Tirumoolar Sadasiva Brahmendra

Tirumoolar Sadasiva Brahmendra

Perhaps two of the greatest mystics that India has produced in its long history belong to the Tamil region. One was Tiru-moolar, a great saint, who is traditionally allotted a date of 3000 B.C. but is assigned to the period between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D. by scholars. His original name was Sundarar who lived as an enlightened ascetic right at the feet of the Lord Siva in His heavenly abode in Kailas, beyond the Himalayas. His contribution to posterity is the great work tirumandiram, consisting of 3000 verses, given out by him spontaneously every now and then when he came back to consciousness from his trance. The beauty of it is that he came back to consciousness only once a year! There is an interesting legend about this which has to be told.

The ascetic Sundarar once came down from the Himalayas and walked all the way down to South India to meet another great Saint Agastyar who is considered as the father of the Tamil language. In his wanderings he came across a herd of cows wailing and bellowing near a dead body. On examination he found that it was a cowherd who had died of snake-bite and the cows missed him rather badly. His ascetic dispassionate mind took compassion on the cows and he decided to humour them. He cast off his own body in a safe place in the hollow of a trunk, entered the body of the cowherd and lo and behold, the cowherd, Moolan by name, woke up. The cows and 'Moolan' (the saint in Moolan’s body) went home that evening. But the wife of the cowherd Moolan created problems because the ‘Moolan’ that had returned in the evening was totally indifferent to her. Finally a scene was created and the villagers of the neighbourhood had to intervene. When they all discovered that ‘Moolan’ had so cataclysmically ‘changed’ to a totally disinterested person as far as worldly affairs were concerned, they gave up and allowed ‘Moolan’ to go his way. He returned to the forest where he had left his original body so that he may ‘re-enter’ his body but did not find it there because some passers-by had already cremated it. Thus was the great Sundarar of Kailas imprisoned in the body of cowherd Moolan for ever.

Sundarar took this inconvenience as God’s will and continued his meditation remaining in that body. He came to be known from that time as tiru-moolar – the holy Moolan, the ending in ‘r’ signifying respect in the Tamil language. He was in such deep trance that he woke up only once a year and every time he woke up he gave out one stanza reflecting his spiritual experience, mood and enlightenment. This is the story of the birth of the massive work tirumandiram, which is actually a spiritual encyclopaedia. It contains a synthesis of all knowledge right from the Upanishadic times down to the then-modern days of devotional revival, goes through all the maze and mystery of yoga and tantra, contains very strong criticisms of ritualistic idolatry, pours out forthright condemnations of external gymnastics of occult practices, and expounds the esoteric significance of almost every kind of ritual and tradition. It is profound to the core, set in simple and cryptic style. The lilting Tamil in most of the verses can be enjoyed if you know the language. Like the Upanishads it admits of several meanings at the same time. The massiveness of the whole work does not admit of any justifiable summary. However, here are just a few samples, too tiny a selection to be representative of the massive work but still they can give the brilliance of the gem that is known as tirumandiram:



The child played ecstatic with his elephant proud,

He cared not it was made of wood,

Unplayful Man beheld but a lump of wood,

He missed, alas! The elephant’s form;

Even so, the Elements hide the Real from our sight,

But the Mystic’s eye pierces through the Elements and gets at – God.



They are fools who say: Control the five senses,

Even among the Immortals, none there is who can do so.

Lest, by controlling the senses I become inanimate,

I acquired the Wisdom enabling me not to struggle with sense-control.



In plenty do give to the deity housed in a temple,

But that does not relieve the misery of a living being;

Instead, do something to relieve that misery,

That reaches, for sure, the deity of the temple.



Once I thought the body was something vulgar and mean,

But now I know that inside the body and only through it,

Can I behold the Absolute.

What bliss I experienced, let the whole universe get it,

The sky-high Word of the Scriptures, if revealed,

This resident of the body, let it cognize;

The more it gets to it the more the enlightenment.



