Tirumantiram is a Tamil spiritual work, which is believed to have been written during the 7th Century AD by the great Shaivite Saint Tirumular, who is also classified as one of the eighteen Siddhars, and as one of the 63 Nayanmar Saints.
Tirumantiram contains the details about spirituality and praises on Lord Siva. From a popular Tamil Devotional song, we could know the significance of the holy Text, Tirumantiram, “Shivanukku Oru Mantiram, Adhuve Tirumoolar in Tirumantiram”, Tirurmantiram is considered as the Holy Mantra of Lord Shiva, and this holy text is still appreciated by Shiva Devotees, Tamil lovers and Tamil scholars.
The Holy Text Tirumantiram deals with the following topics:
1. Spiritual views and divine experience, destruction of physical body after death, Divine love, bhakti, Vedic education, Samadhi state etc.
2. The glory of Bhagavan Shiva, His divine acts, divine plays, his wonderful blessings, classification of souls like good and bad etc.
3. Yoga Principles and Practices.
4. Significance of uttering divine mantras.
5. Essentials of the Holy Sect Shaivism.
6. Worshipping Lord Shiva as our Divine guru, showering grace on his devotees, and the ways to sanctify Lord Shiva.
7. Worshipping of Lord Shiva in the form of Shiva lingam, Shiva’s mercy shown towards his devotees, self-control methods.
8. Spiritual experience of the souls, and adopting the path of non-violence.
9. Details of Lord Shiva’s dance, his divine beauty, greatness of his consort, Ma Shakti Devi, and about his sons, Lord Vinayaka and Muruga.
Tirumular ask the people to stop slaughtering of animals, stop eating of meat and drinking of alcohol. He asks the men to consider all the women as the holy aspects of Ma Shakti Devi. He asks the people to love others, and to treat all of them as alike irrespective of caste, creed, community and gender.
Tirumular also tells that once if we keep worshipping Shiva, lot of miracles would happen in our life, all of our bad habits would fly away from us, and we could also gain lot of spiritual energy. Tirumular ask us to glorify Lord Shiva, by adopting the ways of praising about him, performing holy milk bath to the Shiva Lingam, regular visit to Shiva Temples, Seeing Lord Shiva within our soul, reading the holy texts about Lord Shiva and singing songs in praise of him.
Some of the most popular songs of Thirumoolar are as follows:
Our body is worthless without realising the significance of the god, since this body is made out of flesh and bones, and it is highly perishable in nature, hence before we die, let us develop sincere bhakti on Lord Shiva, and chant the “OM NAMAH SHIVAYA” mantra regularly.
Temples are founded for our convenience. Apart from worshipping the god in our souls, it is our important duty to worship the god in the temples.
Unlike ordinary humans, God can neither be created nor destroyed by anyone. He is the one who survives even during the time of deluge.
We should realise why we have been born in this materialistic world, and we should find out the ways to leave from this world, in order to reach the abode of the god.We should not live our life similar to animals and birds, we are having enough knowledge to realise the god, and we should spend our each and every second, in praising the glories of the god.
At the time of our death, even an earless needle would not come along with us.
Completely avoid the physical pleasures in the world, instead of that, pay more and more attention on enjoying spiritual pleasures in the world, like chanting the mantras of the god, worshipping him in his temples, listening to spiritual discourses, praising him and meditating him, singing his songs and sanctifying him.
We should treat our mother as Ma Shakti, since she suffers from severe pain for a period of ten months, in order to deliver us. She takes care of us very well, and even she may forget to eat food, but she used to give food to us in correct time.We should treat our parents, similar to Lord Shiva and Shakti, and must serve them properly.
Spiritual Gurus must be treated similar to the gods, since they contain the powers of the god.We are all the slaves of the god, and god is our master.
“OM NAMAH SHIVAYA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR