In the holy land of India innumerable saints, Gnanis, Rishis and messengers have appeared in all the time periods. These noble men have taught people the way to lead the life and in the end achieve the goal of human birth which is union with the Supreme Lord. They have made people realize the Supreme One who is without impurities and who is accessible and displaying himself as the divine light of one’s eye.
Where all these noble men have gone? They went back from where they have come. Before they went back they have codified their experiences in the form of Puranas and stories so that later generation will understand and realize them. All of these great men have stressed the importance of one possessing noble qualities like virtuousness, morality, good conduct, justice, truth, non-violence and love. Every human should poses these qualities to live as a human.
All these great man have preached the following divine truth only: 1. Supreme Lord is only one. 2. He is the one who is with and without form and is as supreme infinite divine light. 3. He is the one who is there in every place and also inside every atom as divine light. 4. He is the one who is capable of doing everything and all thing. 5. Everything is his work and he is the one who is without beginning and without end. 6. He is the one who is praised as Paramathma, Paramporul and many other names.
The Supreme Lord who is as everything is also there as five basic elements in universe which are earth, water, fire, air and open space. All the things that were found in this universe were the combination of these five elements only. In fact every basic element has all other elements also within it. This is the greatest wonder and miracle. One is contained within other and vice versa.
Human beings were also formed by the combination of these five basic elements. Outer physical body is part of basic element – earth, our blood belongs to the basic element – Liquid, Our Soul is in the form of basic element – Fire, our breath belongs to the basic element of Air and all these were inside the “space” of the human body. Think about this great wonder which the supreme Lord has created.
Contemplate on the below point: Did we get our human body as per our preference? How did we took birth? Why did we take birth? From where did we take birth? We keep growing day by day and how all these things happen? How are we leading our life? Lot of people die without even thinking about all these.
Today people lead their life as per the whims of their mind influenced by what they see and what they hear. They eat whatever they want and meet their end without knowing how to live! Still worse and pity is lot of people live their life like animals without knowing the real purpose of life.
To save and uplift the people from ignorance and deliver them from the illusionary bond of materialism, these great saints have made people realize the way of leading the life like humans. There are so many saints and Gnanis in this holy land who have done (and doing) the great service to the humans in uplifting them.
The Karma that we have committed in our previous births is the reason for us to take this birth. This is the first divine Secret. Someone is keeping count all our accumulated Karmas. Someone is making us to take birth to a particular father and mother at a particular time!
The one who made us to take birth has also given us this human body and gender and is also present in us as our soul and fostering our body besides defining our life as per our Karma. He is the one who has given us the four intellectual tools of mind, Intelligence, Will Power and Self Pride and is making us to lead the life. Why is this Drama? Divine Play?
Who am I? What is the meaning of that which I see? Is it all illusion? Whatever I hear is true or false?
Is that all I see and hear were false? Which or What is Truth? Who will inform me of all these things? To whom do I approach and know these things?
The answer to all these questions, which were the lessons of life were given by the great Gnanis of this divine land? Oho people of the world, you have taken birth as human but are you living like a human? Contemplate deeply about yourself first. Think about the goodness and badness in you. Leave all your bad behaviors’ and become a good one.
We have so many holy books and scriptures in the form of Vedas, Upanishads, Ithikaas and teachings of innumerable Siddhars and Gnanis to guide us. If one understand any one of these teachings and follow it he will become a good person. It is the responsibility of every parent to teach these truths to their children.
Today parents were only interested in making their children earn money and they force children for this. The parents think that they are the one’s responsible for making the children take birth and they compel them to lead the life as per their wish. They also indulge them to marry and lead the life. Children listen to their parents when they are young. But when they grow they start to feel that their parents are interfering with their freedom. They show their anger and resentment on their parents. A person who does not obey and modify himself when he was young will only change by the bitter experience and hardship he faces in his life. The reason for all these things is because the parents did not bring their child properly.
A Mother shows her child its father. Does any of the child knows about its father on his own? It is through the mother’s word that the child believes a person as his father. A good father should teach his child Moral, Virtuousness, Devotion, Good Conduct and Discipline. But today a person like a dog goes from place to place in search of wealth. There is a saying that the taste goes off with the mother and the education goes off with father. It is mother who with love gives milk to the child and nurtures it with care. A good father likewise should educate his child by taking the child to a good Guru and see that the child becomes a good human being.
A Father who sees that his child gets the “Spiritual Education of Deathlessness” from a qualified guru is a good father. One who gets a good Gnana SarGuru is the one who will become a true human. He then becomes divine and in the end attains the state of the Supreme Lord.
We have to realize the truth that before this birth we have undergone many birth and deaths in the bodies of grass, insects, birds, animals, ghosts and in the end attained this rarest of rare birth which is the birth as human beings. Is it not in this rarest human birth do we need to realize the truth?
A True Guru is one who teaches all these truths as it is and leads and guides one in the noble path of Gnana. Such a Guru is a True Guru. Mei Guru. Gnana SarGuru. In this holy land of India there is no dearth of such Gurus. The Tamil Language is said to have formed before the formation of stone and
Sand. Going by this it implies that there were great Gnanis and Saints from the times which cannot be calculated.
Like this from time after time, one after another there were so many saints and Gnanis who have come to this holy land and have guided the people in the noble way. In this divine line of Mei Gnanis and in the 19th century in Tamil Nadu, which is the treasure house of Gnanam (divine wisdom) in India, there came a great saint by the name TiruArutPrakasa Ramalinga Vallalar. He came to lead the people of the world in the noble path of Gnana.
All the saints who have appeared so for did not come to uplift any particular sect of people. Their teachings is not confined to any single person or community. They showed the way for all the people to lead a noble life. They advised people to live with unity based on love for each other. These saints lived the life in full and in noble way such that all the people praised them. Even years after they lived they are still living in the memories of the people. These great ones were truly divine children. These Saints never discriminated people on the basis of religion, caste, race, language or nationality.
Gnanis were the great people who see all the souls as their soul. They are always with love and mercy for all the souls. Compassion is their only act. “All land is our land and all people are our brothers and Sisters” were their teaching. They won the world with love. Their mind withered on seeing the withered crop. Their preaching centered on these things: “God is Only One. All the souls are his children. Every one of us were brothers and Sisters.”
Still greater than these saints is Vallalar who felt it is just not sufficient to live with prosperity but it is important to attain the divine blissful life of deathlessness. In order to make people attain this great divine life of deathlessness he preached people the way to this great state in a simple and easily understandable way. Such is the greatness of the saint TiruArutPrakasa Ramalinga Vallalar.
Vallalar also preached the same knowledge told by all Saints which is “The Supreme Lord is One and he is as divine light”. Temple and idol worship is to help the people to attain spiritual maturity and provide culture. Similarly Yoga and Pranayam were to reform our body and mind and they come under the path of Yoga. Gnanam implies knowing and realizing that I am Jeevatma created by the Supreme Lord and attaining the state of the Supreme Lord.
The above fact is clearly bought out by our incomparable Gnani TiruArutPrakasa Vallalar and preached that the purpose of the human birth is to attain Gnanam or Gnana. Only by completely knowing about this great Saint Vallalar we can follow his way which is the way through the light of the eye and attain Gnanam.
The life of Vallalar is itself lesson to us. He has made us to think and contemplate about the teachings of so many Gnanis.
Vallalar who is called as Ramalingam by his parents took birth in Tamil Nadu in a small village called Maruthur which is around 20 Km from holy city Chidambaram. There are 5 holy places where Lord is worshipped in the form of 5 basic Elements (Pancha bootha Thalam). Chidambaram represents the holy place where lord is worshipped in the form of Open Space.
Ramalingar father name is Ramayaa Pillai and his mother is Cinamaiyaar. His father was working as clerk in the village. His father had five wives who died one after another. As 6th wife Ramayaa pillai married Chinamaiyaar who is from the place called Chinakaavaanam which is near ponneri in Tiruvallur District. This Couple had two sons by the name Sabapathy and Parasuram and two daughters by the name Unnamulai and Sundaram.
One day in their life Ramayaa Pillai was out of his village for some work. During that afternoon a Saint came in front of their house asking for food. Chinamaiyaar came out of his house and seeing the saint standing there invited him inside the house and served the saint with delicious food. On seeing the devotion and Service of this woman Chinamaiyaar the saint blessed her by saying “You have removed my hunger and soon you will beget a great son who will remove the hunger of the world”. The saint after blessing her gave her the holy ash as prasadam and left. When her husband came back in the evening Chinamaiyaar told the happenings to him and felt very happy. Ramayaa Pillai felt that Lord Siva has himself come to his house and felt sad as he could not be there during the arrival of the saint. He consoled himself by feeling that at least his wife got that favor and blessings.
In the Tamil Month of Purataasi and in the Tamil Year of Subhaanu and in the 21st day in the Star of Chithirai which happened to be Sunday and in the time 5:50 PM (05-10-1823) , to the couple of Ramayaa Pillai and Chinamai, Ramalingam took birth as their fifth child. In order to remove the ignorance which is covering the world Ramalingam took birth by the grace of Supreme Lord to lit the light of Gnanam.
When Ramalingam was 5 months old his parents took him to the Lord Natarajan temple in Chidambaram for worshipping the deity there. After worshipping the Supreme Lord as Lord Nataraja they went to a place in the temple called “Chidambara Ragasiyam” meaning divine secret of Chidambaram. In this place when the temple priest called as Appaya deekshitar removed the curtain and showed the holy flame 5 month old Ramalingam laughed loudly.
When the priest saw the 5 month old child laughing he realized that the child was a divine child who took birth by the grace of the Supreme Lord. With bliss he invited the whole family to his house and served them food. The Supreme Lord made Ramalingam to realize the secret of the Vast Open Space in his 5th month itself.
When Ramalingam was 6 months old his father Ramaiyaa Pillai died. His mother along with her children went to her home town Chinakaavanam. They suffered a lot from poverty. In the meantime Ramalingar brother Sabapathi took the whole family to live in Chennai. In Chennai they stayed in the street of Veeraasaamy pillai in Thanga Saalai area. Sabapathi was a learned scholar and using that he taught the children and also gave religious discourses. Using the income earned through these they were able to lead the life.
When Ramalingam was 6 years old his brother Sababathi pillai started to teach him. But Ramalingar did not behave like other children and he was not interested in playing or in reading. His brother thought since Ramalingam is related to him he is not learning properly and so he send him to his teacher in Kanchipuram, the great scholar Sabapathi Mudaliyaar. But Ramalingam displayed the same behavior with this new teacher as well. What is the reason?
Ramalingam was made to realize the truth of the “Chidambara Ragasiyam” in his 5th month itself by the Supreme Lord. The Knowledge of Gnana is given to Ramalingam by the Supreme Lord himself which is far superior to the worldly knowledge. Having enjoyed the bliss of that Supreme truth Ramalingam mind
did not got involved in worldly things. His mind is always thinking about the Supreme Lord only. Anything other than this he is not even ready to hear.