Pattinathaar

Today I am completing twelve years narrating stories here on Storibuzz.in. I am extremely grateful to each one of you, my readers, who have encouraged me through your consistent feedback. I hope to continue narrating many more stories in the coming years.

This time, I have chosen to narrate the story of the Shaivite Saint Pattinathaar who was one of the twelve devotees of Lord Shiva whose songs are compiled as part of the eleventh Tirumurai (of the twelve Saiva Tirumurais – Shaiva literature).

Poompuhar is located in Tamil Nadu on the eastern coast of our country. It is here that the river Kaveri unites with the Bay of Bengal. That is why it is also called ‘Kaveri Pugum Pattinam’ (Or Kaveripoompattinam). In this town, in the 9^th century CE, there lived a rich merchant Shivanesan with his wife Gnanakalai. They were great devotees of Lord Shiva.  Shivanesan was so rich that he was called ‘Navakoti Nayakan’ (meaning owner of nine crores).

With the blessings of Lord Shiva of Tiruvenkadu (Swetharanyam), Gnanakalai gave birth to a son whom they named Swetharanyan. It is believed that Swetharanyan was an incarnation of Kubera, the Lord of wealth. Therefore after the birth of Swetharanyan, the wealth of Shivanesan grew multifold.

Lord Kubera was very devoted to Lord Shiva and Ganesha and worship them regularly. Once when Swetharanyan was playing outside his house, the Lord in the form of an elderly person came and gave him a small brass container. When Swetharanyan opened the container, he found a small Shivalingam and a small murti of Ganesha made of emerald. These brought him the remembrance that he was Kubera reborn.

Becoming more devoted to Lord Shiva, Swetharanyan grew up to be a very intelligent boy. Unfortunately his father Shivanesan died when he was eight years old. However, his mother along with her sister-in-law managed the  family business till Swetharanyan took over after which he expanded the wealth immensely.

When he came of a marriageable age, he was married to a girl by name Sivakalai, who was the daughter of one Chidambaram Chettiar and his wife Sivakami.  Swetharanyan and Sivakalai , though blessed otherwise, were not blessed with progeny for many years. After years of intense prayer, Lord Shiva appeared in the dream of Swetharanyan and Sivakalai. “Go to Tiruvidaimarudur!” He ordered. “Meet my devotee Sivasharman and his wife Susheela who will give a baby to you. Pay them with gold equivalent to the weight of the baby and bring the baby home and bring him up as yours!”

At the same time the Lord appeared in the dream of Sivasharman and his wife who were an extremely poor couple devoted to Lord Shiva. “Tomorrow you will find a baby under the Marudha (Arjuna) tree at my temple. Take the baby and give it to Swetharanyan and his wife who will come to you and offer gold equivalent to the weight of the baby. Take the gold and live happily” He said.

Swetharanyan and Sivasharman and their wives were extremely happy and as instructed the exchange took place and a chubby baby boy was now the son of Swetharanyan and Sivakalai. Since he was found under a Marudha tree, he was named Marudhavaanan.

Life went on smoothly as Marudhavaanan grew up to be a handsome young lad who Swetharanyan and his wife were very proud of. Now Marudhavaanan wanted to explore the world and expand the trade of his father. Swetharanyan, who was more than pleased sent him in his ship with his friends on a merchant expedition. (He had a fleet of ships). After the voyage Marudhavaanan returned with huge sacks and unloaded them in a room in their house.

When Swetharanyan came to know of his son’s return, he went eagerly to see how much wealth his son had brought back in the sacks. When he opened them, they were full of dry cow-dung cakes, while some contained puffed rice and flattened rice. Swetharanyan was enraged beyond measure seeing this. In his anger threw out the contents of the sacks. But when the contents touched the ground, they were not cow-dung cakes but gold coins.

