Tirumular Nayanar

“The Supreme Reality is called Siva. He is infinite consciousness. He is eternal, changeless, formless, independent, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, one without a second, beginningless, causeless, taintless, self-existent, ever free, ever pure, and perfect. He is not limited by time. He is infinite bliss and infinite intelligence. He is free from defects, the all-doer, the all-knower.

Lord Siva is the God of Love. His grace is infinite. His love is infinite. He is the saviour and Guru. He is engaged in freeing the souls from the thraldom of matter. He assumes the form of a Guru out of His intense love for mankind. He wishes that all should know Him and attain the blissful Siva-Padam (the state of Siva). He watches the activities of the individual souls, and helps them in their onward march. He liberates the individual souls from their fetters or bonds.” 

[Swami Sri Sivananda] 

Lord Siva

The stories of the Periapuranam (the lives of the sixty-three Saivite Saints) illustrate that a true devotee is ever ready to renounce all in favour of devotion to Lord Siva. Below is the story of Tirumular Nayanar, the saint who composed the oldest and most important text of Yoga from South India entitled Tirumandiram. The Tirumandiram comprises; yoga, tantra, mysticism, mantra, kundalini and monistic theism 

Life of Tirumular Nayanar 

Tirumular Nayanar (or Thirumoolar) was a Saiva Siddha and great yogi. He was called Tirumular because he entered into the mortal frame of Mulan (the cowherd in this narrative). The Nayanar was one of the eight students of Tirunandi Devar. Tirumular Nayanar desiring to see Agastya Rishi in the Pothia Hills, left Kailasa and journeyed southwards. On his way, he visited many Saivite shrines. When he came to Tiruvavaduthurai, he took a bath in the Kaveri River then went to the Temple. Upon leaving the Temple and walking along the banks of the Kaveri, he saw a herd of cows shedding tears. He found out the cause: their cow-herd lay dead. Wanting to pacify the grief stricken cows, the Nayanar entered the body of the cowherd after safely depositing his own body in the trunk of a tree. The cows rejoiced. 

The cowherd known as Mulan, resident of Sattanur drove the cows back into the village in the evening. Mulan’s wife was eagerly expecting the return of her husband. But, when she approached him, he would not allow her to touch him, but said: ‘Oh lady, I am not your husband. Adore Lord Siva and attain Liberation.’ He left and went away to a near-by Math. 

Tirumular finding the cowherder

The lady complained to the village elders about her husband’s conduct. They examined him and after they came to the conclusion that he was a great Yogi who had attained spiritual eminence, instructed the lady to have no further contact with him. The next day, Tirumular followed the cows, but could not find his body in the trunk of the tree, where he had left it. It was the Lord’s Leela. Lord Siva wanted Tirumular Nayanar to write a book in Tamil on Saiva Philosophy, containing the essence of all Siva Agamas. Tirumular understood the Lord’s wish and returned to Tiruvavaduthurai. 

There he worshipped the Lord and sat under a Peepul tree in deep meditation. He was in Samadhi for three thousand years. But, every year, he would come out of samadhi and compose a stanza: thus, in three thousand years he wrote three thousand stanzas, and the stanzas were compiled into a book named Tirumandiram. 

Once the Lord’s mission had thus been fulfilled, Tirumular Nayanar went back to Kailasa. 

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The 3,000 verse Tirumandiram was written probably between the 4th and 6th centuries A.D., and is the oldest and most important text of Yoga from South India. The work comprises; yoga, tantra, mysticism, mantra, kundalini and monistic theism. The 12th century philosophical school of Saiva Siddhantha trace its origins to it. The Tirumandiram is considered the final authority on subtle matters of philosophy and theology in Saiva Siddhanta and the 12th century school of Saiva Siddhanta traces its origins to it. 

“Saint Tirumular is a theologian of our faith, but not merely a theologian. He is also a siddhar, an accomplished yogi. Our Hindu scriptures come from such great men, men who have attained to the deepest realizations through their sadhana and their devotion. When their awareness dwells in the superconscious states resident in all men but penetrated intentionally by only a few, and when they speak out from that state . . . ” to read more on Tirumular Nayanar and to download an English translation of the Tirumandiram, go to this link here. 

