Hindu Article-Unalloyed love of God

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Unalloyed love of God

 

 

CHENNAI NOV.21 . It is not proper and it may even be

considered a blasphemy to compare one saint with

another. But as each one belongs to a different

background, the circumstances of life and individual

experience of God vary. So their lives offer a

spectrum of approaches and from this perspective it is

spiritually beneficial and inspiring to peruse the

biographical accounts of the lives of the God-realised

as in the case of the Periya Puranam, which is a

documentation of the 63 Nayanmars. One of the earliest

in point of time and also perhaps the most rapid to

progress spiritually (he envisioned God in six days),

Kannappa Nayanmar is remembered as the very

personification of sacrifice for in his overwhelming

love of God he did not hesitate to gouge out his eyes

one after another to arrest the bleeding in the Lingam

he worshipped.

 

Thinnappan, as he was known before he realised God,

belonged to the aboriginal tribal people of the hilly

region of Kalahasti, who pursued hunting as

profession. His background was not conducive to

spiritual pursuit as his fellow men were simple folks

who hunted and killed as a way of life. But, the ways

of the Almighty are indeed mysterious for he became

the chosen one for His grace. As was the custom among

his tribe he succeeded his father at the age of 16 and

set out on his ceremonial hunt with his folks, which

proved to be the turning point in his life. As he

neared the shrine atop the hill he was overcome with

love of God and he learnt from his friend that a

priest worshipped there. Making a mental note of the

rituals the priest performed this simpleton started

imitating them in his own way out of unconditional

love, which shocked the priest. But the Lord

interceded to make known Thinnappan's devotion to the

world, said Sri S. Radhakrishnan in his discourse.

 

A spiritual aspirant will be curious to know how the

spiritual transformation could have been wrought so

fast in Thinnappan's case. Sekkhizhar does not mention

it in the Periya Puranam but the Upamanyu Bhakti

Vilasa offers interesting insight. According to this

work, Arjuna was reborn as Thinnappan because he was

instrumental in Drona extracting a heavy price from

Ekalavya to keep his promise to Arjuna that none would

outshine him in archery. Arjuna also looked down upon

Ekalavya because he was a tribesman. Though he was

Lord Krishna's friend and was taught the truth by Him

because of his attitude he could get salvation only in

his next birth.

 

copy right: the Hindu-daily

 

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