Stunned and confused beyond words, he ran to his wife’s room with an agitated mind. “Where is Marudhavaanan?” he asked. “I do not know” replied Sivakalai puzzled at her husband’s state of mind. “He came a while ago and gave me this box and went out”.

Curious, Swetharanyan opened the box and there, he found a stitching needle whose hole was broken and a palm leaf script. The words read “Kaadhatra oosiyum vaaradhe un kadai vazhikke” which meant ‘even a broken needle will not accompany you on your final journey’.  Marudhavaanan was not seen again.

Those words on the palm leaf triggered a complete transformation in Swetharanyan. He realized the futility of all the wealth he was holding. In a moment the millionaire’s mindset in him turned into that of a mendicant’s. Instantly he decided to give up all his comforts and become a mendicant.

Wearing just a loin cloth and a dhoti over it Swetharanyan prepared to leave the palatial house of his. All his family members were shell-shocked. Looking at his mother whose eyes were overflowing with tears, he comforted her. “I will be here when it is time for you to leave this world. Do not worry” he said. His business associates were equally dazed. His accountant Senthan asked him what to do with all his wealth.  Swetharanyan replied that it was not ‘his wealth’ anymore as he had given up everything and Senthan was free to do what he wanted.

Having renounced everything Swetharanyan now went about singing songs on Lord Shiva and begging for his food. His sister who was extremely upset that her brother had brought such shame on the family decided that enough was enough. She called him on the pretext of feeding him and gave him ‘Appam’s’ laced with poison. Swetharanyan just took them and threw them on the roof of his sister’s house saying, “Than vinai thannaichudum, ottappam veettaichudum’ meaning ‘one’s bad deeds will affect oneself this Appam will burn the house’ and it actually did! The roof of his sister’s house caught fire! Everyone was flabbergasted and realized that Swetharanyan was not an ordinary person. Swetharanyan was eventually referred to  as ‘Pattinathaar’, probably since he belonged to Kaveripoompattinam.

On another occasion, when he begged for food from another house, the man of the house beat Pattinathaar up. Pattinathaar then decided that he would not go begging for food henceforth and would eat only if and when he received something and that too only three mouthfuls a day. He would roam around the town like a mad man singing philosophical verses about the impermanence of wealth and that of the physical body and the need to seek the Lord’s feet.

The day came when Pattinathaar’s mother breathed her last. Knowing her impending demise by intuition, Pattinathaar was present when her last breath left the body. Though he was prevented by many saying that a mendicant should not do the last rites, he prevailed upon them. “Wood is too hard a material for my  mother who has for nine months borne all the pain in carrying me and bringing me up thereafter” – saying so he brought the fresh stems of plantain trees just like Adi Shankara had done. Tenderly placing his mother’s body on them, he sang a series of verses starting with the verse “Iyirandu Thingalaai”. When he sang “Munnai itta thee muppurathile…”, to the surprise of all around, the white plantain stems caught fire and the funeral was completed.

Pattinathaar was now relieved that he had completed his duty to his mother. Now, he left Kaveripoompattinam and started to travel all over Bharat. He reached the Malwa region and Ujjain. There he went to a Ganesh Mandir and was in deep meditation sitting behind the Murti. A group of thieves had just looted things from the palace and were passing by the Ganesh Mandir. One of them looked at the Ganesh Murti and threw an emerald necklace at the Murti. “Thank you Ganesha for helping in our loot!!” he yelled as they sped. The necklace, instead of landing on Ganesha, landed on the neck of Pattinathaar who did not even realise that.

In the morning the king’s guards saw Pattinathaar sitting in the temple with the missing necklace. He was still in deep meditation. They just lifted him like lifting a sack of flour and carried him to the presence of the king. The king did not even want to look at him and without conducting any enquiry, he declared impalement as the punishment for the crime. The men carried Pattinathaar to the place where the stakes were ready for the punishment. Just then, Pattinathaar woke up from his meditation. Looking around, he grasped the situation he was in.

What happened next? Read Part 2 which will follow shortly….