But this particular story still reveling in my mind, who the better devotee â" Sundarar or the King?
enna diwaker ithu enna kelvi?? sundararai minji saivathil Bakthanundo? is bakthi just a dedication to god or a sacrifice for him? is it not a bonding that continues over various lives?
the two who closely compete in shavism for the best bakta award would be sundarar and karaikal ammaiyar- for the way god treated them.
in thiruvarur shiva walked the streets to settle a quarell between sundara and his wife paravai paravai is another person with a loadful of good karma- she slammed the door in the lord's face. in thiru kachur shiva walked the streets , begged from the houses and fed sundara- virunthitta eesar. karaikal ammaiyar also comes close for the lord who has no father or mother - who is ammaiyapper to his devotees callsher " ammaiye!"
Sundarar treated Siva as his friend and taken Lord Siva to task. But the question is who is the better devotee. I feel a devotee shuold be submissive and not demanding. Views please.
Each one of the 4 are special in their own terms, Sundarar is kept as a special jewel and awarded a hero status in Periyapuranam primarily as he was a samsari unlike the others (sambandar never got married, he took every one to kailasam the once he got to the mairrage block).
Being in Samsaram and showing a blissfull devotion is truly a difficult factor. Sundarar was handsome and dressed similarly too, he lived a life of us however he had the truest of all devotion to Shiva.
His hymns are straight push inside any samsari - simple & effective, the term samsaram is a huge 'no-no' for many saints and even devthas.
To be a total samsari and show such devotion, rightfully earns Sundarar a hero image. He is one of a rare saints who gets mentioned in Thirupugazh (song Naadhavindu of Palani). A friend of Shiva, he can be compared to Arjuna, only devotee of Krsna who is immortal as long as The Gita lives and God gives Arjuna a true samsari, not only the privilege of riding with him, but lives an eternal name of 'Partha's' sarathy.
The samsari is always special and a saint of Sundarar's calibre is obviously bound to be special. Who else can call Shiva as 'Pithha pirai sudi..'
Lord is more compassionate towards us, samsaris. He comes to us, who are bound by karma, much quicker than what he does to saints and devthas.
Examiner gives the question paper to everyone. But for Sundarar, Siva the examiner, gives the answer sheet. Only Lord Siva came to take Sundarar for him. A very very rare privilege. Lord Siva storms into Sundarar's marriage party and took Sundrar for him by force. THADUTHTHAATKONDAAR. Sundarar was not a devotee till this time. After this he is well above the devotee level.
Lord Siva storms into Sundarar's > marriage party and took Sundrar for him by force. > THADUTHTHAATKONDAAR.
what a paradox. when you hear of shiva taking pains to come and wreck sundarars wedding we all expect that the lord wants all of sundarars time energy and effort for himself. but then comes the paradox. the lord allows him to marry twice. both romantic mariages. sundarar mela enakku thani piriyam- avar 'madras maappillai'.
and what a geographical distribution. out of the samya kuravar nalvar one from pandiya naadu, one from sola naadu 2 from nadu naadu and sekkilar who wrote about all of them from thondai naadu.
Again, for us Mortals, Sundarar is definitely a kaviya thalaivan because inspite of enjoying all the worldly affairs, he was close to god. Worldly and godly are never seen together.
I remember a story from Mahabaratha.
Once Krishna takes Arjuna to the vishnu lokha. After seeing a lot of things, Arjuna comes to a place where he finds heaps of flowers all around. Some heaps are small and some are large heaps (poo kuviyal). Arjuna asks krishna what is this. krishna says these are flowers which are adorned to me by my bhakthas in boolokam. whenever humans do pooja to me and put a flower it is accumulated here.
Arjuna, in his heart felt that his heap would be the biggest as he was the no.1 devotee and smiled to himself and without showing it outside started searching for his heap.
Krishnara kokka....sometiem later he pointed to huge mountain sized flower heap and said thats Arjuna's heap. Arjuna was pleased but was suddenly shocked to see a bigger heap than his. His was only second. When he asked Krishna whoses it is, Krishna says its Beemas, because beema used to do manaseeka pooja almost all the time. So he is a better bhaktha than anyone else. Arjuna's pride was shattered.
So, for god, its not important how one treats him or how he treats his bhakthas. everyone is equal in front of him.
there are three sevi vali stories i have heard. couldnt find them in record though
1. lord shiva admires himself in the mirror, and says " sundara" that image pops out and to account for it he sends it into the earth. so sundara ia a image of shiva himself.
2. the holy fire which engulfed the marriage party of sambandar and took them to heaven is considered by some as an act of arson by the jains who took revenge.
3, nanthanar entering the fire and coming out as a high caste man was actually he being caught inside the temple and burnt alive.
the third story is carrying more circulation these days. i saw it printed in a pamphlet recently.