amarnIthi nAyanAr

In the chOza kingdom is the town pazaiyARai which was a centre of major political activity during the choza dynastey. It was a town of wealth, prosperity, business and activeness. In that town was born the honest trader who is known as amarn^IthiyAr. Professional in his business amarn^IthiyAr was quite wealthy to have heaps of rubies and diamonds, gold and garments from all parts of the world. Still his mind wandered only about the pashupati's feet - the peerless of all gems. The humbleness is good for all, but for the rich it is the glorious wealth. Our n^yanAr who was very rich in his mind realising right the worthy use of the money, served with high modesty the devotees of the Lord wearing snake rings. He gave them feasts enriched with his kind words and cloths (kOvaNam) to wear saluting them.

In the festival of the Three eyed Lord at thirun^allUr, n^AyanAr worshiped the Love that robbed his heart and made a shelter where the devotees could take rest, have food and relax thinking of God. Along with his whole family he stayed there and personally made sure that devotees are served properly. One of those days when he was filled in happiness of serving His servants, the Lord deciding to show his deserving fame came as a celebating bachelor with the Holy Ash and other shaiva symbols adorning to his mutt. On seeing him, with the heart blooming in reception and the face widening more further in giving a warm welcome the stainless hearted devotee saluted the Stain throated God. He asked the Lord who had obscured His thrid eye to stay there and bless his service. That vedha chanting bachelor said He would take bath in kAvEri and come meanwhile as it was about to rain he should secure His cloth without any carelessness since that cloth was matchless, He claimed. He gave the cloth to n^AyanAr and went. n^AyanAr kept that in a very safe place with due care.

Whether He bathed in His matted hair's ga.nga or in flowing kAvEri only He knows, but came back wet walking in the rain after some time. That Lord who removes the three sources of suffering from the devotees heart removed the cloth from the safe place n^AyanAr had kept in His great deed. As if He did not know anything asked amarn^IthiyAr to get that cloth as He was completely wet. n^AyanAr rushed to the place to find the cloth missing. Tensed he searched throuout but how can he find that when the Heart-stealer stole that too off ! He feeling guilty, brought another fine cloth, begged His pardon and said he had brought a cloth which was very nicely woven, He should accept and forgive him. Did that Lord who gave all the covetable wealth to kubEran came to accept that white cloth ? What He wanted to clad was the white heart of amarn^Ithi n^AyanAr to exhibit to the world his unequable service ! He like a jumping flame shouted that n^AyanAr was trying to steal his invaluable cloth and wondered how honest was his trade. Shivering devotee fell on that Bachelor's feet and said he would give gems and jewels to compensate for that cloth. He refused and said He would accept only cloth that is equivalent of it. When asked how he could give the equivalent cloth the Sweet - heart of devotees said whatever the wet cloth He was wearing right then was the equivalent of the one he lost. So he asked n^AyanAr to give the cloths equal to the weight of it.

Agreeing to His suggestion n^AyanAr placed a balance instrument there. He put the other cloth of the direction-cladded Lord in one plate and on the other he kept on adding neatly woven cloths. Whatever he put the plate with the cloth of the Bachelor weighed more. Surprised he ordered to put all the new garment bags to balance. That pile was not able to equate the magic cloth. Scared he asked permission from the Lord to put his gems and other wealth too. He told that somehow He wanted things to be equivalent of His cloth. amarn^IthiyAr piled all his wealth. Nothing happened. What can be equivalent of the cloth of vEdhAs that the Lord wears in the entire world ? Even the whole worlds may not match it ! Everything he had was put. Now nothing left the true devotee who stood strong in serving the devotees asked permission to put himself, his wife and son to compensate. The Lord who shows the path to climb out of the ocean of tidal sweets and sufferings allowed them to climb on the balance. Feeling blessed, he with his son and wife circumambulated the balance where the Lord's cloth was there and said, "If it is true that in the purity of love we did not fault in the God's Holy Ash's honest slavery then it should come to balance." He chanting the Lord's Holy Five letters got on the plate over the piles of his wealth.

The wholeness of love and dedication brought the balance in the instrument. The world wondered. The heavenly bodies praised. The Lord of vEdhAs who showed the balance of amarn^Ithi n^AyanAr appeared with His inseperable shakti on the Holy Bull in the Horizon. Blessed the devotee who was praising unintermittently with His family standing on the plate. For the deserving devotee who used the worldly wealth for His service He gave the wealth of being with Him. With the plate becoming the heavenly carrier that gifted family reached the abode of Lord shiva, with the prostration of all the people. Let the determination in doing a flawless service for which amarn^IthiyAr was ready to give himself stay in the mind.

viRanmiNda nAyanAr

Worshipping the Lord nicely decorated with the bow pinAkam and the arrow pAshupatAstram , the axe, the fire, the disc sudharshanam , the mace, the sword and crores of powerful arms, the valiant sage parshurAma who got the magnificent axe parashu as blessing for that, made the land very well known for its beauty - the land of mountains, the land of elephants of mammoth ivory, the land that worships mahAdEva - the kingdom of chEra . There is this beautiful place called cheN^kunRUr (now known as thiruchcheN^kOdu), the place where the God stands in the superior male-female (ardan^ArIshwarar) form enjoying the sandal smell of the forests.

