The Divine Play

The following story comes from the Saivite collection of stories called the Tiruvilaiyadal. Tiruvilaiyadal means divine play or divine games. The Tiruvilaiyadal consists of 64 stories of Lord Shiva’s appearance in the sacred and ancient city of Madurai in Tamilnadu, South India. This particular story is part of the life history of Saint Manickavasagar, who is a nayanar. Like Pusalar’s story this story also involves a saint, a king and God Shiva.

Madurai in its ancient days was the capital of the Pandiyan Kingdom. It was a famed city for its richness in religious culture, Tamil academia, agriculture and commerce. Madurai is also home to one of the biggest temple complexes in India, the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, which is dedicated to God Shiva and His consort Meenakshi.

Before Manickavasagar nayanar turned his life’s quest to religion and became a saint, he was the Prime Minister (his name was Thiruvadhaoorar then) to the Pandiyan King of Madurai. The King was very fond of Thiruvadhaoorar and was secure in the trust he had for Thiruvadhaoorar. 

One day, the King's Chief of Staff informed him that the equestrian wing of the army was old and exhausted. He said that it was time to shore up the cavalry because he got word that ships loaded with war-horses had arrived at the harbour of the Chola country. The King agreed and then entrusted his Prime Minister to go personally to the port  to buy enough horses for the cavalry. Accordingly the Thiruvadhaoorar was given an enormous amount of gold for this purpose. After making all the necessary arrangements Thiruvadhaoorar left for the port with a despatch of soldiers for protection.

In his personal life, Thiruvadhaoorar loved God deeply and was yearning to find a guru who could instruct him in the path to God Realization. As Providence would have it, Thiruvadhaoorar and his entourage came upon a guru in the village of Thiruperunthurai, mid-way to the port. The guru was seated under a kurunthu tree while instructing his disciples in spiritual matters when Thiruvadhaoorar’s entourage came upon his hermitage. 

Upon sight of the guru, Thiruvadhaoorar had a strong feeling that he had found his guru. Immediately he alighted from his horse, went to the guru, prostrated himself and begged the guru to accept him as his disciple. The guru accepted. Thiruvadhaoorar was so elated that his spiritual yearning is coming into fulfillment that he ignored his duty to the King to buy the horses. 

When the soldiers travelling with him came to persuade him to continue the journey, he told them to return to Madurai and tell the King that he is resigning from his post as the Prime Minister of Madurai and that he would be in the hermitage studying under his guru. However, in an unusual event, before the soldiers left, Thiruvadhaoorar gave the treasure that was meant to buy the horses to his guru instead, as his dakshina. Thiruvadhaoorar then renounced his belongings and social position in life and began studying with his guru. The soldiers who had become puzzled over the whole situation, had no choice but to leave Thiruvadhaoorar and return to Madurai empty handed.

The guru initiated Thiruvadhaoorar as a renunciate monk and began to teach him the esoteric practices of yoga. Thiruvadhaoorar progressed very quickly in his study and practice and achieved his first level of enlightenment under the guidance of his guru. After experiencing this state of enlightenment and the overwhelming bliss of divine consciousness that follows, he sang his first song called the Sivapuranam. Impressed by the elegant poetry of the song and the depth of meaning of the Sivapuranam, Thiruvadhaoorar’s guru gave him a new name, Manickavasagar, which means, 'he with whose words are like rubys'. With his new name given, the guru gave Manicakavasagar his final initiation into spiritual ascension by placing both his feet on on Manickavasagar's head and blessing him. This is called the tiruvadi diksha. Upon giving the diksha, a bright white glow appeared around the guru. When Manickavasagar looked at his guru, he saw the guru's real form. 

He was none other than God, as Lord Dakshinamurthi. God had come Himself to answer Manickavasagar's prayers. The disciples around the guru too had changed to their orginal forms. They were God's Shiva's band of Mahadeva helpers. One by one the Mahadeva's entered the light and disappeared into it, returning back into the Heavens where from they came. Finally Lord Dakshinamurthi Himself began to dissolve into the light. Manickavasagar marvelled at the vision before him, but he did not want to leave God. He wanted to be by God's side for the rest of his existence. So he tried with all his might to enter into the light, but an invisible force kept him back and God instructed him, "Manickavasagar! Build me a temple in Thiruperunturai, then walk to the temples of the South and sing my praises and come back to me in Thillai." Then Go disappeared; and in the place of God, the treasure chest that Manickavasagar had presented to God materialized. The treasure had not been used and God meant for Manickavasagar to use it to build the temple for him.

Meanwhile the soldiers who had accompanied Manickavasagar reached Madurai after a few days and reported to the King on the new developments in his former Prime Minister’s life. The King was furious at the loss of his treasure and not getting the horses for the cavalry. So he ordered his soldiers to return to Thiruperunthurai and capture Manickavasagar. 

