Thirunavukkarachu Nayanar - part III  (The sage meets the saint prodigy)

The sage who won the evils by love, undertook many pilgrimages to salute, sing and serve the strange Lord shiva in His abodes. He got the blessings of the God in thiruveNNai n^allUr, thirukkOvalUr . He went to thiruth thUN^kAnai mAdam of the Lord with wide matted hair. He requested that Golden feet to put the emblems of the Lord - thrishUlam and holy bull - on his shoulders as a mark of his slavery to the God and thus side lining the comments of his earlier bad association. (" PonnAr thiruvadikku "). Accepting the prayer of his pure heart which had the Lord in an indelible marvelous fashion, the Lord made one of His soldiers to place those holy marks on him. The great and humble sage submitted himself to the Supreme and thanked from the bottom of the heart for blessing his request. While serving the Lord there, he worshiped the nearby abodes thiru araththuRai, thiru mudhukunRam . Praying the other abodes and proceeding towards the east he prostrated to the Lord in thiru n^ivAkkarai .

Yearning to see the thiruth thillai (chithambaram) where the Lord magnificently dances by which movements the entire world functions, the mount of knowledge thirun^Avukkarachar arrived there. He reached there crossing the fertile fields flowing with water that appeared like the fields melted at the marvelous lovely form of that seer. The devotees of that coveted town came to salute the sage. With them he entered the town where the harmony of reciting vEdas heightens the thinking and the service of the slaves of God is superior as they try to do them in the ideal way - flawless. Saluting the seven stage western tower of the temple, with the thrust to pray the dancing Lord going up he entered to see the kanaka sabhai and the God was dancing in his heart. Hands were up on the head folded; Eyes showering tears of joy; The blessed body kept prostrating; The hairs in the body stood up in the height of emotions; The love and interest crossed the limits on seeing the feet that are synonymous with beauty that were not found by even brahma and vishNu. The spring of his wonderful words came out with nectar as he sang many hymns on Him there. Doing the service of cleaning the temple with deep love, he went and worshiped the Lord at thiruvEtkaLam, thiruk kazippAlai .

Thinking of the mind stealing Dancing God of thiruth thillai he came back singing "How can I, the slave, forget the dancing marvel even for the smallest denomination of time ?!". While he was doing determined service to the Lord there, he came to hear the gem like hymns of thirunyAnachampan^dhar (1) through the devotees. He wanted to salute the great small child who had the milk of the mother of the world and sang pointing to the God, "He is my Lord" in the budding age. Immediately he started off from there saluting the Lord of thiruth thillai. He worshiped the God in thirun^AraiyUr and arrived at the abode where the Lord came in a boat at the time of a deluge - chIrkAzi . On hearing that the old respectable sage, the king of God, thirun^Avukkarachar was coming with the bunch of devotees the son of God, thirunyAnachampan^dhar with a huge interest to prostrate him came forward. The sage fell down on the prodigy's feet with unfalling love, the immense kid prostrated to him back in all obedience and called with great respect, "apparE" (Oh! father!) to which the sage responded, "I, thy slave". The God had shown the greatest boon on the devotees who were present there to worship the two greatest unparalleled saints.

The two wonderable saints who are like the two eyes of shaivam arrived in the abode of the eight armed Lord. Subduing to the tower of the Lord in chIrkAzi they went in to worship the Wonder with woman to His side. The prodigy requested appar perumAn to sing a song on the Lord. With deep devotion he sang on the Lord. They stayed with growing love for each other for many days in that town. appar wanted to pray the God in various places on the banks of river kAvEri . The great kid accompanied him to thiruk kOalakkA and returned with great love and respect for him.

appar continued his travel to worship the lovely places of the Lord thirukkaruppaRiyalUr, thiruppunkUr, thirun^IdUr, thirukkuRukkai, thirun^inRiyUr, thirun^anippaLLI, thiruchchemponpaLLI, mayilAduthuRai, thiruththuruththi, thiruvELvikkudi, thiruedhirkoLpAdi, thirukkOdikA, thiruvAvaduthiuRai, thiruvidaimarudhUr, thirun^AgEchchuram, pazaiyARai. In thiruchchaththimuRRamhe prayed to the Lord to grace by placing His holy feet on his head before the dreadful death can approach. The Lord who won the death asked him to come to thirun^allUR . There He put His vEdas praised feet that resides in the minds of the devotees on the head of the great sage to his ecstasy. He sang, "The Lord of thirun^allUr placed His holy foot which is wet with the honey that drips from the blooming selected good flowers that dhEvAs offered, on my head". ( n^inain^dhurukum adiyArai ). He was happy like the poor who got the indiminishing wealth and did the services to sha.nkara . He saluted thirukkarukAvUr, thiruvAvUr, thiruppAlai and was worshiping the Lord of thirun^allUr all the times.

Receiving the blessings of the Lord he went to serve the luminant Lord at the town thirup pazanam who dances in the dark forests. Worshiping the wonderful temples of the Thunder Haired around thiruppazanam he reached thiN^gaLUr . He heard and saw the superb services of the devotee who is superior among who chant vEdas, called appUdhi adikaLAr (2). He was doing all the services in an adorable fashion in the name of thirun^Avukkarachar. appar went to his house and humbly told that he was the person who was rescued by the mercy of the God from the ignorance of Jainism. appUdhi adikaLar was shocked with joy to see the sage he salutes. He pleaded to the seer to accept the feast at his place. He appeared like a person who got the greatest boon when the sage accepted it. His family prepared the most delicious food and fine arrangements for the feast. When everything was ready appUdhi adikaLAr asked his son who had the name of the sage himself to get banana leaf for serving the food. The fate that was waiting as a snake in the garden bit the boy. But the young great boy who was in no way less in devotion to the Lord and devotees rushed back to his mother to give the leaves. The couple of unthinkable dedication hid their loving son's body and proceeded to host the feast. Coming to know all the things that happened appar was appalled by their sacrifice. He prayed to the Source of everything and got the child back to life out of Its grace. He made appUdhi adikaLAr happy by having food at his place who was feeling bad for delaying the seer's feast. appar praised the his greatness in the hymn he sang as they went to thiruppazanam.

He prayed the Lord in the places near thiruchchORRuththuRai , continued the services at thirup pazanam. He came to the southern bank of river kAvEri to prostrate to the Lord of thirun^allUr. While serving the God there he wanted to worship thiruvArUr the abode of thyAgEsha . He went to thiruvArUr worshiping the Lord including in the places pazaiyARai, thiruvalanychuzi, thirukkudamUkku, thirun^AlUr, thenthiruchchERai, thirukkudavAyil, thirun^aRaiyUr, pAlUr, thenthiruvAnychiyam, peruvELUr . With the roar of the devotees to welcome the sage who floated on the sea winning the sabotage of some Jains, he arrived there. He entered thinking him as a servant of those servants of God. He saluted the dhEvAchiriyan and went to worship the Lord in the anthill - the altar of the temple. With the tears of joy showering from the sacred eyes he saluted the Lord and sang His fame. He stayed in dhEvAchiriyan with adiyArs cleaning the surroundings of the temple praising It always. He sang the service of n^amin^an^dhi adikaL (3) and saluted the thiru araneRi . He worshiped the God in thiruvalivalam, kIzvELUr, kanRAppUr and returned back to thiruvArUr. He worshiped the thiruvAdhirai festival (4) when the Lord comes in procession blessing the dEvas, sages and one who salutes. He stayed there for many days unable to part the Lord of thiruvArUr.

thirun^Avukkarachu n^AyanAr - part IV (Taking the glory of God to roots)