Periya Puranam

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram

Brothers & Sisters

 

When

I was a child my grandmother has told me the Ramayana, Mahabaratha and the

Periyapuranam. I was most fascinated by the “

bold">Periya Puranam” as these were not stories about the Avathars

who had all the potential to rule the Universal but

bold">about humans from poor to rich; educated to non-educated; low caste to

high caste, male or female, etc , etc … who were similar to us but

loved and obtained love of God by their devotion. And most

importantly they didn’t undertake a

service that was away from their lifestyle but whatever they did they did it

with a flowing LOVE for God.

font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:purple">So, I thought I’ll share these stories

of each Nayanmar with you all in a summary form everyday just to enlighten our

day, give us some extra strength while we face so many hurdles each day

and to increase the our flow of Love to God more and more.

 

font-weight:bold">1. KANNAPPA NAYANAR

font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">The land green with the forests and hills having

the best that mother nature offers was the kingdom called “pothappi nadu”

.. In that kingdom was the village called “uduppur”,

surrounded by beautiful rainfalls. The rocks of that hilltown were smelling

with the rotton smell from the bodies of the dead animals put for drying along

with the anchored nets used for hunting. Along with the noise of "Kill it

! stone it! stab them !" that the hunting folks generate, one can hear the

pleasant sound of dancing deers and jumping waterfalls. For those hunters who

never gave place for fear or mercy in their hearts, a courageous supremo by

name “Nagan” was

there. His discipline was crime ; hobby was to kill ; profession to hunt ;

valorous in the archery ; well suited for the job he got from his ancestors,

but should have done some excellant penance in his previous births for getting associated

with a man of marvellous love . His wife, who too came in the family of

powerful archers, always seen with the nails of tigers and skin of snakes as

ornaments, was called “Thaththai .”

font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">They didn't have a child for a long time. Out of

the desire for a kid Nagan to Lord “Muruga” who

is the son of Lord Shiva. Out of the grace of that six

faced Lord Muruga, thaththai conceived the kid who is always referred with

great respect by the devotees. When the child was born, he celebrated the

occasion with thanks giving sacrifices. That marvelous kid was so powerful that

even his father felt him heavy to hold up. So he named the kid “Thinnan” (

meaning "strong"), amid the roar of the hunting folks. He grew with

the array of ornaments made out of animal bodies decorating his young and

strong chest and waist and learnt the art of archery which was his profession

too, beyond doubts and inefficiency.

font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Oneday he went for hunting with fellow hunters in

the morning when even Sun hadn't come up to see the day. The hunters made heaps

of wild animals killed. There came a wild pig, which broke the nets and pits of

the hunters with the vengence and leaped away like an arrow escaping the

piercing arrows of the hunters. Only three people including “Thinnan”

were able to chase it to the end, but it escaped their missiles and went

far far away from their hunting place to the bottom of the hill of the God, who

was dipped there in the worship of three creatures - a spider, a snake and an

elephant - that was the “Sri Kalahasti” hill.

The pig stopped under a tree and they killed and cooked it. They set out to

bring water. As they crossed through the forest “Thinnan” saw the

hill of the Lord on the Bull the abode of “Kudumiththevar” (Lord

Shiva). Kindled by an unexplainable emotion he went towards the

hill. Thinnan put his first step towards the Lord who gives Himself for love.

font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:blue;font-weight:bold">He saw Him; He drank

through his eyes that wonderful sight; It flowed over his heart; He lost all

the controls over him; He fled to the Lord over that flow of love, embraced

Him, kissed Him. The happiness manifested through every pinch of his body. It

fell as falls from his eyes. Felt very anxious, "Oh my Lord ! In this

dense forest with a whole of wild animals moving around there is nobody to

guard you here !! Oh ! You are alone ! bad ! bad!!". Not able even

to realise his bow falling down that man of immeasurable love asked Nadan,

"Who would have done this offering to the Lord with the green leaves and

flowers ?". Nadan said, "Once when I came with your father for

hunting, we saw a priest bathing Him and ornating with flowers. I think he

should have done that today too ". Thinnan” understood the worship

that that God of Kalahasti likes, to be this. He worried, "Oh ! my Lord is

alone ! There is nobody to feed him with meat and flesh ! How can I leave Him

alone ? What can I do ? I must get him good flesh to eat !!".

font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:blue;font-weight:bold">He will start to get

some meat, but will rush back to Him. Again will go, but run back to Him again.

