Tiruvottiyur is on the sea-shore five miles norht of Madras and is a sacred town for the Hindus.It was an important port in the east coast during the reign of the Pallavas and the later Cholas.The three great saiva saints,viz:Thirugnana Sambandar,Thirunavukkarasar and Sundaramurthi who flourished in this land during the period from 7-9th century A.D visited the temple in this place and sang the praise of the deity in their sweet tamil songs.They are preserved to this date and are eight padikams or lyrics in number each padikam containing ten or eleven quatrains.
Tiruvottiyur,particularly speaking had an important place in the lives of St.sundaramurthi of the 9th century,and St.Pattinathar, a poet-devotee of the 10th century A.d.St.Sundaranar married Sangiliar, a damsel of the Vellala community in this temple.St.Pattinathar attained salvation,when he was playing with some shepherd boys on the sea-shore.Still,there is a temple in his name on the coast which is frequented by many pilgrims.Hence it is no wonder that Ramalingar took this temple as the ideal place for his daily worship.Moreover,Tiruvottiyur presents a rural background free from the din and bustle of Madras city.Such a peaceful environmet was very much after the heart's desire of Ramalingar.So he daily went to Tiruvottiyur by walk,along with some of his friends for worship.
In the course of his daily worship,he used to spend more hours in the shrine of God Muruga,in the north west corner of the temple.He was often absorbed in undisturbed meditation,when his eyes would overflow with tears of joy.He would intensely pray God Muruga to bless him with the true knowledge of knowing His grace.His prayer was so intense that it resembled a helpless child anxiously looking for the benevolence of its mother.God Muruga who is the Incarnation of grace,heard his prayers and blessed him Ramalingar felt within himself His grace.His divine form with a beautiful and arresting smile in his shining face,was seen approaching him.The divine teacher fondled Ramalingar with His own hand,sat near him and said in his ears a divine message.Ramalingar has sung in memory of this incident praising the Divine teacher.
From this day onwards,he began to pour out his emotion spontaneously in several lyrics.All of them are collected and published as the 2nd and 3rd cantos of Thiru-Arul-Pa.
Apart from this,there are also some other mystical incidents connected with his visits to Tiruvottiyur.Though the moderns may hesitate little to believe them,some of them are supported by internal evisences available in his prose and poetical works.
Evidently the mystical incidents in the lives of great saints are beyond human intelligence; but they can not be said to be unbelievable because,we find that truth becomes more incredible,at times than fiction.So we can not altogether ignore them,as they are very useful to explain the saintly nature of life of a great man.In the words of Lotze,"the complete conditioning causes of the miracles will be found in God and nature together,and although it is not ordered according to general laws,it is not void of regulative principles". As such it is not worthwhile to deprecate or undervalue the importance of mysteries in the lives of great men.Any how, I do not want to mention,here,all the miracles in his life; but a few would suffice.
Ramalingar ,after his worship in the temple at Tiruvottiyur,returned home one day,very late in the night.His sister,who was at that time in the house,waited for him for a long time and went to sleep.When Ramalingar reached his house he found it locked.He did not want to disturb his sister. So he lay down on the verandah and slept.The Divine Mother of Tiruvottiyur could not allow her child starve that night.So she came near him taking the form of his sister with food in avessel made of Lotus leaf.She fed Ramalingar with it.He again went to sleep,thinking of course,that it was his own sister.After some time, the real sister who was asleep within the house got up and thought of her brother.She suddenly came out and woke up Ramalingar.he asked her why she was waking him up again,after having given him just then.Hos sister was struck with awe and wonder to hear his words and to seethe lotus leaf on the ground.Realising her astonishment,Ramalingar understood that it happened due to God's grace and the woman who fed him was the Divine Mother herself.He refers to this miracle four or five times in his Thiru-Arul-Pa; of which ,I shall cite two here as internal evidences.
In the Long Poem with the title,"Advice to the Mind",Ramalingar says that God came and gave him food one night,because of His extreme grace and immeasurable love to quench his hunger.He is more explicit in depicting this miracle in "Garland of Grace".
"oh! Divine mother,dear to my soul! One day I lay weary of hunger on the verandah outside my house;You came with a shining bowl of delicious food in your beautiful hand; You woke me up saying,"Were you hungry because of your walk to Tiruvottiyur! and you gave me the food with all delight". These two are sufficient to prove the miracle referred to above.