(Note: After Manickavasagar was returned to Madurai God Shiva performed two more miracles as part of His ‘Tiruvilayadal,’ to absolve Manickavasagar of his duties to the King and give him the freedom to perform his spiritual mission. However this was not before Manickavasagar had undergone punishment of torture by the King. The Tiruvilayadal story that is the subject of this story is the second of the two miracles.)

The King was infuriated by Manickavasagar for not delivering the horses and using the treasure to build a temple instead. He also did not acknowledge that Manickavasagar was a saint. As punishment for the loss of his wealth, the King ordered his soldiers to take Manickavasagar to the upperbanks of the Vaigai river and bury him neck down in its hot and dry sand at noon and leave him there to die.

The Vaigai river is the lifeline of Madurai. It is the biggest river in Madurai and flows through the middle of the city. During the rainy season this river will swell its banks, which is about 500 meters across. However at the height of the dry and hot season the river bed is mostly dry with only a slight if any, flow of water.

So there he was, poor Manickavasagar, buried head down in sand, feeling the pain of his skin being scorched by the searing sands of the Vaigai. Unable to bear the pain he sings to God Shiva and implores Him to provide a remedy. Manickavasagar wails and sings and cries aloud to Shiva Peruman. Then a miracle happens!

A thunderous rumbling sound is heard by all the citizens of Madurai though the sky was clear and there were t no rain clouds to be seen. It is after all the dry season. A wall of water gushed through the Vaigai filling it immediately; and the water level continued to rise. It rose until it reached Manickavasagar and cooled and softened the sand around him, assuaging his suffering. Manickavasagar praised God for answering his prayers and soon freed himself from his sandy prison. When Manickavasagar was free, the waters of Vaigai started to rise alarmingly again.

The citizens of Madurai who were downstream from where Manickavasagar was buried are bewildered by the rapidly rising Vaigai and began to panic in fear of massive floods. Reports reach the King on the situation of the Vaigai. Everybody is worried because this is the worst time for floods. A minsiter comes up to the King and and explains.

“O King, we must do something immediately to contain the waters of the Vaigai. If it floods its banks, the water will destroy the villages and damage all the rice crops that are becoming ripe for harvest. We must act now!” 

The King thinks quickly and summons the chief messenger. He tells him, “Send all the messengers to all the villages of the Kingdom with this instruction from me. All citizens of Madurai must proceed to the river bank immediately. Each family will be allotted a portion of the riverbank to raise the bund along the Vaigai river. All able bodied men, women and boys should be working on raising the bund. Those who cannot do this labour will make food for those working on the bund. Now go quickly and spread the message!”

As soon as the message went out, all the families in Madurai city made their way to the banks of the Vaigai river. Each family was given a portion of the bund to raise. Work began in earnest and the King and his soldiers were on hand to supervise the work and maintain order. 

Among the families, there was an old lady by the name of Vanthi. She lived by the Vaigai's banks. Vanthi made her livelihood selling pittu (steamed rice and coconut cake). Vanthi was also alloted a section of the riverbank. However, she lived alone and there was no one around to help her with her section of the bund. She was helpless and so prayed to God Shiva for help. She closed her eyes and surrendered whole heartedly to God Shiva’s will. She prayed to God and placed her worrying predicament at God's Holy Feet.

After a short while a gentle voice roused Vanthi from her deep prayer. “Pati.....Pati (Pati is grandmother in Tamil), please open your eyes.” Vanthi opens her eyes, and sees standing in front of her a young and strong man dressed in a labourer’s garb with a hoe in hand. The young man asks her, “Pati, can you make me some pittu if I worked on your share of the bund?” Joy fills Vanthi’s heart as she realises that God Shiva has answered her prayer. She readily agrees to the young labourer’s proposal and begins to make a fresh batch of pittu while the labourer begins work on Vanthi’s portion of the bund. 

However the labourer proves to be a lazy person. He spends a little time working on the bund, then he eats Vanthi’s pittu, sings and dances and goes to sleep. The labourer’s routine catches the eye of one of the soldiers. Upset, the soldier goes to the labourer as he slept to wake him up and get him back to work on the bund. The soldier goes close to him and shouts, “Hey you! Wake up!” But the labourer continues to sleep. He shouts in his ear, “Wake up you fool!” The soldier tries to shake him awake but to no avail. Instead the labourer only snores louder! Frustrated the soldier reports to the King who was doing rounds on horseback along the bund near Vanthi's house.

