Home > Devotees > 63 Nayanmar Stories

chEthi n^Adu was one of the ancient kingdoms with the town thirukkovalUr - where Lord shiva destroyed the demon an^dhakAsuran, the form of ignorance - as it's capital. That kingdom made its fame indelible in the history when the king meypporuL n^AyanAr, whose life was an example of tolerance and doing good even to enemy, ruled it.

He had his heart engaged in hailing hara and hands in helping His devotees. He served them as the way they required, ruled the country with law and justice bringing peace to the country and devotion bringing peace to the minds of the people. His valour allowed no enemy to raise against the kingdom. He considered the wealth of loving the luminant feet of Lord shiva to be the greatest of all. The graceful form of the devotees made him do anything for them.

muththa n^Athan was the king who made all futile efforts to win meypporuLAr in the battle-field. He finally realised that fox can't beat the elephant in the fight. As the sin of taking revenge went high in his mind, he started enjoying the rotton smell of crooked ways. He knew that the meypporuLAr salutes and serves the devotees smeared with holy ash and other great symbols of Lord shankara. That spineless coward called muththan^Athan wanted to exploit this superior quality of that devotee.

He covered his body with the holy form of devotees smearing ash, with matted hair, covered a knife in a book he held in hand, as the darkness coming in the shadow of light. He arrived in the dark night in the palace of meypporuLAr with his mind darker than the one outside. Thinking him as a devotee of the Lord, the guards at many doors on the way permitted him with salutations. When he arrived at the room where the king was sleeping with dreams too of serving the devotees, the personal guard of the king by name thaththan told him that the king is taking rest and requested him to wait. But muththa n^Athan went ahead saying that he was coming from himAlayam to meet the king. thaththan couldn't stop him as he was in the form of devotee. The queen who saw him immediately woke up the king. The king pleased instead of getting angry for being disturbed at his private place, bowed down as soon as he saw the form of a devotee. muththa nAthan told him "I have got a rare Agama given by your God. I came to explain you that. So ask your wife to leave and we should be alone". The king with untainted heart asked his wife to leave, gave him a nice seat, sat over the ground and bowed down, to raise up in our hearts. The crooked enemy like opening the book took the knife and pierced the body of the king and pierced himself into the gloom stricken Hell. Who won ? Even if he lost his life, it was meypporuLAr who had a firm belief that the holy form of devotees is the Truth and winning his place under the Graceful feet of God and won the hearts of the devotees inspiring them.

thaththan who doubted muththa nAthan from the beginning leaped immediately into the room and raised his sword to kill the crooked. But meypporuLAr stopped him saying "thaththA! He is one among us". thaththan cried and asked him to order his duty. meypporuLAr asked him to guard the devotee of the Lord from others till he crosses the frontier. Unable to go against the word of his loving king thaththan guarded the wicked to the frontier. meypporuLAr held his breath till thaththan came back saying that muththa n^Athan crossed the frontier without any trouble. He praised thaththan for his action and advised his courtmen to uphold the good deed of loving the devotees and respecting the holy symbols of the Lord. The truthfulness of his love for the form of devotees led him to the Truth that dances in the great golden hall of thillai. Let the greatness of meypporuLAr who guarded even the enemy who took his life in a crooked way, just because he was in the holy form of devotees, stay in the mind.

gurupUjai : kArthikai uththiram