to him she offered him her own body, saying, 'If your lust is so insatiable, you can use my body for your sexual satisfaction'.

These words deeply affected and shamed Arunagirinathar. He mentally reviewed the wasted years of his life and came to the conclusion that he had been committing crimes against God. As his sense of shame deepened, he decided to commit suicide by jumping off one of the gopurams in the Arunachaleswarar Temple. He climbed the tower, but before he was able to jump, Lord Murugan manifested before him and held him back. In some versions of the story, Arunagirinathar actually jumped and Murugan had to catch him before he died on the paving stones below.

Murugan embraced him. Then, with his vel, (the spear that he always carries) he wrote a mantra on Arunagirinathar’s tongue, gave him a japa mala and commanded him to sing songs in praise of him. Arunagirinathar was initially hesitant, claiming that he had no knowledge of Tamil prosody, but when Murugan encouraged him by giving him the first line of a song, Arunagirinathar found that he could effortlessly compose and sing the remainder. Murugan disappeared, leaving Arunagirinathar a totally transformed man. His diseases vanished and he became an ecstatic bhakta whose devotion manifested as a stream of new songs, all in praise of Murugan, his deliverer. He toured the town of Tiruvannamalai, composing and singing songs as he went.

Later on, he travelled throughout India, still singing his songs, and visited many of the country’s famous pilgrimage centres. Traditional accounts say that he composed more than 16,000 songs in praise of Murugan. Most of them have been lost, but more than 1,300 of the surviving ones have been collected together in a work called Tiruppugazh (The Glory of God), which has now become one of the classics of Tamil devotional literature." To read more click on this link.