INTRODUCTION
Tirunilakanta Nayanar was a Nayanar saint, and a great devotee of Lord Shiva. He is considered as one among the 63 Nayanars.
LIFE
Tirunilakanta Nayanar lived in Chidambaram, and was a regular visitor of Thillai Nataraja Temple. He belonged to the family of potters. He lived his life by making pots and other household clay items. He was a sincere devotee of Lord Shiva and distributed pots to the devotees of Shiva at free of cost and also provided food to them in his house.
During his young age, Tirunilakanta Nayanar had maintained affair with another woman. Due to that, his wife doesn’t allow him to touch her, but fulfilled all of her duties as a dutiful wife. In course of time, they have become old.
Once, Lord Shiva transformed himself as a Shaiva Saint and met Tirunilakanta Nayanar and asked him to keep a costly begging bowl with him for some time. After some time, the saint (Lord Shiva) returned to his home and asked for his bowl. But Lord Shiva had made the begging bowl to disappear.
He has asked the nayanar to make a promise along with his wife in order to prove himself that the begging bowl was not stolen by him. Since Tirunilakanta doesn’t want to touch his wife, he and his wife entered the temple pond, each holding an end of a bamboo stick. The old couple immersed themselves in the pond and emerged as a young couple when they rose up. The entire people in that place were astonished on seeing that incident. The saint disappeared from that place and Lord Shiva appeared with Mata Parvati and blessed the couple. After their death, both of them attained mukthi and reached KAILASA, the holy abode of Lord Shiva.
Sundarar praises Tirunilakanta Nayanar in the sacred text “Tiruthonda Thogai”. Tirunilakanta Nayanar is worshiped in the Tamil month of Thai, and also worshiped as a nayanar in the shiva temples.
IMPORTANCE
Tirunilakanta after committing a sin of having an affair with another woman, had realized his mistake and left all the worldly pleasures in his life, and didn’t touch his wife. But Lord Shiva had granted the boon of becoming young to both of them. He lived his entire life by worshiping Lord shiva and served his devotees in a humble manner.
Let us worship the divine saint and be blessed.
“OM SREE TIRUNILAKANTA NAYANARE NAMAHA”
“OM NAMAH SHIVAYA”
“OM SAKTHI PARA SAKTHI”
WRITTEN BY R.HARISHANKAR