I looked and searched for two things;

One was myself and the other was my self.

Maybe myself was not different from my self,

The Self within me told me so; and that

Was how I got rid of the memory of me and myself.



Do good to others, all honours are thine;

The Divinity above will reward you for sure.

Alas, innumerable are those that know not

This simple path to the Divine;

And they slip down, ever and ever.



For the Sanctum of the heart the body is the Temple;

For the enshrined Divinity, the Word is the Gate.

For the discerning Mind the Soul is the Blessed God;

Disguised by the Light of the five Senses mischievous.



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May 5, '99 Copyright Ó V. Krishnamurthy

source: http://www.krishnamurthys.com/profvk/gohitvip/tirumoolar.html

Story of Saint Tirumular

by Kauai's Hindu Monastery

The monks continue working on “THE SEVEN MYSTIC GURUS,” the biographical stories of the Kailasa Paramparai. Today we share the story of how Tirumular walked out of the Himalayas as decreed by his guru, Maharishi Nandinatha. He went by foot to the deep south. Our story continues;

Entering the South of India

Once released by inner orders to depart, he proceeded on to Tiruvalankadu, from where he set out to Kanchipuram, in what is now Tamil Nadu, the land of the Tamil Dravidian people, one of the oldest Caucasian races on the planet. The first temple to be visited was a Siva sanctuary in Kanchipuram representing the earth element, where the healing powers of Lord Siva are pronounced, profound and famous. It was at the earth temple that he realized that it was among the Tamil people his mission was to take place. Yet, he was troubled by the fact that his physical body was of lighter complexion, taller than the Tamils, and that he was considered to be an outsider by all, and an intruder by some. Rishi Sundaranatha was dismayed and asked Lord Siva, at the temple of the earth element, how to find his way among the people that he was sent to bring his message to–the great Vedic-Agamic truths, the synthesis of Vedanta and Siddhanta, which was later to become the treatise of all times, loved and cherished by the Tamil people from then to now, in the twenty-first century, written in cryptic poetic outpourings.

Lord Siva said, “Wait. The solution shall be revealed.” Without a definite answer to his prayers, Sundaranatha trekked off to Chidambaram deeper in the South. At Chidambaram he stayed longer, having the darshans of God Siva’s anandatandavan dance. Here the young sannyasi’s heart and soul melted in love, and here, too, he moved daily with two other of his gurubhais, brother monks of Maharishi Nandinatha–sages Patanjali and Vyaghrapada. Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras, ultimate monist, and Vyaghrapada, foremost devotee and Siva bhaktar, deeply impressed Sundaranatha, who embraced his fellow disciples who had been sent South by Nandinatha several years before. Thereafter, Sundaranatha was to become the foremost spokesman of monistic theism, the Saiva path which radiates both Patanjali’s yogic attainment and Vyaghrapada’s yogic devotion of total theistic surrender.

His brother sannyasins soon availed him of the ins and outs of the local area and community. One day, walking about as he was wont to do, he entered a dense forest. There he stumbled upon an ancient Sivalinga and immediately fell to the ground in spontaneous surrender. It was a potent Linga, but small, about 50 centimeters high in its black granite bana. Sundaranatha’s worship, so perfectly unself-conscious, so oblivious of anything but the object of his homage which was inclusive of himself in some inexplicably joyous way, empowered that once-neglected Siva icon. He continued the worship, and today this Sivalinga is enshrined in a small shrine within the 35-acre Chidambaram Temple compound.

Sundaranatha Is Given a Cowherd’s Body

Leaving his brother monks in the sleepy village of Chidambaram, he crossed the Kaveri River and reached Tiruvavaduthurai, a Saiva center which has the honor of holding the samadhi shrine of this great Natha siddhar, though present-day managers of the sacred monastery say the disposition of his actual remains is not known. Lord Siva captured him here, and he was reluctant to leave.

