Professional Documents
Culture Documents
mountainman.com.au
The World was my open book and Inner quest my deep study.
Who am I in the vastness of cosmic phenomenon?
The Mystery Car of Time takes me round changeful seasons;
Destiny leads the play of Life blind-folding me in self-oblivion.
" Who am l? What am I? Whence am I ?
What is beyond the entry and exit in this amphitheatre of
Existence?
Who feels in the senses and thinks in the mind and dreams in my
fancy?"
The unique One pervades all beings. All are one in that.
It is the Life of lives, the One that moves in many names and
forms.
It is beyond the mental conceptions of caste, creed and religion.
A tall stately man comes in haste. He looks here and there and
catches hold of the boy saying, "Come home; how long are you
to be here? Come !" That is his father, Kediliappa. Kediliappa '
literally means immortal Father. Born to this mortal father. the boy
sought Father, the immortal. This saintly boy is our
Those were days of the Naik kings. The Pandyann dynasty had
declined. The Naik chiefs of Vijayanagar possessed the Madurai
Kingdom ( 1559-1736). Visvanatha, Tirumalai, and Mangammal
were noteworthy rulers of Madurai. They were great patrons of
art and poetry. The grandson of Mangammal was Vijaya Ranga
Chokkanatha. He set up his residence at Thrisirapuram. He was
a pious man, but not a statesman. He ruled for twenty-seven
years ( 1704-1731 ). His kingdom was often attacked by the
Maharattas and the Mussalmans. He wanted strong assistants.
His minister Govindappa one day came to Vedaranyam.
Kediliappa received the august guest with temple honours and
entertained him under his hospitable roof. Both of them spoke on
religion and politics. The Minister said, "Kedili, you are a scholar,
a devotee, an astute statesman, a clever diplomat and a keen
accountant. You are just the man that we are seeking. Come with
Kediliappa did not live to see the brilliant manhood of his son. He
joined the majority while yet Thayumanavar was in his teens. His
father's death intensified his yearning for spiritual freedom. "With
this body, I must attain liberation ", This was his resolution. But
the King would not leave him to himself. " Dear Thayumanavar,
serve me in your father's place" said he. Thayumanavar had to
obey the King. He became the Chancellor of exchequer of the
Naik Kingdom. He fulfilled his state duties to the entire
satisfaction of the King who loved him more and more. His Rani
Meenakshi, fondled him. She was ready to do anything for him.
People liked his gentle manners and benevolent heart. He did his
duty for duty's sake; but his heart was aloof from the distractions
of state affairs. He saw what the world was and took lessons
from what he saw.
Those were troubled times. Trisirapuram was a field of conflicting
forces. The throne was shaken by invasions and revolutions.
Political butchery, local treachery, social animosity, royal
indolence and religious pretence disrupted the harmony of life
everywhere. The marauding Maharatta hordes and the invading
Nawab's forces were lurking in ambush in the vicinity. The clatter
of enemy swords enervated the Naik forces. Thayumanavar saw
with open eyes the danger of royal courts disrupting by flippant
pleasures. The kingdom was a web of spies and a trap of
enemies. The friends of today became the foes of to-morrow.
None can play with fire without being scorched. Thayumanavar
did not like to be caught in this political turmoil. He witnessed a
thousand golden hypocrisies and pitied humanity caught in the
coils of temptation.
Tiru Mula. The Master and the disciple discovered each other.
The disciple fell at the feet of the Master, shedding tears of joy
and poured out his heart in sublime hymns.
The Master blessed him graciously, took him alone, and
accepted his devotion.
"Master" said the disciple, "I shall follow Thee, renouncing home
and royal service."
The free soul, hungering for the inner delight, cannot live in the
limitations of a royal court. Its proud pleasures are flimsy shows
of sanity. It is a place for flatterers and not for sages and seer-
poets. Thayumanavar would make his life a song-offering to the
Divine of his heart. He would live in the Divine, for the Divine. He
lived in tune with the Infinite and would not seek the lightning
smile of royal favour. He would be the king of the Spirit's kingdom
and never a slave of worldly empires. He would enjoy the soul's
birth-right.
He remembered God in all the changing phases of life. He
aspired for grace and never for gold.
fads, creeds, cults and dogmas. Faith in the inner reality gave
him force. Force fructified into grace and grace into knowledge.
He drew the mind from the wandering senses into inner
recollection, and contemplated upon the pure reality which he
was. He discriminated the Spirit from the body of nature. He
internalised his attention, intensified his concentration, controlled
his thoughts and lulled his mind to meditation. A dynamic peace
possessed him. His heart widened into a deep compassion for
all. His equal vision saw one Soul in the king and in the subject.
Life in harmony with the Divine was eternal springtime; life in
separation was cyclonic winter. His brain thought, his heart loved,
his vital liked nothing but the Divine.
"I am grateful to you. O king; God has heard my prayer from your
heart. I am liberated; thanks " said the saint, and he repaired to
the banks of the Kaveri to continue his meditation. The king
raised a fine hermitage on the river bank and served the saint
devoutly.
The saint was self-absorbed. The mind was nullified like a burnt
alone can save the Kingdom. Its welfare depends upon you.
Come and help me, in the name of my husband who loved you
so much !"
