Kannappa Naayanaar-mr
Story of Kannappa Naayanaar
Nayanars are saints of Tamil Nadu who are devoted to God Shiva. They are known for their steadfast devotion to Lord Shiva and have influenced the Bhakti movement.
One such saint was Kannappa Nayanar who belonged to the hunting tribe Nagan. He was born as Thinnan and His father was a chieftain.Thinnan means “strong” in Tamil and according to his name, he became a strong man by acquiring the skills of martial arts and archery from his father and other elders. Very soon he also became a skilled archer.Days, months and years flew by and Thinnan grew up to be a responsible young man and was appointed as the chieftain of his tribe.
Thinnan and his friends often went hunting as was the practice of his tribe. One such day, Thinnan started chasing a wild boar and he found himself to be amidst a dense forest. He killed the boar and while walking with the meat, suddenly to his astonishment, his eyes fell upon a beautiful Lingam, the form of Lord Shiva. He had never seen anything like this before and had the uncontrollable urge to stay back with the Lord. He told his friend to cook the boar and then he offered it to the Lord. He also requested his friend to inform his parents about his intention to stay in the forest for a while.
It became an everyday practice for Thinnan to go hunting and to offer the cooked meat to his beloved Lord, Shiva. Since he did not have any utensils to carry water, he carried it in his mouth. He bathed the idol with this water. He plucked wild flowers and kept them in his matted hair and decorated the Lord with these flowers.His devotion for his Lord was so pure that he did not think twice about doing all this. This became his routine and It was indeed a strange sight!
Shiva Kochariyar, a sage who was a great devotee of Lord Shiva also used to visit this very place to worship the Shiva Linga. To his horror, one day, he found the meat offering, near the Linga. He immediately cleaned the Linga thinking that some animal would have left it’s killed prey there.But when he found meat offering every day, he knew that something was going on. He prayed to Lord Shiva to help him solve this mysterious problem. The Lord came in his dream and told him that one of His devotee is responsible for all this and there was no need to get alarmed. The sage could hide behind the bush and keep a watch, to find out for himself.
The next day, the sage did as he was told and to his utter dismay, he found Thinnan bathing the Lord with the water from his mouth and decorating Him with flowers from his matted hair and offering meat. Then, he started praying to the Lord. Suddenly, blood started oozing from one of the eyes of the Lingam. Alarmed, Thinnan tried to wipe it with his own garment. When it did not help he ran into the forest and got some medicinal herbs. He tried to press it in the Lord’s eye hoping for it to heal. Still, nothing worked and blood continued gushing out. Without wasting a minute, Thinnan scooped out his own left eye with the help of his arrow and placed it in the depression of the Lord’s eye.The bleeding stopped!
Thinnan was happy that his Lord’s eye was healed. Suddenly, the Lord’s other eye started bleeding.Shiva Kochariyar’s heart now started pounding and he wondered what would happen next. If Thinnan thought of removing his right eye, how would he know where to keep it on the Lingam as he would be blind. To his amazement,Thinnan lifted his leg and kept it on the Lord’s eye and then proceeded to remove his right eye.Just then a divine voice was heard. “Stop! You are Kannappa now, as you have offered your eye to me!” It was the Lord Himself speaking!
Thinnan was overjoyed to hear this . His eyes also healed and he was blessed with the appearance of the Lord. The sage learnt a lesson about the deep love and devotion that Thinnan had for Lord Shiva. His love for Lord Shiva was so intense that, the Lord did not mind what was offered to Him, or how He was bathed or where the flowers came from. Only thing that mattered to the Lord was Thinnan’s pure mind with which he offered everything to the Lord. Truly, he exemplified the Archanam form of Bhakthi !