This is a Jeevasamadhi of Thirumoolar Siddhar. He is also one of 63 Nayanar.
There is separate temple that has the Jeeva Samadhi of Thirumoolar. There is a place to sit and meditate next to the Jeevasamadhi. You can go into meditative states here effortlessly.
How to get there
The temple is located between Kumbakonam and Mayiladuthurai. It is 17 kms South West of Mayiladuthurai.
Map: https://goo.gl/maps/rLJVTzg2To5kDhtt5
About Thirumoolar Nayanar
Tirumula Nayanar was a Saiva Siddha. He was one of the eight students of Tirunandi Devar Who showered His grace on them. They were all Yogis. He was called Tirumular because he entered into the mortal frame of Mulan.
Tirumular desired to see Agastya Rishi in Pothia hills. So he left Kailasa and went southwards. On the way, he visited many Saivite shrines. When he came to Tiruvavaduthurai, he took bath in the river Kaveri and went to the temple. He went round the temple twice and offered prayer to the Lord. When he was walking along the bank of Kaveri, he saw a herd of cows shedding tears. He found out the cause: the cow-herd lay dead. Tirumular wanted to pacify the cows. He entered the body of the cowherd after safely depositing his own body in the trunk of a tree. The cows rejoiced again. This cowherd was known as Mulan, a resident of Sattanur. In the evening, he drove the cows back into the village. Mulan’s wife was eagerly expecting the return of her husband. But, when she approached him that day, he would not allow her to touch him, but said: ‘Oh lady, I am not your husband. Adore Lord Siva and attain Liberation.’ He left her and went away to a near-by Math.
The lady complained to the leaders of the place, about the conduct of her husband. They examined him and came to the conclusion that he had attained great spiritual evolution. So, they asked her to leave him alone. The next day, Tirumular followed the cows, but could not find his body where he had left it. It was the Lord’s Lila. Lord Siva wanted Tirumular to write a book on Saiva Philosophy, containing the essence of all Siva Agamas, in Tamil. Tirumular understood His wish and returned to Tiruvavaduthurai. He worshipped the Lord and sat under the near-by peepul tree in deep meditation. He was in Samadhi for three thousand years. But, every year, he would come down from Samadhi and compose a stanza: thus, in three thousand years he wrote three thousand stanzas. This book is called Tirumandiram.
The Lord’s mission had thus been fulfilled. Then, Tirumular went back to Kailasa.
Thirumoolar Siddhar
Siddha Thirumoolar is a Grandfather of Siddhas whose original yogic name was Sundarar Nathar. There is no agreement on when and where he was born and when he lived. Ask six historians when Thirumoolar lived, and you may well get six answers. His time of existence possibly goes 7,000 years back. Others place him in the 10th century. Some scholars believed he lived between the 6th to 7th centuries AD. Some even say his life goes way back to the Ramayana era.
Sundarar Nathar was a disciple of the great Nath guru Maharishi Nandinatha in the Himalayas. Guru Nandhi Natha Devar preached and taught the Nine Veda Agamas (Vedic traditions) that Lord Shiva first taught to Parvathi and then to himself. The great Siddha Nandi Natha blessed his disciple, Sundarar Nathar, and instructed him to undertake the arduous journey to the South of India, to spread monistic Shaiva Siddhanta (attaining liberation through the grace of Lord Shiva) so that mankind may overcome the illusion of separation in the ultimate experience of PARASHIVA (Ultimate Truth Consciousness), where God and soul are one. Having achieved the eight siddhis (spiritual powers) and perfect enlightenment at the feet of his Nath guru Maharishi Nandinatha, Rishi Sundarar Nathar later became known as Rishi Thirumoolar. He joined the venerable Nath lineage and became one of its most celebrated yogis. Of his gratitude to his guru Nandi, he wrote in Thirumandiram:
By Nandi’s grace, master I became;
By Nandi’s grace, I sought Mular;
What can happen without Nandi’s grace?
I remained, seeking to expound Nandi’s path.
