8-1. Life Story of Thirumoolar

 Teachings to treasure, teachings that transform. 

Thirumoolar Thavamozhi

Motivation

 

8-1. Life Story of Thirumoolar

The words of our Saint Thirumoolar originate from the depths of his penance. For 3000 years he did penance under the Pipal tree, and composed one song per year. That is how he blessed us with 3000 songs, say our histories about him.

In the Periya puranam, the life story of our Saint Thirumoolar is mentioned. In the mount kailash, one of the saints who had received immense blessings of Lord siva, decided to come down to South of India towards the Pothigai hills to meet his long time friend sage Agastya.

On his way he visited several holy places,  went to Thiruvaturai where he had darshan of lord Siva,  and came to a small place called Sathanoor. At that place, he found in a grass field a herd of cows crying. He went near the cows and noticed that the cowherd was lifeless.  The cows that were unable to speak were smelling the cowherd and shedding tears.

Our Saint's heart melted with compassion. He performed a "transport" to send his life force into the body of the dead cowherd. 

When the cowherd woke up, the cows jumped with joy! Our Saint (in the body of the cowherd) waled the cows home in the evening.

He deposited the cows back in their home. Our Saint who wishes not to continue to live in the worldly life of the cowherd, stood outside the house. Seeing her husband outside the house, the cowherd's wife (as she does not know that the Saint is in the body of the cowherd) was puzzled and called him in ! Our Saint told her "oh, lady, we do not have any relationship". On hearing this, the lady started to weep intensely.

All elders in the village gathered inquire what happened. Our Saint went to a mutt in the town and settled there. He did not concede to anyone compelling him to come home. Village elders consoled the lady by telling her, "Your husband has become enlightened when he went to the field with the cows today. He will not live with you anymore. Please forget him."

A little later our Saint return to the forest to search for his original body that he had put to rest when performing the "transport" feat. He could not find his body ! 

In order for all of us to get the sacred vedic texts in Tamil, called "Thirumantiram" our Lord had hidden our Saint's original body! Intuitively understanding purpose of the divine play, our Saint walked with the body of the cowherd and arrived in Thiruvatuthurai. He saw a holy Pipal tree filled with divine vibrations. He closed his eyes and started to perform meditation. After one year, he opened his eyes and composed one poem. He went back to his meditation, and after  another twelve months, he opened his eyes and composed the next poem. Like this, the songs that our Saint composed one per year, later became the book "Thirumanthira garland". This is his life story. The name of the cowherd is "moolan". Therefore our Saint is also called "Thirumoolar".

In the historical records and depicted life stories of Thirumoolar, the important fact that we  should note is that the sacred poems originated from his long silence of twelve months for each poem.  Our Saint had experienced divine bliss. Wishing with live that we all should also experience the same bliss, he shares that knowledge full of compassion.

So far, we reviewed a few songs in the introduction. Let us now go to the songs in the chapters that are his teachings.


To read other translated pages in these posts, see: Thirumoolar