Walking one day on the banks of the Kaveri, he came upon a herd of cows bellowing in distress, mourning the death of their cowherd, whose body lay lifeless nearby. Sundaranatha’s compassion proved overwhelming as he felt the pain of these berieved creatures. His soul reached out to assuage their distress. Rishi Sundaranatha wanted to bring solace to the cows. Being a great adept of siddha yoga, an accomplished raja yogi, he conceived a strategy to assume the herder’s body. He first looked for a place to hide his physical body and found a hollow log. Then crawling into the log, where his body would be safe, he entered a mesmeristic, cataleptic trance, stepped out in his astral body, walked over to the dead cowherd, whose name was Mular, lay down on top of the corpse, entered it and slowly brought it back to life. The first thing he saw upon reanimating Mular’s body was one of the most favored and intelligent cows, crying big tears from both eyes. These were tears of joy. All the cows now gathered round their beloved Mular, licking his face and body with their abrasive tongues and bellowing in bovine joy. After a time, being satisfied their cowherd was alive, they began to graze as usual, and the sight gladdened the heart of our Rishi. As evening fell, the cattle began walking back to the village, leading a newly embodied Mular behind them. Mular’s wife was waiting at the village gate for her husband, who was late. The woman was alone, with neither children nor relatives. She felt a strangeness in her husband and began to weep. Sundaranatha told her he had no connection with her whatsoever, and instead of entering the home, he went back to a monastery that he had passed on the way. Mular’s wife informed the villagers of her husband’s strange behavior, soliciting their aid. They approached the monastery, speaking with her supposed husband, whose deep knowledge and presence baffled them.

Returning to Mular’s wife, they told her that far from being in a state of mental instability, as she had described, he appeared to be a Siva yogi, whose greatness they could not fathom. Mular’s wife was sorely troubled, but she was also a chaste and modest woman and reconciled herself to the fact that her husband was somehow no longer the same person, and she prayed to Lord Ganesha for help. Soon the villagers began to call the transformed cowherd Tirumular, or “holy Mular.”

Eager now to be free of this unforeseen entanglement, Rishi Sundaranatha sought out the body he had left near the pasture. Returning to the hollow log, he looked inside and found that his body was not there. He searched for days and days, looking in every hollow log he could find, and even some logs that proved not to be hollow. Finally, in desperation, he sat in padmasana upon the hollow log where he had left his North Indian body. Entering deep yoga samadhi, he contacted his guru, Maharishi Nandinatha. They mentally communicated, and the explanation was that Lord Siva Himself, through His great power of dissolution, had dissolved the atomic structure of the North Indian body after he was well settled and adjusted to his Tamilian cowherder’s body, with the boon that he could now speak fluent Tamil. Tirumular then realized that this was the answer to the prayers he offered at Kanchipuram. He saw that now he could effectively give out to the world in the Tamil language the great truths of the Saiva Agamas and the precious Vedas, uniting Siddhanta with Vedanta for all time
source:http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=129556951140

Get Introduced to Thirumoolar Thirumanthiram Tradition

Thank you for visiting us. You are right here; more so, you are rightly here. No doubt, you have been agilely driven to this web-site on the dictates of Grace of God, the Almighty which is formless, nameless and without attributes.

You are now getting introduced to Thirumoolar Thirumanthiram Tradition which flows out on and on from the abyss of Time as a river whose beginning beyond the reaches of faculties, so serene and calm as not cognizable but when felt incidentally is a great experience of unfathomable bliss.

It has no bar such as caste and creed, race and place and faction and formalities. It is universal and encompassing one and all. It comes to you, arms stretched open in greeting with that striking rationality that no one can repress his welcome to it. It is inherently alluring but not an inhibitive illusion.

Enough! I hear you murmur. It is time that I introduce you to Thirumoolar !

Thirumoolar is a great sage of yore, happened to be a Tamil sage, who had a message from God, as to be passed on to the mankind, without prejudice to whatsoever the time and age it belongs to.

