Arunagiri Naadhar (5)

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After this he visited various temples. One day He

heard a divine voice from the sky which said, "Come to

Vayalur." He went there and had a good darshan of Muruga,

and he exclaimed, "I wish I had a 1000 eyes to fully

visualize your Presence !". On his holy pilgrimage, he sang

16,000 songs. These songs are collectively called the

"Thirupugazh". <br><br>Since there were no good means of

transportation, in those days, He obtained the power to travel

subtley (thro' sukhma sharira or subtle body) to

whichever place he wishes to go, and then resume his gross

body there. He also had some herbs, which when eaten

will quench the hunger. Hence there was no need to

find food. Thus he went to various temples, and sang a

myriad songs. On some occassions, ppl found a dog follow

him, and whenever he used to sing, the dog used to

scratch something on the ground. On seeing it later, the

ppl found that the dog scratched the song that

Arunagiri Naadhar sang. The other songs were recorded by

Arunagiri Naadhar himself on barks/leaves. These songs are

still there in the Bangalore Museum. The other

remaining songs were recorded by the disciples. But of the

16,000 songs, only 1367 remain now. <br><br>There was a

scholar by name Villiputhurar. He mastered Tamil

literature, grammar, prose and poetry. He became the royal

poet of the king of 'Kongu'.<br>He composed an

excellent piece of literature consisting of 4339 songs.

This is called 'Villi Bharatham'. Hence the king

rewarded him with a royal sword. Slowly his knowledge and

parallely his pride too grew day by day. He called various

other scholars for a competition, and the party who

lost had to cut off one ear with this royal sword. All

the other scholars whom he called, lost and cut off

one of their ears. His pride grew even more. He came

to hear of Arunagiri Naadhar, and decided to call

him too. Three rounds were held in Thiruvannamalai.

(the mountain where Ramana Maharshi lived too).