By the grace of Nandi, I sought Mular;
By the grace of Nandi, I became Sadasiva;
By the grace of Nandi, I became united with supreme wisdom;
What I am is by the grace of Nandi.
Following his initiation, Sundarar Nathar was sent by Maharishi Nandinatha to revive Shaiva Siddhanta in the South of Bharat (India). Taking leave of Nandinatha and his brother monks, Sundarar Nathar began his life’s mission: to bring the true knowledge of the Agamas (manuals for worship, rituals) and Vedas to the southern parts of India in the Tamil language. It was a long and arduous journey in those days, thousands of kilometers by foot, on simple roads and paths. Scripture notes that Rishi Sundarar Nathar took pains to visit the sacred Shaiva centers en route, beginning with Kedarnath in the North, a remote stone shrine in the snowy Himalayan peaks, at the fountainhead of the river Ganga, near the border of Tibet. Now, apart from his Sat Guru, he sat at the headwaters of the river Ganga. His life’s work lay ahead, his years of learning were complete, and his mystical experiences were swirling all about. He would later write of these early realisations, of the four forms of Shaivism, the four stages, the four relationships the soul has with God, the four realisations attainable, the four aspects of the descent of grace, and the power of true renunciation of the world.
Thirumoolar is one of the 18 Siddhars. His main work is the Thirumandiram (literal meaning – ‘Sacred mantra’ or ‘Holy incantation’) that describes various aspects, from Science and Medicine to the Human aspects of Life and the Divine – Lord Shiva (PARASHIVA).
Thirumoolar perceived Siddha Medicine as not merely a science but also as an art. He was a kind of Siddha doctor and was one among eight Siddhas who had seen Nataraja (Lord Shiva) performing the Ananda Tandava or cosmic dance in Chidambaram, in the South of India.
Life History
Sundarar Nathar started the journey from Mount Kailash to meet his friend, Guru Sage Agastya, also a Siddha Master in the Pothigai Hills in South India. Thirumoolar, at that time, was already a very high Siddha Master who had Ashta Siddhis (8 spiritual powers) and Nava Nidhis (9 treasures of God Kubera). On his way, he stopped and worshipped Lord Shiva in Kedarnath, and the Pashupatishvara Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. Gautama, the Buddha, had preceded him there 300 or 400 years before. At the Shiva temple, Sundarar Nathar reflected on the Buddha’s life and teaching, and his own destiny. In pondering the life of Gautama, he gained courage and prepared to continue his pilgrimage. But there was a difference. Thirumoolar was immersed in the overwhelming, ever-consuming, passionate love for Lord Shiva, whereas Buddhism is not. He saw first hand that Divine Love incinerates impurities and purifies the soul.
Use the bone as firewood, chopping the flesh,
Fry it hard in the golden fire;
Unless one’s self mellows and melts with tender love,
One cannot attain Shiva, the priceless gem.
Search! You will find no God like Lord Shiva;
None here can compare with Him; He transcends all worlds;
Golden-hued, His matted locks glow like fire;
He is in the lotus of the hearts.
He went along the banks of the river Ganges and reached Kashi (Varanasi). On the way, he passed through Sri Sailam, Thiru Kalahasti, Thiruvaalangadu, Kancheepuram, Thiruvadhikai, and Veeratam. After passing through Chidambaram he reached Thiruvavaduthurai, situated on the southern riverbank of the Kaveri river.
Reborn as Thirumoolar without Dying
Nearing the end of his journey close to a village Sathanur, an amazing event changed Sundarar Nathar’s life forever. He saw a group of cows surrounding a dead cowherd. The cows were smelling the dead body and crying. This cowherd, who had the name Moolan, was from a nearby village called Sathanur and had been bitten by a snake, and died. Seeing the cows weeping with sorrow so touched was Thirumoolar that he decided to alleviate the sufferings of the poor cows.