The saint took pity upon the helpless queen; he felt obliged to do
his best to maintain peace and restore order in the realm. Under
his influence, treachery was knocked down like an uprooted tree.
The den of misrule became a heaven of order and discipline,
under the control of Thayumanavar. The Rani was all regard for
him. But her regard carried passion into her youthful heart. His
beauty of person his strong will, wisdom, sagacity, political
acumen, religious fervour, austerity and sweet words, worked like
magic upon her imagination. Regard turned into affection,
affection into love, love into lust, and lust inflamed hidden
passions in the uncontrolled mind. She treated him like her close
companion. The friendship ripened into love; and she
approached him alone one night with a pining heart, with
passion-lost modesty. She stood before the meditating saint like
an image of love-lorn beauty. The saint knew her wiles.
the noose of lust. Divine Force, save me from this flashing sword
of lustful eyes. Let not my purity be killed by its venomed edge.
Queen: My beloved sir, I shall give you all my wealth; love me.
He scarcely saw the people. The few that sought him were
satisfied with hearing his hymns sung by Arulayya every evening.
The garden where Thayumanavar lived is marked today by a
small temple where his image is adored. There too an offer came
to him from the Royal court, but he refused it. "I have seen
enough of this political and social drama. I have watched the
world and I prefer silence all the more. Silence is my book of
Knowledge." wrote the saint. He forgot the past in self-
immersion. He opened his heart to divine love. He entered inner
solitude, plunged into inner silence, and settled in the deeper
Self. He kept his self-level, even like the ocean which overflows
not by the inflow of rivers and which dries not by evaporation.
The sex energy is meant mainly for the propagation of the race
for which a little would suffice; the energy must never be wasted.
The sex function must be carefully limited to the getting of
progeny and must not be indulged in for its own sake. Sex can be
controlled day by day, by family men, by means of meditation and
worship. Let the wife regard her husband as shiva. Let them
worship each other in that attitude of mind and meditate together
for half an hour at dawn and dusk. Then, day by day, they will
learn to live in pure spiritual devotion and forget vital passions
that spoil their health and disturb their thoughts and distract their
soul.
The words uttered by the Master were woven into hymns and
became the Philosophy of the Silent Sage.
The Divine Grace transforms life into love and love into bliss.
That Grace descends in the form of Consciousness.
The ordinary physical eye cannot see the Divine.
The inner eye alone can subtly feel the Divine presence in the
soul.
The mind is internalised and concentrated in meditation,
With unflagging patience, forbearance, faith and constancy
"Dear one, keep these in mind and renounce everything for the
sake of Divinity.
Take a pearl-diver-s plunge into the heart.
Be centre in and there is the Divine Light to lead you on.
Go hence to Chidambaram:
Meditate upon Lord Nataraja, the symbol of perfect Divine Truth.
Worship Him daily, with hymns and he will lead you on !
Shivoham !"
The world's life depends upon rain. Rains failed and famine
raged fearfully. Thayumanavar meditated before Lord
Ramanatha at Rameshwaram for the good of the land. He looked
up and prayed. "Pour down O Blessed heavens if it is true that
God is one and His blissful path is path "
Heavens heard his prayer. The clouds gathered; lightnings
flashed; thunder roared; and rains poured and poured until the
tanks were full and the fields were green and famine was no
more. The Raja of Ramnad and his subjects worshipped the
Sage and brought him to Ramnad in a palanquin. It is said he
mobilised the Marava Chiefs to ward off foreign impacts.
The songs spread like wild fire. The sage did not like publicity. He
wrote in silence, lived in silence and steeped himself in Divine
Silence. His mission was fulfilled. The purpose of his
embodiment was over. He prayed for a strong body only for self
realisation. He was now in perfect union with the Divine,
immersed in That consciousness. The body was dead to him. So
he willed to shed it off. He entered into his samadhi-room and
closed the door, leaving a note outside on which these words
were written:
"Dear friends,
withdraw the mind from the senses
and fix it in meditation.
Control the thought-current.
Find out the thought-centre and fix yourself there.
Then you will be conscious of the Divine Self;
you will see it dancing in ecstasy.
Live in that delight.
That Delight-Consciousness, is the God in you.
He is in every heart.
You need not go anywhere to find Him.
Find your own core and feel Him there.
Peace, bliss, felicity, health - everything is in you.
Trust in the Divine in you.
Entrust yourself to His Grace.
Be as you are.
Off with past impressions.
He who lives from within an ingathered soul-life
is a real Sage though he may be a householder.
He who allows his mind to wander with the senses
is an ignoramus, though he is learned.
See as a witness, without the burden of seeing.
The disciples read this with great joy and meditated before the
door. There was no stir inside; it was very late for supper;
Arulayya gently called, knocked; no response. He broke open the
door. Ah, what did he see ! The body lay there; the face was
smiling as usual; but the Soul that was the real sage had flown
away like a bird from its cage.
It was on a full moon day in the month of January 1742 that
Thayumanavar entered the final beatitude. 15th January is this
Saint's day. The disciples, the Rajah and the local worthies
adorned the body, took it in procession, paid their last honours
and buried it, singing his hymns.
The real Thayumanavar, His Spirit, still endures and shall ever
live in his soul-thrilling hymns. Hail Thayumanavar !!