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   The Story of Saint Poosalar: Conquest of ?kaama?
   ------------------------------------------------ 
         through Sublimation of Desire -- 
         ---------------------------------
                   ?bhakti yOga?
                    -----------

The apathy and ridicule that fellow citizens showed
towards his rather grandiose idea of a temple at
Tiruninravoor deeply disappointed Poosalar Nayanmar.
But it did not frustrate him. It only stoked further
the fire of such desire --- "kaama" --- as it burned
deep within his ardent heart. 

Since he found none around him who was willing to lend
him a sympathetic hand, Poosalar looked around
desperately for means to satisfy the burning urge. The
plight of the Nayanmar, the pangs of agony he
underwent are very movingly depicted by the great
hagiographer Sekkizhar in his classic Tamil work
"peria-purAnam". Let us savor a rather weak but
nonetheless gripping translation of Sekkizhar's
original:

"Poosalar of Tiruninravoor spent many sleepless nights
and days. Deeply agitated in mind he wondered when
would come the time when he would speedily raise a
temple for the Lord. 

Days went past. Weeks passed by and then months....
alas, he could see no solution to his plight. "Is my
wish for an abode of God in Ninravoor a futile one? Is
my dream really what my friends say it is: a madman's
fantasy?", thought Poosalar, with grief and
frustration gnawing away his heart, bit by bit, day by
day...

After many months spent thus in utter futility and
insatiation, Poosalar's sinking heart one day awoke
suddenly to an inspiring idea. It dawned upon him
suddenly like an epiphany. 

"If I cannot fulfill my life's purpose with the help
of my fellowmen, let me raise then the temple of my
desire and dreams by the method my heart now bids!",
he said to himself. "If I cannot physically erect a
temple upon a land-site, let me then do it inside the
site of my mind's innards. Let me raise the edifice of
my Lord's Temple within the vast precincts of my
mind.".

With this bright new idea now seizing and captivating
his heart, Poosalar began fabricating the great big
temple he had conceived for the Almighty --- brick by
brick, stone upon stone, as it were --- with the aid
of his mind. A great big temple that could not be
built in the objective world of reality now began to
slowly take shape and form in the virtual reality of
Poosalar's mind. His original desire for a "dream
home", through a process of relentless Sublimation,
had now reached culmination in "bhakti" -- i.e. what
had once been narrow and selfish "kaama" for a
personal abode now stood raised in the "culturally" or
"ethically" higher realms of "bhakti". A deep passion
seized Poosalar --- a passion to build a grand "Abode
for God" through pure mental projection even if not
through physical exertion.   

                  ***************

Like a professional architect Poosalar first conceived
in his mind a master-plan or blueprint of the design
for the temple of his dreams. He went around
Tiruninravoor and surveyed the landscape. Then he
chose a site of his liking. Then he mentally
constructed detailed detailed stuructural drawings
such as the ones architects of those days drew up
before breaking the ground at the construction site. 

"Let me make these drawings and engineering designs
with my mind and my mind alone", thought Poosalar,
"for I can do so without a care for the lack of the
large sums required for it". 

After many months of such cerebral effort, and after
he was satisfied that the designs and drawings of his
great temple were drawn up to the lowest level of
details, Poosalar next turned his attention to the
plan of execution --- i.e. he began to go to work on
producing a detailed project management schedule fully
supported by estimates of bills of quantity and
specifications! 

After spending many months in drawing up the detailed
project plan, Poosalar next went about looking for a
good way of assuring they were of top-class quality
and specification. For this purpose, he consulted the
various "aagama sastras", and ensured that the design
and implementation program he had produced were all
compliant with the strictest and most sacred
standards/canons laid down for temple-structures in
the aagamas. 

Finally after almost a year thus spent in planning and
designing his project --- all in the deepest recesses
of his imagination --- Poosalar was finally ready to
begin construction. 

Mentally, he next began to mobilize resources at the
"building site". And along with the required equipment
so mobilized --- all in the mind --- he sought out the
architects and masons and artisans too. He selected
his imaginary artisans, 'sthapati-s' and masons and
formally contracted their services! 

Finally, after all preliminary preparations done, and
fixing an auspicious day as per the "panchAngam"
(Vedic almanac), he finally laid the ceremonial
foundation stone. And he then formally inaugurated the
construction...!!

                 ***************

For the next few years Poosalar spent all his days
personally supervising the imaginary construction of
his great big temple project. His mind which had by
now gone into a deeply meditative mood became a
construction site! Day and night, his mind worked
overtime on its desired project. Day and night, for
months and years on end, Poosalar thus spent his years
totally engrossed within the landscape of his own
imagination. With single-minded devotion and
extraordinary diligence --- through the small hours of
the night, through the summers and fall --- he went
about supervising the construction of his grand
temple. 
                     ************

Mentally he constructed and made the several tiers of
the temple-tower right from the basement to the base
of the dome that was taking perfect shape. The
crowning temple-dome was made according to the
prescribed cubit height as per the aagama. The temple
flagpost he re-erected and re-located here and there
until it was perfectly situated and installed. With
lime plaster he ensured (mentally) that he created
architectural embellishments. Then wells he sunk,
ramparts all around the temple walls he raised; tanks
he dug and all other necessary structures like a
"gO-shAla" (cow-sheds) and "yAga-shALas" ("sacrificial
halls") he constructed besides these....

Years and years thus did Poosalar Nayanmar live and
toil -- going about his daily labour of love, nay
passion, his extraordinary engine of "kaama"
relentlessaly driving him towards the final
accomplishment of a dream: the erection a great big
temple for the love of the Lord Almighty!

It was a marvellous the way Poosalar's "bhakti" grew!
His fellowmen laughed and jeered at him, taking him
for an utter lunatic. He alone knew what great things
were being accomplished within himself.... what a
grand edifice of the spirit was taking shape within
the mind and imagination.

                  **************
                  (to be continued)

Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan 





                
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