To illuminate the life of the traditional farmers of that town, viRanmiNdar was born there in an agricultural family. Holding tight only the feet of the fire like God that are beyond the reach of words, he was dared to root out any bond that was an obstacle. Caring much for the true devotees. Superior is his fame who minds only the Merciful Lord. Praying the abodes of the Almighty who makes abode in the hearts of such devotees and saluting the slaves of the Lord before they could salute him, he traveled through many parts of the land and finally arrived at the town thiruvArUr where the Lord rides the minds of the huge devotees also the big chariot in that town. He immersed himself in that beautiful shiva for whom the vEdAs became the chariot.

In the thiruvArUr there was a hall called dhEvAchiriyam , where the great slaves of the blue throated Lord assemble and praise the simple and sweet shiva. Blessed are those who had the golden opportunity to see them, hear them follow them and serve them ! What else one requires to get liberation other than moving with those great bunch of fragrant followers !! viRanmiNdar prostrated to that people in the right path towards the Truth and stayed with them. One day when chun^dharar(1) who considers himself as the slave of the slave of the slaves of the sha.nkara went straight into the altar of the temple without saluting the devotees in the dhEvAchiriyam hall. Actually he was praying the Lord when can he get blessed by saluting those marvelous devotees. viRanmiNdar who noticed chun^dharar proceeding without prostrating to the crowd of devotees said angrily, "That sun^dharan who didn't know to pay respect to the devotees is no longer one in us." "The Lord who blesses him who proceeds without saluting the slaves also is not one among us", he continued out of his extreme respect for devotees. The Lord who accepts even the scoldings of the devotees as the praises done with the best coined words enjoyed this love and angry words as well and blessed viRanmiNdar. He gave the first line to chun^dharar to sing the greatness of devotees. chun^dharar composed that as the great gem thiruththoNdaththokai(2) which is the basic source for this periya purANam . What else can be more fame than saying that viRanmiNdar was the principle person who was instrumental in getting the excellent thiruththoNdath thokai from chun^dharar. Living long in this world which is meant for love and worship, upholding the respect of the devotees, that great devotee viRanmiNdAr stayed in a right way under the graceful feet of the Lord heading the army of the God. Let the emphasis that is clearly given by viRanmiNda n^AyanAr for the respect one should give to the reverend devotees of the Lord stay in the mind.

MeypporuL Nayanar

chEthi naAdu was one of the ancient kingdoms with the town thirukkovalUr - where Lord shiva destroyed the demon an^dhakAsuran, the form of ignorance - as it's capital. That kingdom made its fame indelible in the history when the king meypporuL n^AyanAr, whose life was an example of tolerance and doing good even to enemy, ruled it.


He had his heart engaged in hailing hara and hands in helping His devotees. He served them as the way they required, ruled the country with law and justice bringing peace to the country and devotion bringing peace to the minds of the people. His valour allowed no enemy to raise against the kingdom. He considered the wealth of loving the luminant feet of Lord shiva to be the greatest of all. The graceful form of the devotees made him do anything for them.

muththa n^Athan was the king who made all futile efforts to win meypporuLAr in the battle-field. He finally realised that fox can't beat the elephant in the fight. As the sin of taking revenge went high in his mind, he started enjoying the rotton smell of crooked ways. He knew that the meypporuLAr salutes and serves the devotees smeared with holy ash and other great symbols of Lord shankara. That spineless coward called muththan^Athan wanted to exploit this superior quality of that devotee.

He covered his body with the holy form of devotees smearing ash, with matted hair, covered a knife in a book he held in hand, as the darkness coming in the shadow of light. He arrived in the dark night in the palace of meypporuLAr with his mind darker than the one outside. Thinking him as a devotee of the Lord, the guards at many doors on the way permitted him with salutations. When he arrived at the room where the king was sleeping with dreams too of serving the devotees, the personal guard of the king by name thaththan told him that the king is taking rest and requested him to wait. But muththa n^Athan went ahead saying that he was coming from himAlayam to meet the king. thaththan couldn't stop him as he was in the form of devotee. The queen who saw him immediately woke up the king. The king pleased instead of getting angry for being disturbed at his private place, bowed down as soon as he saw the form of a devotee. muththa nAthan told him "I have got a rare Agama given by your God. I came to explain you that. So ask your wife to leave and we should be alone". The king with untainted heart asked his wife to leave, gave him a nice seat, sat over the ground and bowed down, to raise up in our hearts. The crooked enemy like opening the book took the knife and pierced the body of the king and pierced himself into the gloom stricken Hell. Who won ? Even if he lost his life, it was meypporuLAr who had a firm belief that the holy form of devotees is the Truth and winning his place under the Graceful feet of God and won the hearts of the devotees inspiring them.

