Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

“Once the Pandya King ordered the minister to
purchase some good horses and bring them to him. As he
was already in search of a Guru, Manikkavachakar felt that
it was a good opportunity and started with his retinue
carrying with him the required amount of gold. As his mind
was intensely seeking a Guru, he visited all the temples on
the way. While doing so he reached a village called
Tiruperundurai. Having realised the maturity of the mind
of Manikkavachakar, Parameswara assumed the form of a
school teacher and for about a year before that had been
teaching poor children in the village seated on a street pial,
near the temple. He was taking his meal in the house of his
pupils every day by turn. He ate only cooked green
vegetables. He was anxiously awaiting the arrival of
Manikkavachakar. By the time Manikkavachakar actually
came, Ishwara assumed the shape of a Siddha Purusha
(realised soul) with many sannyasis around him and was seated
under a Kurundai (yellow amanth) tree within the compound
of the temple. Vadavuraar came to the temple, had darshan
of the Lord in it, and while going round the temple by way
of pradakshina, saw the Siddha Purusha. He was thrilled at the
sight, tears welled up in his eyes and his heart jumped with
joy. Spontaneously, his hands went up to his head in
salutation and he fell down at the feet of the Guru like an
uprooted tree. Then he got up, and prayed that he, a humble
being, may also be accepted as a disciple. Having come down
solely to bestow grace on him, Ishwara, by his mere look,
immediately gave him Jnana Upadesa (initiation into
knowledge). That upadesa took deep root in his heart, and
gave him indescribable happiness. With folded hands and
with joyful tears, he went round the Guru by way of
pradakshina, offered salutations, stripped himself of all his
official dress and ornaments, placed them near the Guru
and stood before him with only a kowpeenam on. As he felt
like singing in praise of the Guru he sang some devotional
songs, which were like gems. Ishwara was pleased, and
addressing him as Manikkavachakar, ordered him to remain
there itself worshipping Him. Then He vanished.

“Fully convinced that He who had blessed him was no
other than Ishwara Himself, Manikkavachakar was stricken
with unbearable grief and fell on the ground weeping and
saying, “Oh! my lord, why did you go away leaving me here?”
The villagers were very much surprised at this and began a
search for the person who was till then working in their village
as a school-teacher but could not find him anywhere. Then
they realised that it was the Lord’s leela. Some time later,
Manikkavachakar got over his grief, decided to act according
to the injunctions of Ishwara, sent away his retinue to Madurai,
spent all the gold with him on the temple and stayed there
alone.

Hearing all that had happened, the king immediately
sent an order to Manikkavachakar to return to Madurai.

But then how could he go to the king without the horses? If
he wanted to purchase them then, where was the money?
Not knowing what to do, he prayed to Lord Siva for help.

That night Lord Siva appeared to him in a dream, gave him
a priceless gem and said, “Give this to the king and tell him
the horses will come on the day of the Moola star in the
month of Sravana.” Startled at that vision he opened his eyes,
but the Lord was not there. Manikkavachakar was however
overjoyed at what had happened, put on his official dress
and went to Madurai. He gave the gem to the king, discussed
the auspicious time when the horses would be arriving and
then was anxiously waiting for the day. He did not however
resume his official duties. Though his body was in Madurai,
his mind was in Tiruperundurai. He was merely biding time.

The Pandyan King, however, sent his spies to Perundurai
and found out that there were no horses there meant for
the king and that all the money meant for their purchase
had been spent in the renovation of the temple. So he
immediately put Manikkavachakar in prison making him
undergo all the trials and tribulations of jail life.

“Meanwhile, as originally arranged, on the day of the
Moola star, Ishwara assumed the guise of a horseman,
transformed the jackals of the jungle into horses, and brought
them to the king. The king was astonished at this, took
delivery of the horses and according to the advice of the
keeper of the stables, had them tied up at the same place
where all his other horses were kept. He thanked the
horseman profusely, and after sending him away with several
presents, released Manikkavachakar from jail with profuse
apologies. The same night, the new horses changed into their
real forms, killed all the horses in the stables, ate them,
created similar havoc in the city and fled. The king grew
very angry, branded Manikkavachakar as a trickster and put
him back into jail. Soon in accordance with Iswara’s orders,
the waters of the river Vaigai rose in floods and the whole of
the city of Madurai was under water. Alarmed at that, the
king assembled all the people and ordered them to raise up
the bunds of the river. For the purpose, he ordered that
every citizen should do a certain amount of work with a
threat of dire consequences should he fail to do his allotted
work.

“There was in Madurai an old woman by name ‘Pittuvani
Ammaiyar’. She was a pious devotee of Lord Siva. She was
living alone earning her livelihood by daily preparing and
selling ‘pittu’ (pittu is sweetened powdered rice pressed into
conical shapes). She had no one to do her allotted work on
the river bund nor had she the money to hire a person to do
it. She was therefore greatly worried and cried, ‘Ishwara!
What shall I do?’ Seeing her helplessness, Ishwara came there
in the guise of a cooly with a spade on his shoulder and
called out, ‘Granny, granny, do you want a cooly?’ ‘Yes’, she
said, ‘but I do not have even a paisa in my hand to pay you.