Almighty has a plan, no one knows what it is up to! The Almighty selects certain people, variously in various parts of the world to pass on its message not at variance with one another but strictly in common.

It was Moses says the Bible; it was Mohammed Nabi says Islam; it was Siddhartha, says Buddhism; so on and so forth, each of them chosen to express the great ideals of God's messages with that touch and tone of the nativity that each one belongs to.

Thirumoolar is one among them, chosen in Tamilian race by the Almighty. This has been asserted by Thirumoolar, as is usually done by the apostles, in his own words such as this;

Transliteration of Tamil text :

Ennai Nandraaga Yiraivan padaiththanan

Thannai Nandraaga Thamizh Seyyu maarae

Meaning :

Me, having been begotten by the Almighty so well

To explain Himself in that excelling Thamizh experience so well.

Do not bother about the inhibition that allies with the language; the purpose underlying it is to be appreciated. Thirumoolar tells that he is god sent with the purpose of explaining the soul's experience with God in very candid terms in Tamil.

What is striking to us is that all the apostles of various parts of the world have promulgated in common that they are apostles-god-sent with a message. But alas! The identification made by themselves is pooh-poohed initially by the people surrounding and later as and when people start realizing their glory and blessedness, the apostles are no more available in flesh and blood. By the time, people calling themselves disciples teem in number, come to misinterpret, manipulate and at last mutilate the ideals preached by the apostles beyond recognition. If it were, that the apostles are recognized during their lifetime, the so called disciples would have been reprimanded, for sure, by them for the departure from the original principles and philosophies they endeavored to establish.

Alas! What remains after the bereavement of apostles is nothing but parochial differences in kind of language and nation, race and religion and so on and so forth. That is how we have different and detestable banners and manners from nation to nation.

A close and keen analysis of various religions and their associated Epics, world over reveals to our astonishment that the mankind had centrally come into being and spread radially far and wide so much that they lost their common identity under compelling circumstances.

Don't you think that this is a surmise based on wild imagination; but is rightly seen to have roots of reasoning in many a epic made available to us. You are here kindly referred to ` A New popular Encyclopaedia' which in its vol. IV at page 325 reads as this:

"Many other nations mention, in the Mythological part of their history, inundation which in their essential particulars agree with the scriptural account of Noah's preservation. Hence many persons have inferred the universality of this inundation. To this, it has been replied that each nation localizes the chief events and actors as connected with itself, necessitating an Ararat, an ark and a Noah in each instance. Fohi in the chinese mythology, Satyavrata in the India(South), Xisuthrus in the chaldaen, oxyges and Deucation in the Greek, have each been recognized by many as the Noah of the sacred scripture under different names. Even the American Indians have a tradition of a similar deluge and a renewal of the race from the family of one individual. All these individuals are said to have saved their respective nation and to have become the father of the mankind".

From the collection of details of Epics of various terrain as above, we come to know of a great deluge which was alluded to in all the epics in one; when almost entire mankind on the earth got washed off except for an individual with his family. It is Noah says Jews; it is Fohi says chinese; it is satyavratha says South Indian; it is xisuthrus says chaldean; it is oxyges says Greek and so on and so forth.

This man, be whatever his name, is said to have been responsible for rebuilding of mankind and hence termed as father of the mankind.

It is befitting at this juncture to make a mention that an account of Tamil Sangam describes about two great deluges which engulfed greater parts South of Tamil Nadu, every time the Tamil Sangam rising with more vigor. These two great deluges on account of upheaval of Indian Ocean greatly altered the geography and history of Tamil Nadu. These have been evidenced in various aboriginal texts of Tamil literature.

Keeping in view of the above, your attention is invited to a book viz. `A Book of Beginnings' wherein its author Mr.Gerald Masey observes vide page 26 as follows:

" The world is old enough and time has existed long enough for the widest divergences to have been made from one common center of mankind and the proofs of unity of origin is plentiful enough. What has been wanted is the common center of the primeval unity."

