By Swami Sivananda
Munai-aduvar Nayanar was a Vellala by caste. He belonged to Thiru Nidur in the Chola kingdom. He was a great bhakta of Lord Siva and to Siva's devotees. He was always the hope of the desperate, the weak, and the vanquished. They would call upon him to turn their defeat into a victory. Munai-aduvar would hire himself out as a professional fighter. He fixed a wage for this service and with that money he would feed the Siva bhaktas and look after them. He earned money in this way and hence, he was called "Munai-aduvar." Lord Siva was highly pleased with Munai-aduvar and blessed him.
Two vital lessons of Munai-aduvar Nayanar's life should not be ignored. The first and foremost, even in the exercise of the God-given talent of fencing, Munai-aduvar Nayanar took care to see, that it was used to defend the weak, the oppressed and the downtrodden. Strength, too, is a manifestation of the Lord, and according to Siva it should be used in the Lord's service in a righteous way. The second is that the fruits of such service were always dedicated to the Lord. This is the very core of the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, and the teachings of all saints and sages. Righteousness rests on this pedestal of dedication to God and unselfishness. Selfishness is the root cause of all sins and consequent miseries.
References:
Sekkilaar, and G. Vanmikanathan. Periya Puranam — A Tamil Classic On The Great Saiva Saints of South India. Ed. Dr. N. Mahalingam. Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 2000.
Sivananda, Swami. Sixty-Three Nayanar Saints. World Wide Web edition. India: Divine Life Society, 1999.
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