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First three mystics

CHENNAI: As a fitting tribute to their God-intoxicated lives and the spiritual legacy that the Azhwars bequeathed to humanity in the form of hymns, the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, they have been hailed as the 10 incarnations of this age. The Supreme Being’s descents in the world are also 10 and the Azhwars are addressed in hagiographical literature as Divyasuris, being manifestations of the Lord’s weapons, ornaments and eternal attendants. The first three (Mudal) Azhwars — Poygai, Bhutam and Pey — were contemporaries and born on consecutive days in the Tamil month of Aippasi in Kancheepuram, Mahabalipuram and Mylapore respectively. They are said to have sprung from different flowers.

In his discourse, Utthamur Sri Rajagopalachariar said it was Providence which brought the three Azhwars together on a stormy night in the course of their pilgrimage at the porch of a house in Tirukkovilur. It was a narrow passage and Poygai Azhwar reached there first and when Bhutatazhwar sought shelter from the blinding rain he was made welcome with the words that the two of them could sit there comfortably. When Peyazhwar also joined them they made space for him saying that they could all spend the night standing. In the darkness of the rainy night they recounted the glory of the Lord and their pilgrimage to His hallowed abode there.

How could the Lord keep Himself away when His devotees were glorifying Him? He rushed to their side. The three Azhwars sensed another presence suddenly in their midst squashing them. To find out who it was, Poygai Azhwar illumined the porch “with the Earth as his lamp, the ocean as his oil and the radiant Sun his flame,” and Bhutatazhwar “with love as his lamp, eagerness as his oil and his heart as the wick.” In the radiance of the lamps Pey Azhwar envisioned the beatific form of the Lord and burst into song, “Today I have seen the lotus-dame on the frame of my ocean-hued Lord…” In his hymn Dehalisa stuti, Vedanta Desika notes that the Lord graced the Mudal Azhwars with His vision and made them sing a hundred verses each on Him as they were well-versed in the Vedas and also had unalloyed devotion to Him.

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