Nanda,the pariah saint continued...
Nanda paused and heard the whole story of Chidambaram from the eloquent lips of the Brahmin Reciter.It acted on him like magic.The words,Chidambaram and Nataraja,obtained a strange mastery over him.He became eager to visit Chidambaram,which was not very far off,that very night,and was with great difficulty dissuaded from his object by his companions."The temple at chidambaram would be closed,"they said,"before you reach it and besides ,you are a slave to your Brahmin Master,you should not forget your position so easily.we have already stayed away too long and it will not be proper to do so longer." A Lesser man in that situation might have been provoked to reply:"Is that Brahmin greater than God?I care not for him.I shall have my own way," but Nanda meekly replied:"Yes,you are right.It has pleased God to place me in the situation of a bondsman.He knows what is good for me infinitely better than I do.To resign myself to His Will,is even a higher worship than visit his temple.I shall fall at the feet of my Brahmin Landlord,and please him in all honest ways and I am sure he will sooner or later allow me to go to Chidambaram."So saying ,he returned home with his companions,but not before he had dug out with their assistance a tank,still pointed out as his,for the use of the people at Tirupunkoor.The feat was regarded as wonderful,and the idea of a few pariahs joining together and creating a tank,was an altogether novel one,so much so,that popular tradition attributes the work to God Ganesa,who did it in order to please his father Siva's devotee.The Truth is ,Love works wonders and Nanda's love was of a very high order;it was not like that of some people who go into the temple with plenty of offerings to God-coconuts,plantain fruits,etc ,but would not give a pie to the beggar at the temple gate.In Nanda's eyes all men were God's children and to serve them,was itself a kind of worship,higher even than supplying temple-drums with leather or making offerings to God.After digging and completing the tank,he and his companions returned home.
Henceforth it became the one passion of Nanda's life to visit the great temple of Nataraja.Day and night he would pant for it.While working in the fields,while staying at home,while laying himself down to sleep,always his mind was with the Great God dancing as it were the unceasing dance of Creation,Maintenance and Destruction.Everyday he would think of begging his master to let him go to Chidambaram,but day after day passed without his venturing to do so for fear of a refusal.He would tell his friends everyday:"I go to Chidambaram to-morrow,"but a great many to-morrows became to-days and he had not gone:he became a veritable "dupe of to-morrow" and his very friends nicknamed him "one that goes to-morrow"(TirunALaipOvAr)
In the meantime,the pariah community at Adhanur,among whom true Bhakti was a thing altogether unknown,observed first with curiosity and then with alarm,the change that was coming over Nanda.The constant repetition of the Holy Name of Siva,the frequent besmearing of the body with sacred ashes,the meditation he was plunged in,and more even than these,the thorough change that had come over the inner man,his extreme meekness and humility,his constant and involuntary references to God,his inability to talk of anything but Him and His glory,his self absorption even in the midst of work,caused real uneasiness in the minds of his ignorant kinsmen,to whom any kind of deviation from the accustomed run of Life was a source of Fear.He would seldom mix in the cruel and barbarous sports of his community;meat and toddy lost their sway over him.Butchery was an act of abomination in his eyes,and he discouraged it whenever he had occasion.Often while the rest of the community was engaged in quarrel or gossip,he would unconcernedly repose under some tree and meditate:he would look at the wonderful creation around him,admire the unceasing miracles of the universe-plants,rivers,mountains,trees,and say:"Ah,all this deceptive phenomenal wealth is the glory of that one foot of Nataraja so firmly planted down.Beautiful as all this is,let me O God cross over to you and see you not as you seem,but as you are." Then he would fix his mind on the raised foot of Nataraja and pray with eyes filled with tears to be sheltered under its blissful shade of wisdom.
One day Nanda had long sat meditating in this way till his eyes were suffused with tears of joy and he passed into an ecstatic trance,when a curious neighbour went near him,and finding him unconscious and his body wetted with tears,gave the alarm to the whole community that something was wrong with Nanda.The report found ready acceptance on all sides,and soon our poor friend was shaken rudely and disturbed and was at once demanded an explanation;but all that he could say was:"Knowing that there is a God,who can help worshipping him?" which ofcourse was not found satisfactory.The result was that a council was at once formed on the spot,and it was unanimously resolved by the wise of the community,that Nanda's malady was due to the fault of not having held feasts for their gods more frequently,and that therefore one should be celebrated the very next day.
Grand were the preparations that were made for the feast.A huge pandal(shed)was erected and decorated with plantain trees,coconuts,mango leaves and flags.Fowls and sheep were procured in abundance for sacrifice.A Valluva priest of oracular fame was called in,and grotesque clay figures of the mighty gods of wonderful names-veeran,iruLan,kAtteri,veryan,Nondi,chAmundi,nallakarupan,pettannan,pavadai and a multitude of others too numerous to be mentioned here,were made.The next morning,the whole village gathered together under the pandal.The clay gods were arranged in order of importance;fowls and sheep and pots of toddy were ready for the feast.Nanda was held by main force,for which however there was no need ,in the centre of the assembly,and the high priest Valluvanar shook his damarukkam(a little drum);and at once there was a wild blowing of horns and reckless beating of 'drums and timbrels loud' and,as soon as they stopped,the holy priest got inspired;god has descended unto him,and he rose making all sorts of hideous cries;about ten people held him down,perhaps to prevent his escape to heaven.Thus held down and shaking forth his damarukkam,he delivered with appropriate gestures the following oracular utterances."Nandan," he said, "Nandan-Nandan-Nandan is possessed with the big long haired devil which resids in the market Tamarind tree;it will make him laugh and weep and run and talk and sleep"(many people do these things without the help of the devil-Iyer)and he asked:"Does he not do all these?" to which there was a tumultuous reply of "aye,aye,how true the Oracle,how right!". Nanda said nothing but thought within himself:"O Lord,how wonderful is thy dance!Here is a wonderful scene played in thy endless Drama!"
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