It is interesting that Mr. Gerald Masey, while bringing to book that there was a common center of the primeval unity beyond suspicion, was very much inquisitive to know what exactly the common center was.

Two great pundits of archeology namely Prof. S. Langdon and Sir John Marshall come to our rescue in this regard with revelations of Harappa and MohanjoDaro excavations.

An extract from the book viz. "Script of Harappa and MohanjoDaro and its connection with other scripts" authored by Prof. S. Langdon reads as this:

"There can be no doubt concerning the identity of the Indus and the Eastern Island scripts. Whether we are thus confronted by the astonishing historical accident or whether this ancient Indian script has mysteriously traveled to the remote islands of the Pacific, none can say. The age of the Eastern Islands tablets made of wood is totally unknown and all knowledge of their writing has been lost. This same script has been found in seals precisely similar to Indian seals in various parts of ancient Sumar, in Susa and the border Island east of Tigris."

From the above, we are compelled to accept that there was a civilization of mankind in the Indus Valley which was aboriginal and which radially traveled far and wide world over.

Sir John Marshall in his book called `MohanjoDaro and Indus civilization' reaffirms this as follows:

"Their underlying principles are the same and there is very likelihood that they all derived from one common origin and went back to Neolithic times."

Prof. Prizy Luski and Prof. Rivet are also of the same opinion. Prof. Rivet in his articles suggests that Sumarian had probably played an important role as agents of transmissions culture elements between Oceania and Europe and Africa.

The riddle about the common center of the primeval mankind racking hitherto the brains of the historical pundits such as Gerald Masey is now over. We can reasonably arrive at the conclusion beyond unilateral aspects that the civilizations of the mankind in the Indus Valley is the ancient of all and forms the center of mankind pivoting which permeated all other civilizations recognized by the historical records of the world.

As is known to all concerned, Indus valley civilization is but Dravidian civilization.

To know the Dravidian culture in depth, one must get to its rites and rituals of worship as culture of any race can be found very rightly peaking in its form of worship. And for that matter we find that Dravidians worshipped Lord Siva in a formless form known as Lingam. Strangely enough this Lingam worship of Lord Siva is found to be universal in primeval time all over the world although the various nations were at great distances apart.

A report appeared in the News Review of London edition dt. 23rd Sep. 1937 bears testimony to this fact. The extract of the report reads as follows:

"In the wild mountainous state of Colorado, seventh largest in America, Scientists of the U.S. Museum of Natural History, three months ago announced discovery of a `Lost World'. The focal point was Siva's Grand Temple, a half square mile of solid rock plateau, isolated from the mainland by 9000 ft. Canyons eroded by rivers some 200,000 years ago".

The news was also flashed in another magazine viz. Cavalcade of London in its edition dt. 18.12.1937 and in Times of Ceylon, Sunday illustrated, in its edition dt. 17.6.1937.

None-the-less, the traces of Lingam worship is also found in the Bathel of Jews.

A book authored by A.H.Sayce viz. `Origin and growth of Religion _ Ancient Babylon' reads in support of this at page 408 as follows:

`The sacred stone was Bathel or house of God; no habitation of a mere spirit, but the dwelling place of deity itself. The worship of these sacred stones was common to all the races of the Semetic family.

The famous Black stone of the Kaaba at Mecca is a standing witness of the fact. So firmly rooted was the belief in its divine character among the Arabs of Mohammed's day that he was unable to eradicate it, but forced to make a compromise with the old faith attaching to the stone the traditions of Old Testament.'

Bible is seen to relate Moses to a place called Ur which is a chaste Tamil term denoting a small town or village.

Ancient Babylon people called their God as El Sadai where El in Tamil means light and Sadai in Tamil means sprawling hair both in combination denoted Lord Siva.

Even Buddhists in earlier time worshipped Lord Siva which is borne out by the fact that there is Lord Siva's emblems in the famous Sanchi Buddhist Temple. Mr. General Maisey in his book namely `Sanchi and its Remains' at page 8 writes as follows:

"Inside it was, I conclude, still is Fakir's cell with an adjoining Shiwala or temple of Mahadeva containing the Linga and Yoni, emblems of Siva and Parvathi."

