The Poet of Divine Utterance  - Ratna Ma Navaratnam

Manikkavachakar is acclaimed as one of the renowned poet, saint and sage. It is very difficult to disentangle his history from the multitude of legends in which it is involved. We have two major works Tiruvachakam and Tirukovaiyar ascribed to him, and believed to be genuine. From these, something of his character, history, and teaching may be gathered. When they are carefully studied, we see the real man, the poet of divine utterance and the scribe of eternal love.

Few of the world’s biographies are more interesting than that of this man of rare genius who, in his early life, when he was the chief minister of the great Pandya King, met with, and was consecrated by a Guru, whom he then and always believed to be Lord Siva. He became at once an utterly self-renouncing, ascetic saiva mendicant,patient in suffering, and constant in devotion, and ever singing the glory of the supreme Sat-Chit-Anandam.patient in suffering, and constant in devotion, and ever singing the glory of the supreme Sat-Chit-Anandam.

The poet perceived, realized, lived and communicated to man, the supreme experience that Sivam is the Parasivam, transcendent and immanent Reality, pervading the whole visible and invisible universe, and that His fivefold acts of creation, preservation, destruction, embodiment and gracious release are embodied in his ceaseless mystic dance at Tillai. In man’s sleep and at all times, his activity goes on. The heart-beat continues. Who regulates it, when all his other limbs are at rest? By the power of His immanence, He works through ‘Sakti’ or Grace, and moves into activity the listless limbs of man.

In the hearts of all men, Lord Siva has planted His lotus feet and energizes man to create, preserve, destroy, embody and release. This is known as the mystic Dance. As an external symbol of the human heart, Tillai signifies the center of the universe from where He performs His Cosmic Dance. He is thus the active force behind both the movement of the universe as well as of man, and this in essence is the message of St. Manikkavachakar.In the hearts of all men, Lord Siva has planted His lotus feet and energizes man to create, preserve, destroy, embody and release. This is known as the mystic Dance. As an external symbol of the human heart, Tillai signifies the center of the universe from where He performs His Cosmic Dance. He is thus the active force behind both the movement of the universe as well as of man, and this in essence is the message of St. Manikkavachakar.

When Manikkavachakar had taken his abode at Chidambaram in the evening of his life, contemplating on the resplendent form of the Lord of Tillai, the source of Being, pure Intelligence and Bliss ineffable, the devotees there discovered his manuscript of Tiruvachakam on the alcove of the Temple. They came in a body to the author of the poem and wanted him to explain the full import of his exquisite composition. Manikkavachakar took them to the inner sanctuary of the temple and pointed to the image of the Lord in the Holy of Holies and said that He was the Subject, nay the Essence of Tiruvachakam, and in the great awakening flame that arose from within, he mingled in oneness.

True wisdom gleaming bright in splendour fine,

More subtle Thou than fragrance sweet,

Thou art the Luminous Light, all Hail

According to the recorded biography, the poet was born at Tiruvathavur in the Pandyan kingdom of South India, and was called ‘Vathavuran,’ as was the custom of being named after the land of birth. He was also known as ‘Tennavan Brahmarayan’ which name connotes wide scholarship and culture, The fame of his scholarship and accomplishments spread, that he was appointed as the chief minister in the roya court at Madura, the capital city of the then powerful sovereign, Arimartana Pandya, who held sway in South India.

It is an indisputable fact that Tennavan Brahmarayan was endowed with the rich qualities of the head and heart and was highly respected as the premier citizen in the premier land of the South, celebrated for its immense resources of wealth, learning, arts, and spirituality. His towering personality attracted not only the King and his courtiers, but also the scholars, warriors and those with rich merchandise, the tillers of the soil and the craftsmen, all of whom came under his vigilance and benevolence. He had witnessed the magnificent glitter of life as the chief minister of a powerful State. In the Garland of Praise, he recounts one by one the passing pageantry of the pomp and glory of vast learning, abundant power, irresistible pleasures of wine and women and the disdain of authority that passed before him.

