The Hindu : Profound truths in Thirumoolar's work

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - Religion

Profound truths in Thirumoolar's work

CHENNAI OCT. 23. One of the beliefs among those who possess spiritual inclinations, which also derive authority from holy texts, is that a man's rebirth has relationship with the thoughts he entertains at the time of his last breath. If one, for instance, is totally immersed in worldly activities right through his life, he will be reborn amidst surroundings, which will again get him bogged in routine affairs. Invariably, a man engaged in accumulating wealth, will be worried about the cash balance he is leaving, even when he is dying. He will appear in his succeeding birth in places conducive to lead him to devote his life on making money. Those, on the other hand, who remember God when their end is nearing and who try to recapture His vision even at that stage (when his faculties may fail) will have a noble birth and will continue their service to the Almighty and take steps to go near Him. To prompt a man to resort to spiritual exercises, Divine Grace is necessary.

Saints like Thirugnanasambandar and Azhwars had rendered songs appealing to God's mercy describing His compassionate qualities. Though their outpourings were soaked in devotion they called their utterances as mere prattle. Devotees have virtually wept seeking Divine Grace. And stating that He who pervades the entire universe, is also seated within everyone's heart, they have referred to the need to bow themselves at God's golden feet. The presence of the Lord has been felt because of their ardent prayers. These sentiments have also been echoed in the stirring verses of Saint Thirumoolar in his "Thirumandiram", the contents of some of which were annotated by Sri Sarveswara Chaitanya in a lecture. In hundreds of stanzas couched in cryptic terms the saint has conveyed profound truths.

A story is told about the result of envisioning God's forms and recalling His compassion by practising various methods of religious discipline. A pious person, eager to visit Varanasi, died en route in a hamlet and was born to a person engaged as a servant warning the villagers by drum beats about the danger from robbers. Once when he took leave, the son was asked to perform his duties, but he remained silent. Questioned by the employer, he replied that it was first necessary to drive away the bandits within everyone (passion, anger, malice, ego, pride and hatred) and the former realised that he should have been a saintly person in his earlier birth.

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