Bhagavan was not alone in his tearful response to hearing or reading Manikkavachagar’s words. In the thousand or so years that have passed since the verses were composed, the words of the Tiruvachakam have moved successive generations of devotees in the same way. Sivaprakasa Swamigal, a distinguished Tamil poet and saint who composed Sonasaila Malai, a hundred-verse poem in praise of Arunachala, summed up the feelings of those who had been stirred by this work when he wrote:
If you were to ask which was the more glorious:
the words of the Vedas,
which are said to be
the utterances of the three-eyed One [Siva],
He who is the universal Cause,
and who has a body that is shared
with his beautiful bejewelled Consort,
or
the honeyed words that sprang
from the flower-like mouth
of Vadavur’s Lord [Manikkavachagar],
who extolled the greatness of Siva,
the Supreme Being,
[this is how you would know:]
here upon this crowded earth
we have never observed
that the hearts of those present
soften and melt,
whilst tears flood their eyes,
when the Vedas are chanted.
Yet, if the Tiruvachakam is recited but once,
there are none whatsoever
whose hearts will not melt and flow,
be they hard as granite blocks,
whose eyes will not fill up with tears,
like water seeping into a hole
dug in the wet sand,
who will not tremble and quiver,
the hair of their body standing on end,
and who will not become His devotees! (‘Nalvar Nanmani Malai’, v. 4)
All the translations of poems that have no published references were done by the authors of this article.
Manikkavachagar’s life and experiences
The oldest record of Manikkavachagar’s life comes from the Tiruvilaiyatal Puranam, a text that narrates the divine events that are associated with the Madurai Temple. Four chapters from this work, fifty-eight to sixty-one, are devoted to the story of Manikkavachagar. When Suri Nagamma professed ignorance of the details of Manikkavachagar’s life, Bhagavan responded by giving a detailed summary of the events that the Tiruvilaiyatal Puranam has recorded:
Suri Nagamma, compiler of Letters from Sri Ramanasramam
Bhagavan: Manikkavachagar was born in a village called Vaadavur (Vaatapuri) in Pandya Desha. Because of that people used to call him Vaadavurar [The man from Vaadavur]. He was put to school very early. He read all the religious books, absorbed the lessons therein, and became noted for his devotion to Siva, as also his kindness to living beings. Having heard about him, the Pandya king sent for him and made him his prime minister and conferred on him the title of Thennavan Brahmarayan, i.e., ‘Premier among Brahmins of the South’. Though he performed the duties of a minister with tact and integrity, he had no desire for material happiness. His mind was always absorbed in spiritual matters. Feeling convinced that for the attainment of jnana, the grace of a Guru was essential, he kept on making enquiries about it.
Once the Pandya king ordered the minister to purchase some good horses and bring them to him. As he was already in search of a Guru, Manikkavachagar felt that it was a good opportunity and started with his retinue carrying with him the required amount of gold. As his mind was intensely seeking a Guru, he visited all the temples on the way. While doing so he reached a village called Tirupperundurai. Having realised the maturity of the mind of Manikkavachagar, Parameswara [Siva, had] assumed the form of a schoolteacher and for about a year before that had been teaching poor children in the village seated on a street pial near the temple. He was taking his meal in the house of his pupils every day by turn. He ate only cooked green vegetables. He was anxiously awaiting the arrival of Manikkavachagar. By the time Manikkavachagar actually came, Iswara assumed the shape of a Siddha Purusha [realised soul] with many sannyasis around him and was seated under a kurundai tree within the compound of the temple. Vaadavurar came to the temple, had darshan of the Lord in it, and while going round the temple by way of pradakshina, saw the Siddha Purusha. He was thrilled at the sight, tears welled up in his eyes and his heart jumped with joy. Spontaneously his hands went up above his head in salutation and he fell down at the feet of the Guru like an uprooted tree. Then he got up and prayed that he, a humble being, may also be accepted as a disciple. Having come down solely to bestow grace on him, Iswara, by his look, immediately gave him jnana upadesa [initiation into true knowledge]. That upadesa took deep roots in his heart, and gave him indescribable happiness. With folded hands and with joyful tears, he went round the Guru by way of pradakshina, offered salutations, stripped himself of all his official dress and ornaments, placed them near the Guru and stood before him with only a kaupina on. As he felt like singing in praise of the Guru, he sang some devotional songs, which were like gems. Iswara was pleased, and addressing him as ‘Manikkavachagar’ [meaning ‘one whose speech is gems’] ordered him to remain there itself worshipping him. Then he vanished. (Letters from and Recollections of Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma, pp. 5-7)
Manikkavachagar’s experiences with Siva, his Guru, left him in a state of irrepressible ecstasy. Many of his songs described this momentous encounter, but there was one particular sequence of lines from the poem ‘Tiruvandappahudi’ that Bhagavan particularly appreciated. Devaraja Mudaliar has reported (My Recollections of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, p. 52) that Bhagavan read out lines 149-182 to give him ‘an idea of the supreme bliss of Self-realisation’.
