Vayilar was a Nayanar saint, and the follower of the principles of Shaivism. He is considered as one among the 63 nayanars. He is an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva.
LIFE
Vayilar was born and brought up in Mylapore, Chennai. He belongs to vellalar caste. He was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva. He was born as a dumb person. Vayilar was not interested in worshipping Lord Shiva by going to temples, but instead of that, he performed worship on his mind.
Vayilar constructed a temple to Shiva in his mind itself. The mind temple contained golden doors for the god and contained spacious halls. Numerous ornaments were adorned to the god and the goddess in the temple. He bathed the Lingam by waters and poured milk and honey into the lingam. He also conducted homams in his mind temple, and worshipped his mind temple day and night. He even didn’t take proper food and slept properly but always keep thinking about his mind temple and worshipping the god from his mind itself. He never physically visits any temple of Lord Shiva, but only worships Lord shiva from his mind. In his mind temple, he also provided food to the devotees of Lord Shiva, and attended them in a proper manner. Even though, he didn’t physically worship the god in the temples, and physically served food to the shiva devotees, but, due to his sincere devotion on god, after his death, he attained MUKTHI and reached the abode of Lord Shiva, the kailash.
Sundarar praises Vayilar nayanar as the precious gem among the nayanars, and tells that the nayanar saint didn’t cared about his handicap in the body, but always thinks and worships Lord Shiva from his mind.
A shrine is dedicated to Vayilar in the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore. Vayilar is worshipped in the Tamil month of Markazi, and he is also worshipped along with the other nayanars in the shiva temples.
IMPORTANCE
Even though he was born with the problem of dumbness, he never thought about his own physical body, but filled up with full of devotional thoughts on Lord Shiva. He dedicated his entire life, in thinking and chanting the mantras of Lord Shiva from his mind. His bhakti is unimaginable. He didn’t hate the god, for his problem, but worshipped him in a pleasing manner.
We should learn the bhakti spirit from him, and instead of cursing the god for our problems, we must try to praise him with his mantras and chant his glorious names.
Let us worship the great nayanar saint and be blessed.
“OM SREE VAYILAR NAYANARE NAMAHA”
“OM NAMAH SHIVAYA”
“OM SAKTHI PARASAKTHI”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR