In the Tamil land, many great saints have taken birth. Many great scholars were born here in the Tamil land. One of the Tamil kings, the Pandya king Varagunavarman II was very fond of horses and sent his Prime Minister to buy horses. During his journey the minister came across a holy man named Thiru kannan. He was attracted by the teachings of the holy man. The sage said that all worldly pleasures were ephemeral and God was the only Reality. Inspired by these teachings, the minister decided to give up his mission (of purchasing horses) and used the money given to him to build a temple for Shiva. Meanwhile, the king was worried about what had happened to his minister and why he had not come back. He came to know that the minister had used the money, given to him for purchasing horses, to build a Shiva Temple. He had the minister arrested and put in prison. The minister was unaffected. He continued to chant the Lord’s name in the prison.
Later, the king realised his mistake. Recognising that the minister was a great devotee, he summoned him to his presence and asked him what he had done with the king’s money. He said: ‘Oh King! I used the money for God. What God had given, I gave it back to Him. Without the grace of the Divine not a cell in the human body can move, not a blade of grass will move. The whole universe exists by the will of God. Oh king! By a stroke of good fortune you have become a ruler. Because of my bad luck I became a minister.’
That minister considered his becoming a minister as a misfortune. When one becomes a minister he should be prepared to use all his energies and powers in the service of the Divine. Only when Spirituality prevails, will humanness blossom. The lotus blooms when the Sun’s rays fall on it. The lotus of the mind residing in the lake of the human heart will blossom when the light of Divinity illumines it.
The mind should blossom and proclaim the glory of the Divine. The minister told the king: ‘It is out of a realisation of this truth that I offered the money, given to me for buying a horse, to the Divine.’ The king ordered the freeing of the minister and allowed him to lead a spiritual life after his own heart.
From that moment he started composing hymns in praise of God. He wrote many hymns. This work is known as Tiruvacakam (also known as Thiruvasagam). The author is known as saint Manikkavacakar or Manikkavasaka. His writings are spiritual aphorisms containing the most sublime spiritual truths. (SS May 96, p. 14)