All these allurements however, failed to fascinate this youthful administrator who saw through all the fleeting vanities, the thralldom of man. He was searching within and without for the supreme objective of man’s life on earth. He knew that it was not in this nor in that and negative answers failed to satisfy him. No mortal physician could cure him of his conflicts. It was in this state of mind that he found himself commissioned by his royal master, Arimartana Pandya, to purchase horses of the finest breed from off the western port of Tirupperunturai, for the royal cavalry. The episode of the horses gives us an insight into the real nature of the man beneath the attire of royalty, his aspirations and hopes and reveals the dynamic personality of ‘Tennavan Brahmarayan,’ undimmed by the meshes of myth and legend.

What Went Ye Out To See?

The transforming incident of Manikkavachakar’s life is his consecration to the service of God, while he was in the prime of youth and in the plenitude of temporal power. He set out on his royal. mission with elaborate preparations and there on the way, he encountered his Master Guru who dispelled his doubts and fears and called him ‘Manikkavachaka,’ "he whose utterances are gems," signifying thereby his service as songster divine, so that the world groaning in travail may listen to his sublime poems on the eternal meeting of the human and the divine self, and the commingling of the love of man in the Love of God.

As the royal cavalcade with the youthful prime minister at the head draws near the town, the chant of the sacred Saiva Agamas rises in solemn mysterious strains from a neighboring grove, and he reverently alights and approaches the spot whence the mystic music proceeds. From that instant his secular life ended. He beholds a venerable Seer seated beneath a spreading "kuruntha" tree (Alalantia Missionis)bedecked with rosaries of scarlet eleocarpus beads, smeared with holy ashes, and surrounded by an admiring and earnest host of disciples.

"With pious saints around, the Great Lord on earth appeared a Brahminic Seer",

Mid saints made perfect, Siva dances in Tillai’s city old,

Mystic! He comes, enters our homes, makes us his own, our services claim.

Upon His mighty roseate Feet, our heads on fragrance shall repose.

––The Salutations Ode:42.4

The all-powerful leader of the party rapt in wonder approached the Sage, who with one word, subjugated him instantaneously. The Ode on Wonder, Ode on Grace, and Ode to Dejection have poignant allusions to the initiation and the transfiguration of Manikkavachakar. From that moment of consecration, he became "one in feeling, power and faculty with the Infinite Eternal."

"Thou can’st stir to fertility without the aid of embryo;

The entire heaven and earth and all therein

Thou doth sustain and destroy. My base self,

Deceitful, mean, beneath thy temple portals

Thou fill’st with frenzy; bade me join the band

Of thy great and loving saints! Even if the tree

They plant yieldeth poison, men destroy it not;

So be it with me, my Master, in thy vineyard.

––Tiruchatakam: 10.96.

He exchanges his rich garments and kingly adornments for the lowly habit of a renounced man of God, and espousing poverty takes on the incantations of His holy word. He wakes,

"From the dream, the 

probation, the prelude,

to find himself set 

Clear and safe in new light 

and new life."

From henceforth turned from his earthly ruler Arimartana Pandya to the King of Kings. "Those dedicated to the service of Siva see no differentiation. Action and passivity are the same to them. They see no variation and no Unity. " (Sivajnana Siddhiar). The world doth not understand them.

"Transcendent God! My Lord, Thy servant yearns for Thee.

In raptures meet, I utter forth my fevered soul’s delights,

Still wandering from town to town; while men cry out

‘A madman distraught’, and each one shouts

Discordant words at me. Oh, whence cometh not death?"

––Tiruchatakam: 1.3.

It is a fundamental belief of Hinduism that the present life is a probation, a period of preparation for the realization of Truth and ultimate communion with the Supreme. Our karma (action), our suffering is a gracious appointment of the Lord for the liberation of the human soul.

"Put pain from out the world, what room were left

For thanks to God, for love to man?"

And the instrument of release from all embodiment is that wisdom which understands the Divine purpose and adapts itself to it. This was the content of the Guru’s initiation. Enlightened thus, the young sage renounces for ever, not without a pang, his attachments to his near and dear ones on earth.

