maRRai nam kaamangaL maaRRu- (PART 27)

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The Story of Saint Poosalar: Conquest of “kaama”

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through Sublimation of Desire --

“bhakti yOga”

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About 20 kms outside the city-limits of Chennai,

S.India, there is a town called Tiru-ninravoor. It has

a hoary history. It was the native hearth of one among

the 63 celebrated saints ("arupatthu-moovar") in the

Saivite pantheon of "bhakti" mystics called

"nAyanmArs". These "nAyanmArs" are to the Saivite

tradition of S.India what the 12 "AzhwArs" are to the

SriVaishnavite. Tiruninravoor was wherefrom Saint

Poosalar Nayanmar hailed many, many centuries ago.

 

If Tondaradipodi AzhwAr's early life is a glorious

essay on how "karma-yOga" can conquer the "kaama" of

wild human sexual instinct, Poosalar NAyanmAr's life

is an equally vivid example of how "bhakti-yOga" may

be used for the same purpose -- in a different but not

too dissimilar situation.

 

*************

 

Poosalar's life is indeed the perfect case-study one

may turn to in order to understand the potential the

psychology of "Desire Sublimation" has to bring about

total transformation of human behaviour.

 

As explained already in earlier posts, "Sublimation"

is that which "directs the energy of a powerful human

impulse (or desire) from its primitive or gross aims

to one that is ethically or culturally higher". The

Vedantic yoga of "bhakti" uses the technique of

"Sublimation" to help Man conquer, even transcend,

deep-rooted feelings and passions of "kaama"

associated with the human "homing instinct" --- an

instinct which, in its self-destructive power and

intensity, is second only to Man's wildest and most

unruly urge -- "kaama" the sexual urge.

 

*************

 

Poosalar was born in Tiruninravoor which in those days

resembled typical Brahminical hamlets. There was a

large temple in the centre of the town. There was a

priestly quarter called the "agrahAram" abutting the

temple where the resident Brahmin families plied their

traditional occupation of "vedAdhyAyana", the chanting

of Vedic scriptures and the performance of Vedic

sacrificial rites.

 

Surrounding the "agraharam" one found meandering

streets and alleys going out all sides where other

communities -- mostly farming, weaving and craftsmen

families -- lived and worked.

 

All around the whole hamlet, for miles and miles, lay

the rich and sprawling rice fields and pastures where

the ordinary residents of Tiruninravoor carried on and

earned their prosperous and virtuous livelihoods.

 

Poosalar, (writes Sekkizhar the author of

"peria-purAnam", the Saivite hagiography of the

"nayanmArs") grew up in such prosperous and virtuous

surroundings in the town called Tiruninravoor.

 

*************

 

The story goes that as Poosalar grew up, he too like

any young man of his age in those (as well as these)

days, nurtured a deep desire in his heart for a

"beautiful big house". This was of course natural

"human homing-instinct" -- that which (as explained

in earlier postings in this series) was as much a

natural urge of man as the sexual instinct

("kaama")is. But Poosalar knowing well that he was a

man of very, very modest means soon realized that his

great dreams of building a big, lovely home for

himself were wholly unrealistic if not sheer fantasy.

 

Though Poosalar knew a "dream home" for himself was

beyond his reach in life, he did not let the

disappointment thwart him from pursuing his original

desire, his original "kaama" to somehow conceive,

construct and erect a great big architectural

structure which would eventually turn out to be the

pride and cynosure of Tiruninravoor and the cause for

its people's celebration.

 

So Poosalar, who forsook the dream of building a "nice

big house" for himself, did the next best thing. He

began dreaming of building a "big, beautiful house"

for the Almighty .... that is, he dreamt of erecting a

great temple for God in his native town. A temple that

would stand so tall, imposing and grand, it would put

Tiruninravoor on the architectural map of the land!

 

With the new dream, the fresh new fantasy now haunting

him day and night, Poosalar began to look around for

resources that needed to be raised if such a project

as grand as that which had seized his mind were to be

realized.

 

This was indeed the first level of "sublimation" to

which Poosalar's personal desire for a mere home was

subjected. It raised his lower desire ('kaama') for a

personal home to the slightly higher psychological

goal larger than his original one --- i.e. a desire, a

special form of "kaama", which grew suddently from its

"primitive form" of a desire for a personal abode into

a "culturally higher form" of a deep desire to build

a great big temple as an Abode for God.

 

*************

 

Poor Poosalar, unfortunately, was in for more

disappointment. When he went about the hamlet of

Tiruninravoor, sharing his idea (of a great big temple

for the Lord) with other citizens and fellow-mates,

and he began too to appeal to them for financial and

other means of support and patronage, he met with

little success. He tried his best to enthuse them --

he drew little sketches of what he had in mind, told

them how such a great temple could make Tiruninravoor

famous, how they could earn "pUnyam" for themselves

and their families by espousing the worthy cause.

Alas, to no avail. People either were cold towards

Poosalar's idea or, much worse, they downright

ridiculed his grand vision as that of a madman.

 

It was then, in the face of such crushing

disappointment and public ridicule, that Poosalar

turned Godward. He could not give up his great desire

--- his great dream of "kaama" --- for a Temple of God

in Tiruninravoor. And yet he was forsaken by fellowmen

who had laughed at his idea. Poosalar, as last resort,

beseeched the Divine for succour when all hope of

human help was gone.

 

The next step, thus, in the process of "sublimation"

of Poosalar's great Desire was about to be played

out... It is a story of divine will at play --- what

in Vedantic lore is called "bhagavath-leela". It was a

process called "bhakti".

 

The story of this next process, the great tale of how

"bhakti" seized Poosalar's heart and transformed the

ordinary nature of his earthly gross "kaama" into one

of extrarordinary spiritual height and power is best

told in the words of Sekkizhar himself in the

"peria-purAnam".

 

***************

(to be continued)

 

Regards,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

 

 

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