The King who saw God in Everything

The King who saw God in Everything

(Tamil version of this article is posted separately: Swaminathan)

Varaguna Pandya was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. Dalavaipuram Copper Plates of Pandyan Paranthaka Veeranarayan praised ‘Varagunan as one who always kept Shiva’s name in his heart’. 

Tamil books such as Tirukkovaiyar of Manikavasagar and Pattinathar Poems also praised his devotion to Lord Shiva. He lived in the ninth century AD. There are very strange stories about his blind devotion. He stood as an example of nine qualities attributed to a Bhakta/devotee by the Bhagavatha Purana.

Sravanam: Hearing about God

Kirtanam: Reciting God’s name

Sramanam: Remembering him in everything he sees or hears

Padasevanam: Service of him as manifested in all beings

Arachanam: Worshipping him in images and holy places

Vandanam: Showing proper respect to all holy images, holy persons, symbols

Dasyam: Feeling as his servant

Sakhyam: Treating God as his intimate friend

Atma nivedanam: Surrendering oneself to Him.

Appar alias Tirunavukkarasu also said the same thing about Bhakti/ devotion in his Thevaram verse. It is like a girl falling madly in love with a man. Then she sees him everywhere and in everything. We have lot of such references in the Sangam literature.

Pattinathar’s book ‘Tiruvidai Marudur Mummani Kovai’ is included as the Eleventh book (Tirumurai) in Saivite canon. Pattinathar has given all the anecdotes about Varaguna Pandya in his verse:

1.When Varaguna Pandya was staying in Tiruvidai Marudur, his guards caught a thief and brought him to the king. The thief wore holy ash on his forehead. Immediately Varaguna was reminded of Lord Shiva. He ordered his guards to release him at once.

2.When the foxes howled in the night, he thought they are saying the name of Lord Shiva and immediately he called his servants and asked them to give shawls to the animals so that they feel warm in the cold.

This is not new to the Tamils. Chieftain Pari provided his chariot for the jasmine climber as a support. Another chieftain Bekan gave a shawl to the dancing peacock thinking that it was shivering in the cold.  They are among the Seven Philanthropists of Tamil speaking world. King Kulasekara ordered his army to march to provide support to Rama who was fighting the demons. This happened while he was just listening to Ramayana. Rama lived several thousands of years before King Kulasekara.

3. When the frogs croaked in the nearby ponds Varaguna heard only Shiva’s name and asked the servants to throw gold coins and flowers in to the ponds.

4. Sesame seeds were dried in the hall of the local temple. It was meant for the sesame oil for the temple lamps. Varaguna saw a person eating it. He chastised him for eating God’s sesame seeds and asked whether he knew the consequences. Immediately he replied that he knew that he would be born as a bull that is used in the temple Oil Expeller unit. That oil will be used to light the lamps in the Shiva temple. As soon as the king heard it, he made him to spit the sesame seeds and ate it. Now it was the turn of the man to question. He asked the king why he ate the spat. Varaguna told him at once, the Oil Expeller needs two bulls to operate and he wanted to be the second bull.

5.While he was circling the temple , he saw a skull in the temple complex. He prostrated before the skull saying that the person must have done a lot of good things in his life to be this lucky.

6.When he saw some dog’s mess in the temple, though he was a king,  he himself cleaned it saying that it was a big service to Shiva.

7.Wherever he saw the fruits of Neem tree he was reminded of Shivlinga form and so he ordered to install sheds (shelter) on top of those fruits.

8. When his ministers brought the women of defeated kings for him to marry, he ordered them to be offered at the temples for service.

All these anecdotes are in a single verse of Pattinathar. King Varaguna was an extremist in Bhakti. If we look at his deeds superficially, we may think that he had gone mad. If we look deeper in to his activities, we would appreciate his devotion. At the end of the day, his activities never hurt anyone, never harmed anyone. We have such examples in several leaders’ lives. The disciple of a Guru or the follower of a leader does  something like this for the sake of his or her Master.

Tamil References mentioned above are given in the Tamil version of this article:

பாண்டிய மன்னனின் அளவற்ற பக்தி!

Contact: swami_48@yahoo.com

source : speakingtree