Like the cow that doesn't leave the calf away, he stood in front of Him unable

to take his sight away. He would say, "My Lord ! I will get you the best

meat to eat", but immediately will worry, "How can I go when you are

alone here ? But I am not able to stand here too when you are hungry." Finally consoled

himself and went with determination to bring the required things for the Lord. Thinnan

without bothering about anything else, took the best portions of the pig's body

in an arrow, cooked it well, tasted them by having them in his mouth to pick

out the best ones and collected such tasted flesh in a bowl of leaf. His

companions decided that he has gone crazy.

font-weight:bold">Unperturbed, he took the flesh in his hands, water from the

river in his mouth to anoint the Lord, beautiful wild flowers inserted in his

hair to offer to the Lord. He rushed to the top thinking that the Lord will be

too hungry by then.

font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">As he left for hunting, there came the sage by

name Shivakochariyar

, who worship that Healing Herb on the hill in the way

that is said in holy scriptures. He was shocked at the sight of strewn bones

and flesh in front of the Lord. He screamed, "it should be the act of

those dreadful hunters", he concluded. He cleaned the altar carefully,

took bath in the river and came back fast. This continued for many days. While

our Thinnan worshiped the Lord of Gods in the way he knew, the sage Shivakochariyar

was so desperate to find a solution to this problem. He prayed to the

Lord to show and remove the person who had been doing the misdeed. To explain

the true love of Thinnan, the Nameless praised by thousands of sacred names

appeared in the dream of the sage and told him,

color:maroon;font-weight:bold">"Don't think that he is a miscreant. His

form is full of my love, his mind minds me only and his deeds are the

delightful for me. The water he spits on me is more sacrad than ga.nga ,

the flowers he offers taking from his head are holier than that are offered by

devas. It is all because of His love. You can see the excellence of his

devotion tomorrow, if you hide and see".

font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:blue;font-weight:bold">On that seventh day

morning of his worship of the Lord, as usual Thinnan brought the unusual

materials of worship with unprecedented love. To show Shivakochariyar the

affection of Thinnan, the Lord was having one eye bleeding out of His three.

Tensed he ran

to Him, tried to stop the bleeding, but it didn't. He came with a broken heart,

cried holding His feet. He set out to search and bring the herbs to heal the

wound of that Healer. But No Effect!!!. Suddenly, he remembered an old saying

"flesh for flesh".

color:red;font-weight:bold">He immediately pluck one of his eye with the sharp

arrow to paste it on His. He jumped from the ground to the sky, appreciated

himself for the brave deed when it stopped the bleeding from His eyes.

But the Lovely

Lord desired to show the limitlessness of devotion.

As the bleeding

stopped in His right eye, it started from His left. After being in the shock

for a moment “Thinnan” told to himself, "Now I know the

medicine. I have one more eye. That should cure this" (!!).But when he was

about to pluck the eyes he realised the difficulty of placing the eye in

position once he took off the other eye too. So he held his hard but hailable

foot on His eye as a mark, and raised the arrow to take his other eye off. No

words are sufficient to explain this.

The Lord Himself

was not able to bear this great action, not just appeared, but came holding his

hands to stop from plucking the other eye, shouting, "Oh halt Kannappa!,

Halt Kannappa!!, halt Kannappa!!!". (Kann in Tamil

means ‘eye’ and ‘appa’ means ‘father’)The

sage of great wisdom saw the great love of the

devotee and the grace he got for that.

color:blue;font-weight:bold">The Lord accepted the flesh as a fruit only due to

the presence of such a sacrificial love.

Can there be anything more covettable, after the Omniscient blessing him

immediately, "Oh ! Uncomparable ! Stay to my right.”

9.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-weight:bold">

font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:blue;font-weight:bold">Let the devotion that

is ‘Kannappa Nayanar’ stay in our mind.

color:blue;font-weight:bold">

font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">

font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Sai RAM (If any of you feel that this is unnecessary

or too much to read, please let me know without any hesitation.)

font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Shivathmika

font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">

 

Attachment: (image/jpeg) image001.jpg [not stored]

[Guest guest]

Thank u for the wonderful story. I have been looking for such stories to tell my

young children. As I'm in US, I've no idea of any Indian bookstores that sell

books with such stories. Pls do keep posting the stories. I would love to share

it with my children.

May Baba bless u and ur family!

 

Love,

Anita Sakthi

[Guest guest]

Sairam Shivathmika,

 

This story was enacted as a play by Swami's students in the Divine

Presence at Parthi last winter.

 

Would love to hear about other Nayanmars too.May their devotion to

the Lord inspire us all..........

 

Love and Light,

 

Ragu.

[Guest guest]

SAIRAM.

 

THANK YOU FOR SHARIING THESE BRILLIANT SERIES.

 

BRO SURESH B