Great Saints and Teachers

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This section will provide information about great saints and teachers. In this section we provide information about two great saints - (1) thondar-adi-p-podi-azhvaar, (2) thiru-mazhisai-azhvaar. Azhwars are mystic saints who are blessed with divine knowledge by the Lord, and whose outpourings known as the divya-prabhandam (divine verses) are venerated as the highest source of devotional/philosophical knowledge.

 

 

thondar-adi-p-podi-azhvar :

Literally translated, the meaning of the Azhvar's name is the Azhvar who is "dust of the feet of the devotees of the Lord". This is a tamil name. The equivalent in sanskrit is "Bhaktangrirennu".His original name was Vipra-Narayana.Vipra-narayana was born near Sri Rangam, and was brought up by his parents to be a devotee of the Lord. After his childhood, he moved to Sri Rangam, and started performing service laced with deep devotion to the Lord of SriRangam - Lord Ranganatha. His primary means of service was collecting flowers and basil leaves, making garlands out of them and offering it for adoring the Lord everyday. While living such a devout life, a dancer with some deceit and considerable effort, attracted him and made him fall in love with her. After Vipranarayana fell in love with her, she moved to a village near Sri

Rangam. Vipranarayana, in his illusion and demented state, forgot all about the Lord, and went to her house. She refused to let him in, and he stayed outside the house day and night praying for her to let him in. Seeing his state, the Lord and Lakshmi decided to change him. They enacted a few incidents, and Vipranarayana realized his wandering away from the truth and his true state of serving the Lord. He came back

to srIrangam, and to atone for all his sins, he took the name of thoNdar-adi-p-podi, and started performing service to ALL devotees, irrespective of where they came from. The Lord blessed him with diving knowledge; he gave us two works - thiru-p-paLLi-ezhuchchi and thiru-mAlai.

Thiru-p-paLLi-ezhuchchi literally translates to “the waking up of the diving”. It is sung everyday in most temples when the early morning rituals start. Thiru-mAlai translates into “divine garland”. It is an emotional outpouring on the Lord of Sri Rangam, and contains many verses where the Azhvaar thanks the Lord who blessed him with grace inspite of his many shortcomings.

 

thiru-mazhisai-AzhvAr :

This AzhvAr’s name is derived from the holy place where he lived - it is

called thiru-mazhisai, and is currently a suburb of the city of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1:place>Chennai</st1:place></st1:City> in

<st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>. His original name was Bhakti-sAra (the essence of devotion). This

AzhvAr practiced many different religions in his quest for the truth. He

got disillusioned with every one of them, and was fortunately, through

the divine will, taught by one of the earliest Azhvaars known as pEy-

AzhvAr. Bhakti-sAra found the truth in Vaishnavism, and became a great

devotee of Lord Sriman Narayana. His affection and concern for the

Lord, and his relationship with Him is legendary. The Lord of thiru-vehaa

(a place in current day kanchipuram), yathOkthakAri or sonna vaNNam

seydha perumAL (the Lord who did as instructed!) is said to have adhered

to this Azhvaar’s commands and have left the town for a day, and on the

Azhvaar’s commands, come back. Similarly, the Lord of thiru-k-kudandhai

(present day Kumbakonam, in Tamilnadu), Araavamudhan is said to have

listened to the Azhvaar’s pleas to stop getting up to welcome his

devotee, the Azhvaar who came there to worship Him. To this day, we

can see the Lord there in a posture that is between completely lying

down, and sitting. This AzhvAr gave us a composition called thiru-ch-

chanda-viruttam (chanda-viruttam is the name of a form of Tamil poetry;

thiru is added as it is holy poetry).