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

About 20 kms outside the city-limits of Chennai,
S.India, there is a town called Tiru-ninravoor. It has
a hoary history. It was the native hearth of one among
the 63 celebrated saints ("arupatthu-moovar") in the
Saivite pantheon of "bhakti" mystics called
"nAyanmArs". These "nAyanmArs" are to the Saivite
tradition of S.India what the 12 "AzhwArs" are to the
SriVaishnavite. Tiruninravoor was wherefrom Saint
Poosalar Nayanmar hailed many, many centuries ago. 

If Tondaradipodi AzhwAr's early life is a glorious
essay on how "karma-yOga" can conquer the "kaama" of
wild human sexual instinct, Poosalar NAyanmAr's life
is an equally vivid example of how "bhakti-yOga" may
be used for the same purpose -- in a different but not
too dissimilar situation. 

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

Poosalar's life is indeed the perfect case-study one
may turn to in order to understand the potential the
psychology of "Desire Sublimation" has to bring about
total transformation of human behaviour.

As explained already in earlier posts, "Sublimation"
is that which "directs the energy of a powerful human
impulse (or desire) from its primitive or gross aims
to one that is ethically or culturally higher". The
Vedantic yoga of "bhakti" uses the technique of
"Sublimation" to help Man conquer, even transcend,
deep-rooted feelings and passions of "kaama"
associated with the human "homing instinct" ---  an
instinct which, in its self-destructive power and
intensity, is second only to Man's wildest and most
unruly urge -- "kaama" the sexual urge.

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

Poosalar was born in Tiruninravoor which in those days
resembled typical Brahminical hamlets. There was a
large temple in the centre of the town. There was a
priestly quarter called the "agrahAram" abutting the
temple where the resident Brahmin families plied their
traditional occupation of "vedAdhyAyana", the chanting
of Vedic scriptures and the performance of Vedic
sacrificial rites.

Surrounding the "agraharam" one found meandering
streets and alleys going out all sides where other
communities -- mostly farming, weaving and craftsmen
families -- lived and worked. 

All around the whole hamlet, for miles and miles, lay
the rich and sprawling rice fields and pastures where
the ordinary residents of Tiruninravoor carried on and
earned their prosperous and virtuous livelihoods.

Poosalar, (writes Sekkizhar the author of
"peria-purAnam", the Saivite hagiography of the
"nayanmArs") grew up in such prosperous and virtuous
surroundings in the town called Tiruninravoor.  

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

The story goes that as Poosalar grew up, he too like
any young man of his age in those (as well as these)
days, nurtured a deep desire in his heart for a
"beautiful big house". This was of course natural
"human homing-instinct"  -- that which (as explained
in earlier postings in this series) was as much a
natural urge of man as the sexual instinct
("kaama")is. But Poosalar knowing well that he was a
man of very, very modest means soon realized that his
great dreams of building a big, lovely home for
himself were wholly unrealistic if not sheer fantasy. 

Though Poosalar knew a "dream home" for himself was
beyond his reach in life, he did not let the
disappointment thwart him from pursuing his original
desire, his original "kaama" to somehow conceive,
construct and erect a great big architectural
structure which would eventually turn out to be the
pride and cynosure of Tiruninravoor and the cause for
its people's celebration.

So Poosalar, who forsook the dream of building a "nice
big house" for himself, did the next best thing. He
began dreaming of building a "big, beautiful house"
for the Almighty .... that is, he dreamt of erecting a
great temple for God in his native town. A temple that
would stand so tall, imposing and grand, it would put
Tiruninravoor on the architectural map of the land!

With the new dream, the fresh new fantasy now haunting
him day and night, Poosalar began to look around for
resources that needed to be raised if such a project
as grand as that which had seized his mind were to be
realized. 

This was indeed the first level of "sublimation" to
which Poosalar's personal desire for a mere home was
subjected. It raised his lower desire ('kaama') for a
personal home to the slightly higher psychological
goal larger than his original one --- i.e. a desire, a
special form of "kaama", which grew suddently from its
"primitive form" of a desire for a personal abode into
a "culturally higher form" of a deep desire to  build
a great big temple as an Abode for God.

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

Poor Poosalar, unfortunately, was in for more
disappointment. When he went about the hamlet of
Tiruninravoor, sharing his idea (of a great big temple
for the Lord) with other citizens and fellow-mates,
and he began too to appeal to them for financial and
other means of support and patronage, he met with
little success. He tried his best to enthuse them --
he drew little sketches of what he had in mind, told
them how such a great temple could make Tiruninravoor
famous, how they could earn "pUnyam" for themselves
and their families by espousing the worthy cause.
Alas, to no avail. People either were cold towards
Poosalar's idea or, much worse, they downright
ridiculed his grand vision as that of a madman.

It was then, in the face of such crushing
disappointment and public ridicule, that Poosalar
turned Godward. He could not give up his great desire
--- his great dream of "kaama" --- for a Temple of God
in Tiruninravoor. And yet he was forsaken by fellowmen
who had laughed at his idea. Poosalar, as last resort,
beseeched the Divine for succour when all hope of
human help was gone.

The next step, thus, in the process of "sublimation"
of Poosalar's great Desire was about to be played
out... It is a story of divine will at play --- what
in Vedantic lore is called "bhagavath-leela". It was a
process called "bhakti". 

The story of this next process, the great tale of how
"bhakti" seized Poosalar's heart and transformed the
ordinary nature of his earthly gross "kaama" into one
of extrarordinary spiritual height and power is best
told in the words of Sekkizhar himself in the
"peria-purAnam".

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

Regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan 

 




                
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