What to do?’ He said, ‘I do not want any money and would
be satisfied if you give me some portion of pittu to eat. I shall
then do the allotted work on the river bund.’
“Pleased with that offer, she began making pittu but they
did not come out in full shape but were broken. Surprised
at this she gave all the bits to the cooly. He ate as many of
them as he could and went away saying that he would attend
to the bund-raising work. Surprisingly, the dough with the
old woman remained intact even though she had prepared
and given bits of the pittu to the cooly. The cooly went to the
workspot, but instead of doing the work lay down there idly
standing in the way of others doing their work.

“The king went round to inspect the progress of the
work and found that the portion allotted to Ammaiyar
remained unattended to. On enquiry, his servants told him
all about the pranks of that cooly. The king got infuriated,
called the cooly and said, ‘Instead of doing the allotted work,
you are lying down and singing.’ So saying he hit the cooly
on the back with a cane he had in his hand. The hit recoiled
not only on the king himself but on all living beings there
and all of them suffered the pain on that account. The king
immediately realised that the person hit by him was
Parameswara himself in the guise of a cooly. The king stood
aghast. Parameswara vanished and soon a voice from the
sky said, ‘Oh king! Manikkavachakar is my beloved devotee.

I myself did all this to show you his greatness. Seek his
protection’. Soon after hearing that voice, the king went to
see Manikkavachakar, and on the way he stepped into the
house of Pittuvani to see her. By that time she had already
got into a vimanam (a heavenly car moving through the skies)
and was on her way to Kailasa. The king was greatly surprised
and saluted her and from there he went straight to
Manikkavachakar and fell at his feet. Manikkavachakar lifted
him with great respect, and enquired of his welfare. The
king entreatingly said, ‘Please forgive me and rule this
kingdom yourself.’ Manikkavachakar, looking at the king,
said with kindness, ‘Appah! (a term of endearment) As I have
already agreed to serve the Lord, I cannot be bothered with
the problems of ruling a kingdom. Please do not mistake
me. Rule the kingdom yourself looking after the welfare of
the people. Henceforth you will have nothing to worry
about.’ So saying, smilingly, he put on the dress of a
sannyasin, went about visiting holy places singing the praise
of Siva. There are several stories like this.”
NAGAMMA: “When was the Tiruvachakam written?”
BHAGAVAN: “No. He never wrote. He merely went about
singing his songs.”
NAGAMMA: “Then how did Tiruvachakam get to be
written?”
BHAGAVAN: Oh that! He was going from one place to
another until he came to Chidambaram. While witnessing
Nataraja’s dance he started singing heart-melting songs and
stayed in that place itself. Then one day Nataraja, with a
view to making people know the greatness of
Manikkavachakar and to bless those people with such an
excellent collection of hymns, went to the house of
Manikkavachakar in the night, in the guise of a brahmin. He
was received cordially and when asked for the purpose of
the visit, the Lord smilingly and with great familiarity asked,
‘It seems you have been singing Hymns during your visit to
the sacred places of pilgrimage and that you are doing it
here also. May I hear them? I have been thinking of coming
and listening to you for a very long time but could not find
the required leisure. That is why I have come here at night.

I suppose you don’t mind. Can you sing? Do you remember
them all?’ ‘There is no need to worry about sleep. I shall
sing all the songs I remember. Please listen’. So saying
Manikkavachakar began singing in ecstasy. The Lord in the
guise of a brahmin, sat down there writing the songs on palm
leaves. As Manikkavachakar was in ecstasy he hardly noticed
the brahmin who was taking down the songs. Singing on and
on, he completely forgot himself in the thought of God and
ultimately became silent. The old brahmin quietly
disappeared.

“At daybreak, the dikshitar (priest) came to the Nataraja
Temple as usual to perform the morning puja and as he
opened the doors he found in front of the Nataraja idol a
palm-leaf book on the doorstep. When the book was opened
and scrutinised there were in it not only the words
‘Tiruvachakam’, it was also written that the book was written
as it was dictated by Manikkavachakar. It was signed below
‘Tiruchitrambalam’, i.e., Chidambaram. The stamp of Sri
Nataraja also was there below the signature. Thereupon, all
the temple priests gathered in great surprise and sent word
to Manikkavachakar, showed him the Tiruvachakam, and the
signature of Nataraja and asked him to tell them about the
genesis of the hymns.

“Manikkavachakar did not say anything but asked them
to accompany him, went to the temple of Nataraja and
standing opposite to the Lord said, ‘Sirs, the Lord in front
of us is the only answer to your question. He is the answer.’
After having said that, he merged into the Lord.”
As he narrated the story, Bhagavan’s voice got choked.

Unable to speak any more he remained in ecstatic silence.