The Royal Devotee

The Story of Kulashekhara Aazhvaar

- LAKSHMI DEVNATH

“Sleepyhead, wake up!” The all-too-familiar voice of the Swami jolted her out of her sleep. Poorva found that she was back in the stables. Jumping off the horse, she said, “Swami Thaatha, I went for a long, long ride, all by myself on this fabulous horse!”

Poorva turned to pat the animal and got the strange feeling that it was bowing its head to the Swami. Enough of your fantasies, she chastised herself. “Thaatha, I must tell you about the wonderful cave that I saw.” Poorva described everything to the last detail.

The Swami said, “From your description, I gather that you’ve visited the wonderful Namakkal cave temples. They are a good distance from here; in fact, outside the boundaries of the Chera kingdom. Your time has certainly been well spent, though I must say many years have passed since you left this palace.”

Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years – none of these make sense to me any more, mused Poorva. But the Swami’s words, for sure, make a lot of sense. So I shouldn’t miss out on what he is saying. She reined in her wandering thoughts.

“Those caves are man-made, carved painstakingly out of huge rocks. The main deity you saw in there was Lord Ranganatha, wasn’t it? Behind Him were the figures of Sage Markandeya, the one blessed to be eternally sixteen; Varuna, the rain god; Thumburu, a celestial musician; and Narada, whom you yourself identified. Along with them were also Patanjali, a rishi who wrote on yoga; the gods Brahma and Surya; the two demons Madhu and Kaithabha; the moon god, and a few others.