On another occasion, when Ramalingar was walking towards Tiruvottiyur,with his friends and disciples,it began to rain all of a sudden.In order to escape from being drenched ramalingar directed his followers through a lane which brought them before the temple at Tiruvottiyur in no time.All of them wondered at the miracle because,they were at a long distance from the temple when the rain came.
Ramalingar used to go to the temple at Tiruvottiyur,not by the main street,but by small lanes as he wanted to avoid people thronging round him.But one day contrary to his usual course,he was going through the main car street.There was one sanyasi lying on the pial of a house.he would call the passers-by with epithets like,"ass,bull etc".No one dared to go to him and prevent him from abusing like this.When he saw Ramalingar passing ,he exclaimed,"Hither goes the upright man".
Hearing his words,Ramalingar went near him and whispered something in his ears.The sanyasi left the place at once and he was never seen again at Tiruvottiyur.This incident brings to our memory the Greek Philospher Diegen who was searching Man with a lamp in his hand in broad day light.
One day Ramalingar was walking along the tank-bund near Pattinathar temple on the sea-shore,at Tiruvottiyur.An old woman who was in the services of the temple for a long time approached him.She requested him to show her something wonderful that would fill her heart with devotion and peace.Ramalingar took a handful of sand and placed it on her palm.He went away asking her cover up the sand with her fingers.After he had gone, the old woman was astonished to see all the sand in the form of innumerable beautiful tiny Sivalingas.She led a pious life;adoring Ramalingar more than she was doing before.
During the period of his visits to Tiruvottiyur,he sang the lyrics,"Vadivudai Manickamalai"and "Ingitha Malai" in praise of the deity at Tiruvottiyur.The former consists of 83 quatrains of elegant poetry in which Ramalingar expresses in easy,sweet and heart-melting language,the infinite grace of the Divine Mother,Vadivudai Manickam of the Tiruvottiyur temple.The latter consists of 165 quatrains and it is a peculiar feature of Tamilian mode of thought,the equal of which is hardly found in any other language.In this,Ramalingar expresses in a very lucid manner,the dialogue between the husband and wife who are none other than God and soul.This kind of poetry is an age-long one that finds place in the devotional songs of all the saints in Saivism and Vaishnavism.These can be compared with Solomon's songs in the Holy Bible depicting the relatinship of the soul with God as one of the wife with her husband.
Tiruvottiyur,particularly speaking had an important place in the lives of St.sundaramurthi of the 9th century,and St.Pattinathar, a poet-devotee of the 10th century A.d.St.Sundaranar married Sangiliar, a damsel of the Vellala community in this temple.St.Pattinathar attained salvation,when he was playing with some shepherd boys on the sea-shore.Still,there is a temple in his name on the coast which is frequented by many pilgrims.Hence it is no wonder that Ramalingar took this temple as the ideal place for his daily worship.Moreover,Tiruvottiyur presents a rural background free from the din and bustle of Madras city.Such a peaceful environmet was very much after the heart's desire of Ramalingar.So he daily went to Tiruvottiyur by walk,along with some of his friends for worship.
In the course of his daily worship,he used to spend more hours in the shrine of God Muruga,in the north west corner of the temple.He was often absorbed in undisturbed meditation,when his eyes would overflow with tears of joy.He would intensely pray God Muruga to bless him with the true knowledge of knowing His grace.His prayer was so intense that it resembled a helpless child anxiously looking for the benevolence of its mother.God Muruga who is the Incarnation of grace,heard his prayers and blessed him Ramalingar felt within himself His grace.His divine form with a beautiful and arresting smile in his shining face,was seen approaching him.The divine teacher fondled Ramalingar with His own hand,sat near him and said in his ears a divine message.Ramalingar has sung in memory of this incident praising the Divine teacher.
From this day onwards,he began to pour out his emotion spontaneously in several lyrics.All of them are collected and published as the 2nd and 3rd cantos of Thiru-Arul-Pa.
Apart from this,there are also some other mystical incidents connected with his visits to Tiruvottiyur.Though the moderns may hesitate little to believe them,some of them are supported by internal evisences available in his prose and poetical works.
