“The Poet Saint Tayumanavar”, Hinduism Today, Hinduism Today, April 01, 2026
“Decades ago, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, the founder of Hinduism Today, was introduced to Dr. B. Natarajan, an economist, writer and scholar of Saiva Siddhanta, while traveling through Tamil Nadu. Dr. Natarajan had spent years translating the poems of Tayumanavarinto English. In time they grew close, and Dr. Natarajan gifted his work to the Satguru from Hawaii, knowing it would be shared with the world. For the past three years, Subramuniyaswami’s monks have been preparing an illustrated book of the saint’s 1,452 songs. That book, called Tayumanavar’s Songs to Siva, is excerpted here. We also recorded all the songs, sung by an odhuvar. (They can be listened to here: nall.ai/tayumanavarsongsaudio).
We begin with Dr. Natarajan’s first encounter with these marvelous songs.
The world was my open book, and inner quest my deep study. “Who am I in the vastness of cosmic phenomena? The mystery car of time takes me round the changeful seasons; destiny leads the play of life, blindfolding me in self-oblivion. Who am I? What am I? Whence am I? What is beyond the entry and exit in this amphitheater of existence? Who feels in the senses and thinks in the mind and dreams in my fancy?” Such were my reflections during my school days. I kept aloof from home, society and noisy crowds, taking delight in inner communion. Home and school resented my dreamy mood and crazy solitude. One day when I was treated harshly by my kith and kin, I ran for refuge to the temple and there hugged the feet of God, surrendering my life into the hands of Divine Grace. “O Grace, I take refuge at Your feet. Lead me to light from this dark vale of tears. Reveal to me the mystery of life and its mission. Keep me here to fulfill that mission, and call me back to be with You.” Sobbing in a frenzy of spontaneous fervor, I felt a warm current traversing my heart and brain and a descent from above which continues to this day. I was reborn in the Grace and could now understand the meaning of life and the language of the soul. I sat in a dark corner of the temple, forgetting body and world, when a song attracted me to the lotus tank nearby. There, in the bright moonlight, some monks were singing together a song in Tamil that touched my soul. “The Silent One possessed me in silence and poured into me a speechless word that was the seed of wisdom. That word, O friend, had a magic effect on my life. It hushed up the mind and opened my heart to the silent embrace of the Divine.” So on went the song which brought me peace and joy. I learned from the monks the song, and for the first time came to know about its author, Sage Tayumanavar. I secured a copy of his works and treasured it in my bosom. The hymns of Sage Tayumanavar became the guiding light of my life.
I still believe that Divine Grace gave a silent friend to my pilgrim soul. These hymns removed my gloom and solved my mental problems. They unraveled the riddle of existence. Each line was a message, and each message a vision of Truth. Each Truth was a spark of intuition, and each intuition had a transforming force…..”
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