Spiritual Stories by Ramana

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MANIKKAVACHAKAR

 

MANIKKAVACHAKAR WAS BORN in a village called Vaadavur (Vaatapuri) in

Pandya Desa. Because of that people used to call him Vaadavurar. He

was sent to school very early. He read religious books, absorbed the

lessons therein, and became noted for his devotion to Siva, as also

his kindness to living beings. Having heard about him, the Pandya king

sent for him, made him his Prime Minister and conferred on him the

title of “Thennavan Brahmarayan†i.e., Leader among brahmins in the

south. Though he performed the duties of a minister with tact and

integrity, he had no desire for material happiness. His mind was

always absorbed in spiritual matters. Feeling convinced that for the

attainment of jnana, the grace of the guru is essential, he kept on

making enquiries about it. Once the Pandya king directed the minister

to buy a few good horses and bring them to him. As he was already in

search of a guru, Manikkavachakar felt that it was a good opportunity

and started with his retinue, carrying with him the required amount of

gold. He visited all the temples on the way and reached a village

called Tiruperundurai. For about a year before that, Parameswara had

assumed the form of a school teacher and was teaching the poor

children of the village seated on a street pial, near the temple. He

had his meal which consisted of only cooked green vegetables, in the

house of his pupils everyday by turn.

 

Well aware of the mental maturity of Manikkavachakar, Iswara anxiously

awaited his arrival. By the time Manikkavachakar came, Iswara assumed

the form of a Siddha Purusha (realised soul) and sat under a Kurundai

(yellow amanth) tree within the temple. Many sannyasis had gathered

around him. Manikkavachakar came to the temple, had darsan of the Lord

in the sanctum sanctorum, and while doing pradakshina around the

temple, saw the Siddha Purusha. He was thrilled at the sight and tears

welled up in his eyes. Spontaneously, he lifted his hands above his

head in salutation and prostrated at the feet of Iswara. He then got

up, and prayed that he, a humble being, may also be accepted as a

disciple. Having come to earth solely to bestow grace on

Manikkavachakar, Iswara, through His mere look, gave him jnana upadesa

(initiation into knowledge). Manikkavachakar felt indescribable

happiness and the upadesa given by Iswara took deep root in his heart.

With folded hands and tears of joy, Manikkavachakar went round the

guru, offered salutations, stripped himself of all his official dress

and ornaments, placed them near the guru and stood before him with

only a kowpeenam on. A deeply felt inspiration resulted in his

spontaneously composing and singing beautiful and moving devotional

songs in praise of his guru. Iswara was pleased, and addressing him as

‘Manikkavachaka’, commanded him to remain there, worshiping Him and

singing His praise. His mission fulfilled, the Lord disappeared.

 

Fully convinced that he who had blessed him was no other than Iswara

Himself, Manikkavachakar was stricken with unbearable grief and fell

on the ground weeping and saying, “Oh! My lord, Why did you go away

leaving me here?†The villagers were very much surprised at this and

began a search for the person who was till then working in their

village as a schoolteacher but could not find him anywhere. Then they

realised that it was the Lord’s leela. Some time later,

Manikkavachakar got over his grief, decided to act according to the

injunctions of Iswara, sent away his retinue to Madurai, spent all the

gold with him on the temple and stayed there alone.

 

Hearing all that had happened, the king immediately sent an order to

Manikkavachakar to return to Madurai, but then how could he go to the

king without the horses?

 

If he wanted to purchase them, where was the money? Not knowing what

to do, he prayed to Lord Siva for help. That night Lord Siva appeared

to him in a dream, gave him a priceless gem and said, “Give this to

the king and tell him the horses will come on the day of the Moola

star in the month of Sravanaâ€. Startled at that vision he opened his

eyes but the Lord was not there. Manikkavachakar was however,

overjoyed at what had happened, put on his official dress and went to

Madurai. He gave the gem to the king, discussed the auspicious time

when the horses would be arriving and then anxiously waited for the

day. He did not however, resume his official duties. Though his body

was in Madurai, his mind was in Tirupperundurai. He was merely biding

time. The Pandyan king, however, sent his spies to Perundurai and

found out that there were no horses there meant for the king and that

all the money meant for their purchase had been spent in the

renovation of the temple. So he immediately imprisoned Manikkavachakar

making him undergo all the trials and tribulations of prison life.