"Not mine, but Thy will befits me well, Lest I strayed,

Thou mad’st me know Thy firm hand o’er Thy saints.

Moved was I to watch her quivering lips, her attire so casual,

Love’s forlorn looks – such fetters worked havoc on me."

––Tiruchatakam : 6.57

In the consciousness of primal love which fills infinitude wholly, he seeks his reward and repose in the God-head. In vacant and in pensive moods, he recalls his consecration by his Guru, at the shrine of Perunturai:

In Perunturai girt with sacred stately groves

‘neath the kuruntham’s flow’ry shade,

I recall Thy glories all, and pondering yearningly

oft invoke Thee as my Lord, my Lord.

Peerless Sage! When I, Thy servant call Thee

struggling amid the billowy sea,

In grace declare the holy path to reach Kailai

the silver Peak and bid me come!

–– Ode on Grace : 29.10.

In almost everyone of the hymns in Tiruvachagam, Manikkavachakar alludes to his servitude at the Feet of his Guru and pours forth in humility, his grateful love for the immeasurable, redeeming love of Siva, who chose him as His bondsman.

"Thyself I saw – My eyes spelt delight.

Countless days and nights, without thought

On it alone, I ponder still."

"He stood on earth, His dart shotforth,

He linked Himself to my thought,

Great Perunturai’s Lord."

–– The Holy Lyric : 47.3

"Thou unique One, Incomparable art Thou! Thou light

within the core of my being; Thy bondsman am I.

On me who knew not the true goal, void of merit,

O Love unique! Thou hast choice grace bestowed."

–– The Lyric of Flaming Love: 37.5

With the mendicant’s staff and the mendicants bowl, he goes out into the dusty countryside singing in melodious strains, and bequeathing the nectar of sacred and devout poetry, wherein is immortalized the sovereign love for his Divine Master. The pilgrim-saint marches steadfastly in the light of His grace, despising all earthly allurements, and perfectly resigned to the will of Siva, till he sights the journey’s end which is Chidambaram, known in religious literature as Tillai. There he puts an end to his wandering life and settles down to a life of sweet contemplation on the beatific vision of Sri Nataraj, who has made his soul, His abode.

"I lay as one who tills a barren field and reaps no crop;

‘T was then I gained the merit of penance done of old;

Before Siva’s roseate lotus Feet, I bent my worthless head

I’ve come my Lord who bides in Tillai’s home of Joy."

– Hymn to Golden Tillai 40.9

A spirit of resignation to the Divine will is not inconsistent with a supplication for grace, love and release from the bondage of life. Indeed Manikavacakar was a great believer in the efficacy of chanting, Sivaayanamaha, the word of Siva. ‘All-abounding love’, and vast ambrosial sea of grace is Siva.

Ebb and Flow

The author of Tiruvachakam has made it clear that all his poems are but fragments of a grand confession, and that he had given out to the world nothing which he himself had not experienced. To study his works is to study the man himself, to trace the evolution, mental, moral and spiritual of one, whose life was often said to be greater than his poetry. Tiruvachakam is the unique autobiography of a great soul who saw God face to face and attained spiritual perfection.The author of Tiruvachakam has made it clear that all his poems are but fragments of a grand confession, and that he had given out to the world nothing which he himself had not experienced. To study his works is to study the man himself, to trace the evolution, mental, moral and spiritual of one, whose life was often said to be greater than his poetry. Tiruvachakam is the unique autobiography of a great soul who saw God face to face and attained spiritual perfection.

We have nothing like Tiruvachakam in the literature of the world – a Poem of Poems built to immortalize the devious ways of a seeker of light who struggled through the experience of this lower world to that of a higher one. Swami Vedachalam says: "Unless a man can reach the summit of self-realization attained by that great soul, he cannot hope to place himself in a standpoint different from his own, and view the extent as well as the profound depth of that great mind. For a true comprehension therefore of the essential nature of sanctified souls, the history written of them by others cannot help as much, as the faithful records of the poets themselves on the inner working of their hearts."

