Siddhars are realised souls with intuitive knowledge and jnana as well with the powers of yoga siddhi that is attained through tremendous effort. They are one with Siva and His experience at all times, though living on this earth. Such an extraordinarily endowed yogi is Tirumoolar, who has bequeathed the valuable Tirumadiram.
Leaving aside the many views about his life and times, there is an important and practical lesson for all in his attitude and approach to the unexpected turn of events that he is destined to face which the Periyapuranam has recorded, pointed out Dr. Sudha Seshaiyan in a discourse. He was a yogi steeped in penance and worship of Siva for many ages in Mount Kailasa. Endowed by his siddhi and yoga with the power to travel by air, he once wished to go south to the Pothigai Hills. On his way near Tiruvavaduthurai, on the banks of the Kaveri, he saw a herd of cows in distress, their cowherd dead. Moved by the sight, this yogi from Kailasa decided to comfort the cows and by his yoga siddhi entered the body of the cowherd, leaving his own in a safe place.
After leading them home, he tried to get back to his original body but was unable to find it. At that moment, he neither panicked nor was he frustrated. The truth that he was now destined to live in this body with a new identity did not daunt him. As a yogi of extraordinary merit, he had the maturity of mind to accept this as a new birth granted by Siva’s will and grace.
He records in his hymn that Siva had chosen this birth for him so that he could sing His glory in Tamil. It is held that he lived for over three thousand years in yogic contemplation under a tree and sang the three thousand and odd hymns of the Tirumandiram.
