The Heart That Would Not Stay Empty

After the Fury

After Hiranyakashipu was torn, Vishnu as Narasimha did not cool. His fury filled the three worlds; even the Devas kept their distance.

Two prayers reached him. Mahalakshmi, seeing her Lord unrecognizable, undertook tapas to be worthy of returning to his chest. And Prahlada, the boy for whom the avatara had come, begged — let my Lord be himself again.

Vishnu as Santhaswaroopi — embodiment of peacefulness — came down in search of Lakshmi. He found her in penance, and took her back into his heart. He is therefore Thiruvazhmarban — the Lord who forever bears Mahalakshmi on His chest (vazh-marbu). The Lakshmi Theertham at Thiruppathisaram still marks that reunion. There is no separate shrine for Thayar here; she has taken her rightful place — on His heart.

The Horse That Named a Town

A second legend grazes beside the first, literally. King Kulashekhara — who would become Kulashekhara Alvar — lost his horse after a conquest and found it peacefully grazing on the banks of Soma Tirtham, the temple tank. Bathing there, he felt rejuvenated, worshipped the Vishnu on its banks, and is believed to have built or renewed the shrine. Tiru-van-pari-saram preserves the memory: pari = horse.

The Mother Before the Saint

Thiruppathisaram is also counted as the birthplace of Udayanangai, mother of Nammalvar. Her parents — Kari (son of Thiruvazhimarban of this place) who married Udayanangai, daughter of Thirivazhimarban — had no children for long. They prayed at Thirukkurungudi to Lord Nambi, who blessed them: I myself will be born as your son. He instructed the child be taken to the tamarind tree at Thirunagari, where the infant — Nammalvar, born already enlightened, who never cried or suckled — crawled into a hole in the tree and meditated for sixteen years on Adinathar, until Madhurakavi Alvar followed a light south and asked him the riddle of existence.

Thus a small shrine near Nagercoil ties three threads together: a fury cooled by love, a horse that named a town, and a mother whose son became the Tamil Veda. The Lord who learned to make room in His chest for Lakshmi again would, a generation later, make room in history for a saint who taught the world how to sing to Him.

What part of you is still fierce, waiting for the right heart to soften it?