He first looked for a place to hide his physical body and found a hollow log. Crawling into the log, where his body would be safe, he entered a mesmerist, cataleptic trance, stepped out in his astral body, walked over to the dead cowherd, lay down on top of the corpse, entered it, and slowly brought it back to life. The first thing he saw upon reanimating Moolan’s body was one of the cows looking into his face, crying big tears from both eyes, tears of joy. All the cows now gathered around their beloved Moolan, licking his face and body with their abrasive tongues and bellowing in bovine joy. After a time, they began to graze as usual, and the sight gladdened Sundarar Nathar’s heart. Moolan, in the meantime, had transformed into Thirumoolar (Holy Moolan).
Later in the evening, Thirumoolar gathered the cows and led them back to the village to their home. Thirumoolar stayed near the border of the village. Moolan’s wife, worried that he had not returned home, set out in search of him. When she approached Thirumoolar, he stepped back and told her that he ‘has no relationship with her,’ and went back to a public place and immersed himself in a yogic state. Moolan’s wife was puzzled, not knowing what had happened to her husband Moolan, and what to do. The next morning she went up to the village leaders and explained her situation to them and what had happened. After investigating Thirumoolar, the village leaders said he was not mad but a real yogi and convinced Moolan’s wife to go back home and follow a spiritual life since her husband Moolan was gone.
Returning to the hollow log, Thirumoolar looked inside and found that his body was not there. He searched for days, looking in every hollow log he could find. Finally, in desperation, he sat in padmasana upon the log where he had left his North Indian (old form) body. Entering deep yoga samadhi, he contacted his Guru, Maharishi Nandinatha. They communed, as mystics do, and he learned that Lord Shiva Himself, through His great power of dissolution, had dissolved the atomic structure of the old body after he was well settled and adjusted to his Tamilian cowherd’s body, with the boon that he could now speak fluent Tamil. He realised that now he could effectively give out to the Tamil-speaking world the truths of the Shaiva Agamas and the precious Vedas, uniting Siddhanta with Vedanta for all time.
Lord Shiva decided to deliver the Vedha Agamam through the cowherd Moolan’s body, which could only speak the Tamil language (South Indian language) at a level that a layperson can easily understand. It was Lord Shiva’s grace that had made his body disappear to engage Thirumoolar into the sacred undertaking of writing Vedas, scriptures, and the true meaning of Lord Shiva Himself in the Tamil language. Thus, he decided to accept the task Lord Shiva had bestowed on him.
Rishi Thirumoolar then traveled towards the Thiruvavaduthurai temple, sat under a Peepal tree (Ficus Religiosa), and went into his yogic samadhi state. He composed the THIRUMANDIRAM with 3,000 hymns uttered whenever he came out of samadhi states and written on palm leaves. Tradition holds that composing one hymn per year took him 3,000 years to compose these hymns. It contains fourfold ways of attaining salvation: SARIYAI (service), KIRAYI (creation), YOGAM (meditation), GYANAM (True Knowledge). Along with 3,000 hymns given by Thirumoolar, 300 mantras were given by him, and 30 preachings. These three revelations will remain forever. However, Thirumoolar did not release his hymns to the world immediately as he thought the world was not yet ready to receive their true nature. He hid (buried) the palm leaves under the earth on which Thirumandiram was written, near the flag pillar near Thiruvavaduthurai temple.
After 4,000 years, a highly respected Naayanmaar, one of the four Nayanmars (the teachers of Shiva) named Thirugnana Sambanathar (Respected True Knowledge Scholar), born in South India, went on an epic pilgrimage to all Shiva temples singing various hymns to Lord Shiva. When he reached Thiruvavadudurai, he perceived the fragrance of the divine Tamil hymns. When he asked others for its source, they started digging where the divine fragrance was intense and found the palm leaves of Thirumandiram hymns. He read the marvelous scriptures and understood with great joy the sheer genius and amazing beauty of Thirumandiram. He then decided to spread the Thirumandiram to the world and started singing its hymns to the world.
There are other accounts that say Thirumoolar Siddhar wrote a single verse each day for 3,000 days. Whatever actually happened, even a year’s meditation would be insufficient to comprehend the subtle and complete Jnana (Absolute Truth) contained in the four-line stanza of each verse in Thirumandiram.
Source:
https://www.dlshq.org/download/sixty-three-nayanar-saints/
https://mydattatreya.com/thirumoolar/