It is feared at this juncture that attempting to present such collection of details as above any further would precipitate into blossoming of a separate book.

A statistical analysis reveals that the Christian Religion is professed by the preponderant percentage of world's population and thus takes first place as on date; second comes Buddhism on line and third Islam.

It may be noted that the major three religions viz. Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, major in terms of population adhering to, have their forefathers who had worshipped Lord Siva in His emblem Lingam which worship, beyond smack of any doubt, is seen to have been prevalent originally among the Dravidians and traveled from this hub radially all over the world.

May be, we are at present connected with new modern facilities such as internet, as fructification of scientific developments, bringing together whole world at one's table top, but it won't be exaggerated to observe that from prehistoric times, even before the development of scientific instruments, it was this common cult of Lingam worship that served as internet and would continue to do so unbridled for ever.

Yes, this is, no doubt, a great tradition perpetuating on earth above the barriers of Time and Space and this is what is propagated in Thirumanthiram Tradition chiefly. This old Tradition is rightly put in nutshell by Thirumoolar as follows:

Transliteration of Tamil text :

Onedray Kulamum Oruvanay Devanum,

Nandray Ninaimin.

Meaning :

Humanity belongs to one and only one caste; so is there one and only one God; cherish this rightly.

People quite often refer to a line of Tamil poem viz.

Transliteration of Tamil text :

Yaathum Ooray Yaavarum Kelir

Which means, to a man of broad outlook, there are no barriers of whatsoever kind among inhabitation world over but he would look on all of them as one and the same; so would he look on people of all races of the world as his kith and kin.

This laudable line of Tamil poem has been boldly displayed near one of the seven wonders called Niagara Falls befitting its wonder by the Government concerned although official language of it is not Tamil. It has been displayed there for the reason of unfathomable depth of meaning of it which is so deep as the Niagara Falls equaling its wonder and uniting all the mankind without barriers.

This laudable line has been further shortened in Thirumanthiram as `Onedray Kulam' without losing its pith and marrow. This encompasses not only all races of the mankind but also the various forms of worship.

How can there be various Gods? - Derides Thirumoolar, a great sage of that period which can reasonably be put at BC 5500.

For people of catholicity and progressive frame of mind, to delve into details of Thirumanthiram would be a feast of pondering of lofty universal ideals.

It is quite understandable that your brows are now raising, opening the floodgates of interest to know who is Thirumoolar and what this Thirumanthiram is about? Hence this web-site.

Following this introduction we now present a book of Mr. M. P. Sathiyavel Muruganaar viz. "Thirumanthira Sinthanaigal" which will open up new vistas of Thirumanthiram Tradition with beauties of Tamil language. The author is versatile in Tamil literature and various religious works especially in Thirumanthiram.

He is popularly known in Tamil Saiva world as "Thirumanthira Thamizh Maamani". He is honored with about 42 such titles among which "Senthamizh Velvi Chadhurar" and "Siddhantha Kavimani" are too common epithets that go with his name.

He has hitherto performed 1098 Kumbabishekams i.e. Holy Consecration of deities with holy water, all having been performed by chanting chaste Tamil Manthirams, most of them extracted from this great work " Thirumanthiram ".

Following one such occasion of a kumbabishekam performed in Kulai of Johore district in Malaysia, he gave a series of lectures on Thirumanthiram under the auspices of Malaysian Arul Neri Thirukkottam in Kuala Lumpur which had been audio-taped and brought on paper verbatim with the help of a stenographer. That is the book called " Thirumanthira Sinthanaigal ".

A glance through this book will enlighten those of interest broadly and brightly the cardinal principles of Thirumanthiram Tradition.

Yes! Here it is; shall we open up the book? Click Here

source:http://manthiram3000.tripod.com/ManthraIntro.htm