Sixty-three: Nayanar Saints

About the Author:

Born on the 8th September, 1887, in the illustrious family of Saga Appayya Diskhita and several other renowned saints and savants, Sri Swami Sivananda had a natural flair for a life devoted to the study and practice of Vedanta. Added to this was an inborn eagerness to serve all and an innate feeling of unity with all mankind. His passion for service drew him to the medical career; and soon he gravitated to where he thought that his service was most needed. Malaya claimed him. He had earlier been editing a Health Journal and wrote extensively on health problems. He discovered that people needed right knowledge most of all; dissemination of that knowledge he espoused as his own mission. It was divine dispensation and the blessing of God upon mankind that the doctor of body and mind renounced his career and took to a life of renunciation to qualify himself for ministering to the soul of man. He settled down at Rishikesh in 1924, practiced intense austerities and shone as a great Yogi, Saint, Sage and Jivanmukta. In 1932 he started the Sivanandashram. In 1936 was born The Divine Life Society. In 1948 the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy was organized. Dissemination of spiritual knowledge and training of people in Yoga and Vedanta were their aim and object. In 1950 he undertook a lightning tour of India and Ceylon. In 1953 he convened a 'World Parliament Reliogions'. He is the author of over 300 volumes and has disciples all over the world, belonging to all nationalities, religions and creeds. To read his works is to drink at the fountain of Wisdom Supreme. On 14th July, 1963 he entered Mahasamadhi.

Publishers' Note:

Spiritual aspirants have always loved to study the lives of saints, which are living scriptures, as it were, throwing a flood of light on the spiritual path for the aspirants to walk boldly, fearlessly and joyously to the goal of immortality. These short biographies from the pen of a great living saint and Yogi, have the added advantage of the best possible presentation.

This celestial scripture, the enthralling story of the Sixty-three Nayanars, the towering spiritual giants of South India, is destined to bring about a spiritual renaissance, nay, a revolution throughout the world. It is a book to jolt you out of your spiritual lethargy, a book to shake you out of your spiritual lethargy, a book to shake you out of your spiritual slumber, a book to heal your chronic spiritual blindness.

Nowhere else in the entire spiritual realm of man are such matchless devotion to and such fathomless love for God to be found. It is a book that will fill your eyes with tears and wring devotion out of your heart-no matter how stony it may be. It is an infallible devotion-injector and an irresistible magnet, powerful enough to convert any hardened atheist.

What spiritual ingredients did the Nayanars use to reach the Abode of God so quickly? They were pure devotion, innocent child-like love, firm faith, persistency and a granite will to overcome whatever obstacles God placed in their path to test their sincerity.

Apart from the biographies of the Sixty-three Nayanar Saints, this book contains an authoritative article on the Saiva Siddhanta Philosophy, the life of Saint Manickavachagar, selections from the utterances of Nayanar saints, and articles on Glory of Lord Siva, and Puja and Ishta Devata, all by Swami Sivananda, and evaluation of the Nayanar's Message for us by Swami Venkatesananda.

May we all tread the path of devotion shown by the Nayanar saints and attain the Goal of life in this very birth!---THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY