INTRODUCTION
Ilayankudi Mara Nayanar, is a follower of Shaivism and celebrated as a Nayanar. He is a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva and lived a noble and a simple life. He regularly conducted pujas at his home and offered food to shiva devotees and then only he and his family would consume food.
INTRODUCTION
Ilayankudi Marar was born in Ilaiyangudi which is situated in Sivaganga district, Tamilnadu. Since he was born in Ilayankudi he was called as Illayankudi Mara Nayanar. Marar was a farmer and got lot of agricultural lands. Though he was a rich man, he lived a simple life, and provided all the necessities to the shiva devotees and took care of them properly.
Due to his continuous food donation to the shiva devotees, his wealth was gradually diminished. Even after that, he still continued to serve the devotees by selling his agricultural lands in order to feed the devotees. In one rainy night, Lord Shiva came to his home in the form of a shiva devotee and asked for food.Mara Nayanar and his wife were starving without food for that entire day, but even then, they welcomed the devotee in a kind manner and asked him to take rest for some time. Finally the couple gathered the paddy seeds from their little farm land and also collected some greens from their field. Since they didn’t have firewood to make it to burn for preparing the food, they broke a portion from their wooden roof and burnt it for preparing the food. The food was prepared and Marar delightfully went with the food to offer it to the devotee (Lord Shiva). The devotee suddenly disappeared and in his place Lord Shiva appeared with Mata Parvati and blessed them and gave all the prosperity to them. After the death of the couple, both of them reached Kailasa and attained MUKTHI.
Let us worship this great nayanar saint and be blessed.
“OM SREE ILAYANKUDI MARA NAYANARE NAMAHA”
“OM NAMAH SHIVAYA”
“OM SAKTHI PARA SAKTHI”
WRITTEN BY R. Harishankar