thaththan who doubted muththa nAthan from the beginning leaped immediately into the room and raised his sword to kill the crooked. But meypporuLAr stopped him saying "thaththA! He is one among us". thaththan cried and asked him to order his duty. meypporuLAr asked him to guard the devotee of the Lord from others till he crosses the frontier. Unable to go against the word of his loving king thaththan guarded the wicked to the frontier. meypporuLAr held his breath till thaththan came back saying that muththa n^Athan crossed the frontier without any trouble. He praised thaththan for his action and advised his courtmen to uphold the good deed of loving the devotees and respecting the holy symbols of the Lord. The truthfulness of his love for the form of devotees led him to the Truth that dances in the great golden hall of thillai. Let the greatness of meypporuLAr who guarded even the enemy who took his life in a crooked way, just because he was in the holy form of devotees, stay in the mind.

ILaiyankudimara Nayanar

iLaiyAnkudi illuminated itself in the history by having a slave of slaves of sha.nkara known as iLaiyAnkudimARanAr . Ceded the his whole heart to the Lord who robs the hearts of the saluters. He got the widening wealth out of the hard work in the farm fields and the wide heart that tries to reach the infinite in the selfless service to the worshippers of the warrier who destroyed the three cities of three impurities. He had an enjoyable life with this wealth. Whoever came at his house with the love for the wet matted haired Supreme, were given a appealing welcome with his folded hands on the head, blossomed face showering flowers of nice words and his humble deeds making the red carpet. He would clean their feet with the scented water, give them the comfortable seat and then serve the food which is rich in all the six tastes for those devotees who love the taste of Holy five letters than anything else. He lived like the kupEra who was given limitless wealth by the Lord.

To show to the human kind n^AyanAr's real service motto which was so strong that even the absence of wealth would not be able to shake, the God apraised by vEdas slowly changed his wealth to poverty. The wealth shrunk, but his broad mind never shrunk. He sold his belongings, borrowed from proper means possible to continue the service that was at no time second in quality. The Lord whose characters even the creater and protector of the world do not know compoletely came to his house in this situation in the form that His loving devotees have. It was the dark night in the mansoon season. So what ? There is enough light in the hearts of the iLaiyAnkudi mARanAr couple, the person who arrives in the house is also the form of light.

n^AyanAr happily welcomed Him. Gave enough cloths to change the wet cloths for Him who does not wear anything. He gave to that refuge giving Lord a nice place to relax. With the enthusiasm to host the devotee he asked his equally devotional wife what can they do to quench the hunger of the sage. He was worried that it was not so bad that they did not have food for themselves but they had to serve somehow the devotee of Lord nice food. His loving wife replied that there is nobody in the village who would lend something for them and the time was also quite late in the night, but suggested that if he could bring the rice grain seeds that they sewed in the noon, she could make food out of that. For the farmers the grain seeds that are kept seperate for growing next time are very valuable and whatever comes they do not consume that grains. But for this excellent devotee this suggestion appeared to be a great gift as he was more worried about how to feed the devotee.

In that darkness and rain only his love for the Lord showing the way he went to the fields. The whole village all the creatures were sleeping. The rain poured in torents. Visibility was very less. But nothing shook the determination of the devotee. Sensing the path through his legs he went inside the farm land. He gathered the seeds that had been pushed to the corners by the rain along with the mud. He filled the basket he had brought and rushed back. His wife washed the mud off from the seeds. To cook the food there was no fire wood. That great man who had cut down the strong beam of ego cut the wooden beam of his house to burn ! After cooking the rice, that chaste wife worried what could she do for the side dish. He went immediately to the land where spinach is cultivated. He plucked the plants like plucking out the plant of pAcham . She cooked different varieties of dishes out of that spinach, showed them to her husband. They decided to wake up the devotee, who is beyond th ereach of thoughts, for having food.

"Please bless me my Lord, by having this simple food that we made out of the love", they saluted Him. To the surprise of the great servant and his matched wife, He arose as the flame of beautiful light. For those devotees who were shocked by that Light, which was unexplorable for vishNu and brahma , the Doer of good, the sha.nkara appeared blissfully on the Holy Bull with the pretty plaited parvati . He blessed them, "Oh loving minds! You who worshipped the devotees come to our great world to live blissfully with the lord of wealth serving you". Salutations to that shiva who is above all. Let the determined service of the n^AyanAr for the devotees stay in the mind.