Upon hearing the report, the King comes to Vanthi’s part of the bund promptly. It angers him to see the labourer sleeping soundly. “I am going to teach this fool a lesson.” The King gets down from his horse and pulls out a long and thick cane from his saddle. He went straight to the labourer. Without trying to wake the labourer to warn him, the King raises his cane high and brings it down on the labourer’s back with all his strength. As soon as the cane strikes the labourer’s back something unusual happened. A loud thud was heard but the labourer did not awaken. Instead he disappeared! 

The King however, dropped the cane and clutched his back with his hands and let out a loud yell, “aaaargh!!” He felt a sharp stinging pain across his back as if he had been caned. Not only the King, every single citizen of Madurai yelled and cringed at the same time as they too felt the same pain across their back. Not only people but even the all animals felt the pain. The King’s horse romped about violently and ran away. Even the fish in the Vaigai river shuddered from pain and leapt out of the water. Trees, bushes and all manner of plants shook violently in pain. Even the ground and stones shook. The waters of the Vaigai stirred furiously, though only for a moment, as a reaction to the force of the blow on the labourer’s back.

Shortly after, everyone recovered from the pain in their back and water level of the Vaigai river began to recede quickly to its normal level. Everybody was relieved. The King immediately realized that it was God Shiva Himself who was the labourer that he had caned and God had caused the Vaigai river to rise to relieve Manickavasagar’s suffering. He realized that Manickavasagar was indeed a saint, as was claimed. Immediately he sent off his guards to dig Manickavasagar out of the banks of the Vaigai and rescinded his order for the citizens of Madurai to work on the bunds, and return home. Of course when the guards got to Manickavasagar he was already rescued by God.

When Manickavasagar was brought to the King, the King was remorseful for treating Manickavasagar badly and asked for his apology. So remorseful was the King that he even offered his entire Kingdom to Manickavasagar. Manickavasagar, however reinstated the King of Madurai and helped the King choose a new Prime Minister to replace him. Then Manickavasagar bade farewell to the King and returned to Thirupperunturai to finish the temple he was building for God Shiva. The King sent workers to help him with the project. After that Saint Manickavasagar travelled from temple to temple singing praises to God Shiva, which were followed by more miracles in the lives of the devotees that approached Manickavasagar. His profound songs are collectively known as the Tiruvasagam. Manickavasagar's pilgrimage to temples around Madurai, finally led him to Chidambaram, the home of the august halls of Thillai. Manickavasagar finished the last days of his earthly life in the Chidambaram Natarja Temple. According to the history of the temple, Manickavasagar disappeared into an appearance of white light that occured in the shrine of Lord Nataraja, similar to the light that his guru and his disciples had disappeared into in Thiruperunthurai.

The most obvious lesson from this story is that God is present everywhere. This lesson is drawn from the part of the story where, when the King struck the labourer with his cane, every single being in the plane – humans, animals and even the elements, such as the waters of the Vaigai river – reacted to the pain from the blow. That is that the pain that God felt, was felt by all animate and inanimate beings because God is within all creation.

When I tell children this story, I always dramatize the reaction of the King feeling the pain on his back and make funny sounds of animals reacting to the pain (children always get a kick when they hear funny sound and facial expressions). Then I ask them to guess who the labourer was and why all the people, animals and elements reacted so. They usually figure out the answer quite fast.

This story is also a testimony of how God rescues His devotees. The method God chose to rescue Manickavasagar is important to understand. Manickavasasgar was helpless and in pain while being buried in the hot and dry sands of the Vaigai riverbank. He sang a song to God Shiva as a plea for help. One would think that God being All-Powerful could just as well raise Manickavasagar from the hot sand. Instead God chose to raise the level of Vaigai river’s water and play a “game or prank” as a labourer. The way God answered Manickavasgar’s prayer was indirect and disguised. Mysterious are the ways of God.

Perhaps you too may have had a similar experience of having had a prayer answered in some indirect way. Maybe a friend, a relative or even a stranger found a solution for you just when you needed it. Maybe it was an unrelated event that took place that saved the day. In any case this is how prayers are answered – in disguised and indirect ways. If you have a personal testimony on how God answered one of your prayers, and if it is appropriate it would be wonderful to share it with children as part of this story. This is to teach them that God can answer their prayers through other people like their family, teachers, or even friends.

From this story you can also teach children the practice of being respectful to all people, animals, plants and even the elements such as the sea or mountains, as they enshrine Divinity. So teach them to maintain a high regard for their individual life as well as all life they encounter around them, for all life and the world are ultimately Divine.

An important philosophical aspect of this story is God’s ability of taking an earthly form while simultaneously being everywhere. In the story God takes the form of a labourer while simultaneously He is in all beings animate and inanimate. It is possible that God can even manifest in our lives in disguise to help us.