The hymns of Tiruvachakam are a record of the sage’s spiritual struggles against the tortuous ways of the world. His early poems breathe of despair and despondency as he moves from place to place, lamenting for the vanished light of the Guru, in abiding trust and faith. The young saint finds no relief in ceremonial acts or learned expositions, and by the purifying process of detachment, selflessness and love, gradually derives strength and sustenance.The hymns of Tiruvachakam are a record of the sage’s spiritual struggles against the tortuous ways of the world. His early poems breathe of despair and despondency as he moves from place to place, lamenting for the vanished light of the Guru, in abiding trust and faith. The young saint finds no relief in ceremonial acts or learned expositions, and by the purifying process of detachment, selflessness and love, gradually derives strength and sustenance.

After his consecration at the feet of his saintly Guru, Manikkavachakar detached himself from worldly duties. Ministerial power and fame, the last infirmity of great minds, receded into the background while he contemplated on the Word of God – ‘Sivaayanamaha’. His kith, and kin, foes and friends, hurled scorn at him and despised him for his midsummer madness. They reviled in ignorance. Even though he had held the exalted position as Prime Minister, yet in his new role, he considered himself as a humble seeker, he had wagged his tail in the company of the wayward till his Guru chose to purify his mind and heart.After his consecration at the feet of his saintly Guru, Manikkavachakar detached himself from worldly duties. Ministerial power and fame, the last infirmity of great minds, receded into the background while he contemplated on the Word of God – ‘Sivaayanamaha’. His kith, and kin, foes and friends, hurled scorn at him and despised him for his midsummer madness. They reviled in ignorance. Even though he had held the exalted position as Prime Minister, yet in his new role, he considered himself as a humble seeker, he had wagged his tail in the company of the wayward till his Guru chose to purify his mind and heart.

Many commentators of Tiruvachakam have interpreted the section entitled the Poetry of Experience, as autobiographical glimpses of the poet’s reaction to the wrath of the King of the Pandyans, who was vexed with his Chief Minister for neglect of duty, and who sought to punish him in many cruel ways. It was then, they surmise, he sang the most moving cantos on Odes to Dejection and My Supplication, and the "Lyrics on Refuge, The Bruised Heart and Grace. His agonizing lamentations tug at our heart strings:

"O Father glorious! When thy bondsman helpless calls,

Bid Thou in Grace, my fears begone."

–– Ode on Grace: 29.6

"Though I complain, in Thee my soul delights;

To gain anew Thy love is my one thought;

Thou see’st my heart is faint, I have no joy in life;

In compassion, Bid me come to Thee."

–– The Bruissed Heart:28.3.

–– The Bruissed Heart:28.3.

Tradition testifies that on the day appointed for the horses to arrive at the palace of the Pandya King, the horses came mysteriously and the wrath of the King was temporarily appeased, but the trails of the poet were not over. The horses soon got transformed into jackals, and fled to their natural abodes causing great consternation in the land. In "Sacred Sadness", canto, he alludes to this incident. At this strange transformation, the king was bewildered and ordered that his deceitful minister should be tortured, till he made good the royal coffers which he had squandered. Suffering only set free the hidden springs of faith in the stricken heart of Manikkavachakar and he sang some of the exquisite gems like The Holy Word, Ode to Fear, Joyless Life and Lyric on Lament. The king at last realized the folly of inflicting any more punishment on a man of God and set him free. The poet finds himself liberated wholly from the shackles of earthly ties and bonds. He retraces his steps to Tirupperunturai where he had met his Guru, and the memory of his consecration tugs at his heart poignantly.

"Thou overpowered me with a single Word;

Thou held me entranced. But now I pant not,

Nor melt in joy; with mind subdued,

I feel no love devout. Why didst thou make me thine?"

© "Tiruvachakam: The Hindu Testament of Love" by Ratna Ma Navaratnam, published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kulapati Munshi Marg, Mumbai 400 007. Reprinted with permission.

<< Back