Evidently the mystical incidents in the lives of great saints are beyond human intelligence; but they can not be said to be unbelievable because,we find that truth becomes more incredible,at times than fiction.So we can not altogether ignore them,as they are very useful to explain the saintly nature of life of a great man.In the words of Lotze,"the complete conditioning causes of the miracles will be found in God and nature together,and although it is not ordered according to general laws,it is not void of regulative principles". As such it is not worthwhile to deprecate or undervalue the importance of mysteries in the lives of great men.Any how, I do not want to mention,here,all the miracles in his life; but a few would suffice.
Ramalingar ,after his worship in the temple at Tiruvottiyur,returned home one day,very late in the night.His sister,who was at that time in the house,waited for him for a long time and went to sleep.When Ramalingar reached his house he found it locked.He did not want to disturb his sister. So he lay down on the verandah and slept.The Divine Mother of Tiruvottiyur could not allow her child starve that night.So she came near him taking the form of his sister with food in avessel made of Lotus leaf.She fed Ramalingar with it.He again went to sleep,thinking of course,that it was his own sister.After some time, the real sister who was asleep within the house got up and thought of her brother.She suddenly came out and woke up Ramalingar.he asked her why she was waking him up again,after having given him just then.Hos sister was struck with awe and wonder to hear his words and to seethe lotus leaf on the ground.Realising her astonishment,Ramalingar understood that it happened due to God's grace and the woman who fed him was the Divine Mother herself.He refers to this miracle four or five times in his Thiru-Arul-Pa; of which ,I shall cite two here as internal evidences.
In the Long Poem with the title,"Advice to the Mind",Ramalingar says that God came and gave him food one night,because of His extreme grace and immeasurable love to quench his hunger.He is more explicit in depicting this miracle in "Garland of Grace".
"oh! Divine mother,dear to my soul! One day I lay weary of hunger on the verandah outside my house;You came with a shining bowl of delicious food in your beautiful hand; You woke me up saying,"Were you hungry because of your walk to Tiruvottiyur! and you gave me the food with all delight". These two are sufficient to prove the miracle referred to above.
On another occasion, when Ramalingar was walking towards Tiruvottiyur,with his friends and disciples,it began to rain all of a sudden.In order to escape from being drenched ramalingar directed his followers through a lane which brought them before the temple at Tiruvottiyur in no time.All of them wondered at the miracle because,they were at a long distance from the temple when the rain came.
Ramalingar used to go to the temple at Tiruvottiyur,not by the main street,but by small lanes as he wanted to avoid people thronging round him.But one day contrary to his usual course,he was going through the main car street.There was one sanyasi lying on the pial of a house.he would call the passers-by with epithets like,"ass,bull etc".No one dared to go to him and prevent him from abusing like this.When he saw Ramalingar passing ,he exclaimed,"Hither goes the upright man".
Hearing his words,Ramalingar went near him and whispered something in his ears.The sanyasi left the place at once and he was never seen again at Tiruvottiyur.This incident brings to our memory the Greek Philospher Diegen who was searching Man with a lamp in his hand in broad day light.
One day Ramalingar was walking along the tank-bund near Pattinathar temple on the sea-shore,at Tiruvottiyur.An old woman who was in the services of the temple for a long time approached him.She requested him to show her something wonderful that would fill her heart with devotion and peace.Ramalingar took a handful of sand and placed it on her palm.He went away asking her cover up the sand with her fingers.After he had gone, the old woman was astonished to see all the sand in the form of innumerable beautiful tiny Sivalingas.She led a pious life;adoring Ramalingar more than she was doing before.
During the period of his visits to Tiruvottiyur,he sang the lyrics,"Vadivudai Manickamalai"and "Ingitha Malai" in praise of the deity at Tiruvottiyur.The former consists of 83 quatrains of elegant poetry in which Ramalingar expresses in easy,sweet and heart-melting language,the infinite grace of the Divine Mother,Vadivudai Manickam of the Tiruvottiyur temple.The latter consists of 165 quatrains and it is a peculiar feature of Tamilian mode of thought,the equal of which is hardly found in any other language.In this,Ramalingar expresses in a very lucid manner,the dialogue between the husband and wife who are none other than God and soul.This kind of poetry is an age-long one that finds place in the devotional songs of all the saints in Saivism and Vaishnavism.These can be compared with Solomon's songs in the Holy Bible depicting the relatinship of the soul with God as one of the wife with her husband.
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