Meanwhile, as originally arranged, on the day of the Moola star,

Iswara assumed the guise of a horseman transformed the jackals of the

jungle into horses, and brought them to the king. The king was

astonished at this, took delivery of the horses and according to the

advice of the keeper of the stables, had them tied up at the same

place where all his other horses were kept. He thanked the horseman

profusely and after sending him away with several presents, released

Manikkavachakar from prison with profuse apologies. The same night,

the new horses changed into their original forms, killed all the

horses in the stables, ate them, created similar havoc in the city and

fled. The king grew very angry, branded Manikkavachakar a trickster

and put him back into prison. Soon, in accordance with Iswara’s

orders, the waters of the river Vaigai rose in floods and the whole of

the city of Madurai was under water. Alarmed at that, the king

assembled all the people and ordered them to put up bunds around the

river.

 

For that purpose, he ordered every citizen to do a certain amount of

work with the threat of dire consequences, should they fail to do

their allotted work.

 

There was in Madurai an old woman by name ‘Pittuvani Ammaiyar’. She

was a pious devotee of Lord Siva. She was living alone earning her

livelihood by daily preparing and selling ‘Pittu’ (Pittu is sweetened

powdered rice pressed into conical shapes). She had no one to do her

allotted work on the river bund nor had she the money to hire a person

to do it. She was therefore greatly worried and cried. “Iswara! What

shall I do?â€

 

Seeing her helplessness, Iswara came there in the guise of a coolie,

with a spade on his shoulder, and called out, “Granny, granny, do you

want a coolie?†“Yesâ€, she said, “But I do not have even a paisa in my

hand to pay you. What to do?†He said, “I do not want any money and

would be satisfied if you gave me a little Pittu to eat. I shall then

do the allotted work on the river bund.â€

 

Pleased with that offer, she began making Pittu, but they did not come

out in full shape but were broken. Surprised at this she gave all the

bits to the coolie. He ate as many of them as he could and went away

saying that he would attend to the bund-raising work. Surprisingly,

the dough with the old woman remained intact even though she had

prepared and given bits of the Pittu to the coolie. The coolie went to

the work-spot but instead of doing the work lay down there idly coming

in the way of others doing their work.

 

The king went round to inspect the progress of the work and found that

the portion allotted to Ammaiyar remained unattended to. On enquiry,

his servants told him all about the pranks of that coolie. The king

got infuriated, called the coolie and said, “Instead of doing the

allotted work, you are lying down and singingâ€. So saying, he hit the

coolie on the back with a cane he had in his hand. The hit not only

recoiled on the king himself, but on all living beings there, and all

of them suffered the pain on that account. The king immediately

realised that the person hit by him was Parameswara Himself in the

guise of a coolie. The king stood aghast. Parameswara vanished and

soon a voice from the sky said, “Oh king! Manikkavachakar is my

beloved devotee. I myself did all this to show you his greatness.

Release him and seek his blessings.â€

 

Soon after hearing that voice, the king went to see Manikkavachakar

and on the way, he stepped into the house of Pittuvani Ammaiyar to see

her. By that time she had already got into a vimanam (a heavenly car

moving through the skies) and was on her way to Kailas. The king was

greatly surprised and saluted her and from there he went straight to

Manikkavachakar and fell at his feet. Manikkavachakar lifted him with

great respect, and enquired of his welfare. The king said, “Please

forgive me and rule this kingdom yourself.†Manikkavachakar, looking

at the king, said with kindness, “Appah! (a term of endearment) As I

have already agreed to serve the Lord, I cannot be bothered with the

problems of ruling a kingdom. Please do not mistake me. Rule the

kingdom yourself looking after the welfare of the people. Henceforth

you will have nothing to worry about.â€

 

So saying, smilingly, he put on the dress of a sannyasin and went

about visiting holy places singing the praise of Siva.