Mysticism of Love in Saiva Tirumurais (An Old and Rare Book)

The subject of this thesis - Mysticism of love in Saiva Tirumugais delineates the principle of bridal love (madhura blava) which runs as an undercurrent in the Saiva Tirumugais, Madhura bhava is as wide and deep as the love and devotion which flowed from the hearts of the authors themselves. Down the centuries, saints and devotees have realised that love alone can free them from the coils and shackles of life and bring them nearer to God. Even the primitive man seems to have had some sense of the divine and a deep longing to come into close contact with the divine. It was not all a case of fear. It was also a case of fascination. But it is difficult to define love, for, the meaning of the word 'love' is so wide and encompassing that it is not easy to give it any exact definition. We cannot put love in a golden bowl. As T.S. Colridge says "love is a desire of the whole being to be united to something or some being, felt necessary to its completeness, by the most perfect means that nature permits and reason dictates"... Hence the authors of devotional songs described the love of God in its most exalted form of madhura bhava. In the presence of God there is no distinction between man and woman. Except God all are women and God is the only male, Purushottama, and this is the basic principle in madhura bhava or nayaka-nayaki bhava. It is a sweet approach to God, purely divine and supernal. "It is the stage in which the devotee stands to the deity in the light of beloved to lover, to be followed later by a complete identity of the two." The madhura bhava is known in the West as 'bridal mysticism. M. Recejac defines mysticism as "the tendency to draw near to the Absolute morally and by the aid of symbols, In this thesis, the divine songs in the Saiva Tirumurais which are expressed in the form of madhura bhave are described and discussed under the title 'Mysticism of love in Saiva Tirumurais'.

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