The 75 apostles of God-intoxication.

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

I am writing this as a partial response to the request of Kumaraguru

Iyer to enlighten him "about the Festival OF Sixty three devotees

(Sixty three Nayanmar) festival celeberated at Mylapore

Kabaleeswarar Temple. That is "ARUBATHU MOOVER UTSAVAM". It is a

pleasure to talk about these great Giants of Spirituality.

 

I have added the 12 Vaishnava Alvars also, because they all belong

to the same category of Superlative bhakti.

 

Most of these 75 apostles of God-intoxication came from the Tamil

country. They were all apostles of God-intoxication who transmitted

their divine infatuation to millions. The last of them lived in the

9th century C.E. For all these, religion was a poignant human

experience of togetherness with either Lord Vishnu (in the case of

the Alvars) or Lord Siva (in the case of the Nayanmars). Some of

them were superlatively gifted singers as well. They have left

behind them an imperishable legacy of devotional poetry rarely

parallelled in quantity or quality before or after. They revered the

Vedic texts, knew the principal Puranas, avocated the recitation of

God's varied names, strongly recommended meditation on his different

forms and the Mantras associated with Him and literally lived by

worshipping Him in the temples all over the land of the Tamils. They

gave expression to the purest love of God and are most reverently

recited in all Hindu temples that have a Tamil origin and by all

Tamil Hindu families who believe in worship as an important daily

routine.

 

In addition the literary value of all this poetry is great as is

shown by the fact that this massive collection of 20000 verses (4000

Vaishnava hymns and 16000 Saiva hymns) outweighs all other

literature produced during this period so much that historians of

Tamil literature have taken the liberty of designating this period

(6th to 10th century C.E.) the age of Devotional Literature. In

addition to the attractive poetry that this literature contains, the

content, which is at the same time impassioned and philosophical,

cuts across all barriers of caste and class, and therefore attracts

one and all to the faith.

 

This Bhakti literature has in no small measure contributed to the

establishment and sustenance of a culture that broke away from the

ritual-oriented Vedic and elitistic religion and transformed it into

a religion of the masses rooted in Devotion as the only path for

salvation. This resurgence of Bhakti came in such a massive way that

it may be compared to the Renaissance of the sixteenth century in

Europe. It challenged the orthodoxy in its strongest sphere, namely

the cognitive, by demystifying the myths associated with the

rigidities of caste system, domination of priestly hierarchy and

mindless proliferation of rituals.

 

While north India produced Saints who wrote poetry and sang

devotional music like Mirabai, Kabir and Surdas, they were not

immortalised in art or worshipped in temples. Saints of the western

world are frequently portrayed in art, but their presence in

churches and cathedrals does not seem to be universal . By contrast,

icons of these 12 Vaishnava and 63 Saiva south Indian saints were

invariably commissioned by the Vishnu and Siva temples respectively.

They were placed in prominent positions and were accorded ritual

worship. To this day these saints remain a living tradition. Their

images are carried in processions during festivals along with the

main deities of the temples. Sometimes there are festivals

exclusively for them. The arubathu moovar fvestival at the Mylapore

temple is a famous one in this category.Their hymns are chanted in

homes and at a variety of ceremonial gatherings including secular

performances of dance and music.

 

Among the imperishable legacy of literature they together have left

behind in devotional Tamil poetry -- nAlAyira prabandham , tevAram

and tiruvAchagam are treasured by the Tamils like the Vedas in

Sanskrit. These have been rarely equalled either in quantity or in

quality ever after.

The one held in greatest esteem among the Alvars is Nammalvar. He is

the 'soul' of the twelve Alvars. Tradition dates him at 3102 B.C.

but scholars ascribe him to the seventh century A.D. He sang of God

and trumpeted about Him because he simply could not resist that urge

in him. His contribution to the four thousand prabandhams is as many

as 1352. He poured the cream of the vedas into his songs. Next in

line is Perialvar who delighted in worshipping the Lord as mother,

nurse, devotee and lady love. To Andal, the divine gift to him in

the form of a daughter is attributed the tiruppAvai, a most

beautiful string of 30 verses giving expression to the purest love

of God -- equivalent to the love of the cowherdesses of Brindavan

for Lord Krishna in mythological times.

 

The foremost among the Nayanmars are four: Tirunaavukkarasu-

naayanar, also known more popularly as Appar, has his miracles

chronicled everywhere in Saiva literature and history. His soul-

stirring songs are clear and emphatic and show him as an exemplary

devotee of the Lord. His junior contemporary, Tiru-jnaana-sambandar,

was a wandering minstrel who sang poems after poems in his very

short life of 16 years and triumphantly re-established the Saiva

branch of Hinduism in opposition to religions like Buddhism and

Jainism. Sundarar, was in such great friendly intimacy with the

Lord without ever being oblivious of His Divinity, that he made use

of His services even for settling domestic quarrels; he was the

first to sing the praise of the sixty-three Nayanmars.

Manickavachagar is the fourth whose unique bridal mysticism,

undivided loyalty and exclusive devotion to the Lord, find immortal

expression in his exquisite poems like tiruvAchagam, which is a work

of devotion-cum-wisdom par excellence known to melt even the hardest

of hearts. To this day these 75 saints are a living tradition.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins

profvk