Yogaswami: The Strange Saint of Sri Lanka

I recently got in touch with the renowned Himalayan Academy in Hawaii, USA for permission to reproduce on my website Arunachala Samudra, an excellent article entitled “Hinduism and the Environment” by Matthew McDermott, which had appeared in their online magazine “Hinduism Today”. As well as graciously giving me permission to reproduce the article, they also sent me two reproductions of paintings connected with their Paramaguru Yogaswami’s visit to Arunachala. On receiving the copies of the paintings, I was very interested to learn more about their Paramaguru and his visit to Arunachala. Below is a short biography of this great saint, of who it is said that: 

"At 3:30 am on a Wednesday in March 1964, Yogaswami passed away at age 91. The whole nation of Sri Lanka stopped when the radio spread news of his Great Departure (mahasamadhi), and devotees thronged to Jaffna to bid him farewell.” 

Yogaswami: The Strange Saint of Sri Lanka 

Yogaswami of Nallur, the Sage of Lanka, mystic and spiritual master lived from 1872 to 1964. He was raised in the Hindu faith by his aunt after his mother passed away when he was ten years old. The boy was first educated in a Tamil school and later in a Christian institution where he became proficient in Tamil and English. 

Around 1890, Yogaswami found a job as a storekeeper for an irrigation project in Kilinochchi. Here, he lived like a yogi, often meditating all night long. He demanded utter simplicity and purity of himself, as he would later of his devotees. 

It is believed that in 1897 a youthful Yogaswami attended a public meeting in Jaffna that was addressed by Swami Vivekananda. When Vivekananda began his talk by saying that "The time is short but the subject is vast", Yogaswami left the meeting immediately after understanding Vivekananda's words to mean that the subject of God is immense whereas even an entire lifetime can be too short for God-realisation. This statement went deep into Yogaswami's psyche. He repeated it like a mantra to himself and spoke it to devotees throughout his life. 

In 1905, Yogaswami found his guru Sage Chellappan outside Nallur Temple. As he walked along the road, Chellappaswami shouted loudly: "Hey! Who are you? There is not one wrong thing! It is as it is! Who knows?" Suddenly everything vanished in a sea of light for the young yogi. At a later encounter in a festival crowd, Chellappaswami ordered him, "Go within; meditate, stay here until I return." He came back three days later to find Yogaswami still waiting for his master. Soon afterwards Yogaswami gave up his job and everything else, in order to follow Chellappaswami for the next five years. His life became filled with intense spiritual discipline and severe austerity. Following Yogaswami’s ordination (sannyas diksha), his guru sent him away and never received him again. 

As a wandering ascetic Yogaswami walked the length and breadth of Sri Lanka, visiting temples and holy places, and eventually returned to Jaffna. He went on three pilgrimages to India, in 1934, 1940 and 1946, taking a few devotees with him each time. They went on the six-temple Murugan yatra in South India and to the massive, renowned Siva temples of Madurai and Chidambaram. They walked long distances together and met many spiritual luminaries. 

On one pilgrimage, Yogaswami visited Sri Ramana Maharshi at Ramanashram in Tiruvannamalai. The two sat in silence for an hour in Sri Ramana’s austere room near the holy mountain. No word was exchanged when they met or parted. After hearing that Yogaswami had visited Sri Ramana, people were eager to find out what had transpired. Swami told them, “We said all there is to say.” Later he added, “We did not go with any desire. Summa we went. We stayed for about an hour. He did not speak at all. He is a great hero (mahaviran).” By “summa,” Swami meant “perfect stillness, communion in silence.” 

Yogaswami had a set of favourite aphorisms that he loved to repeat when devotees or strangers called on him. It is generally accepted that these four spiritual truths, which are often quoted nowadays, contain the essence of Yogaswami's teachings: 

Oru pollappum illai: There is no evil at all, nothing is wrong. "Good" and "evil" are man-made distinctions. 

Muludum unmai: All is Truth (the whole thing is true). The sage who is fully realised sees the entire universe as a manifestation of God. 

Nām Ariyom: We do not know. We know nothing. Our minds are limited instruments that can only comprehend things of a mundane nature. 

Eppavo Mudintha Karyam: The event was completed long ago. It was all over long ago. Everything has been pre-ordained.