419 SEER VALLALAAR “Due to my non-sectarian vow I am an all-seeing cye now" declares Tiruvarul Prakaasa Vallalaar who was born at Muruthur. Maruthur is a tiny hamlet about 20 kilometres north of Chidambaram in the South Arcot District of South India. A sage walked from Chidambaram which was once the Universal Hall of Wisdom, to the above mentioned hamlet dui ing a hot day in summer in 1822. He stood before a house, chanting the universal manthra "Om called pranavam. The lady of the house came out rovered the sage duly and fed him with surprising reverence sur life. Delighted at her divine hospitality, the sage said that she would get a son like him to spread the gospel of reverence for life throughout the Universe. This prophecy came true on 5-10-1823 when she gave birth to a son. This baby was named Ramalingam by his mother Chinnammai and his father Ramaiya, an accountant and tutor by profession. The reason why the baby was named Ramalingam is that Ramaiya was a devotee of the LINGA worshipped by the epic hero, Rama, at Rameswaram. On the fifth month of the birth of this divine baby, the parents took him to Chidambaram for the Darsan of Chidam - bara Rahasyam. When the screen was lifted up, and the light was lit for darsan, the baby, captivated by the rapturous sight of grand grace in all, laughed aloud hilariously. Astonished at this extraordinary incident, the high priest of thc Tcmple, adored the baby, kept him in his residence for a week, and repeated the same prophecy of the sage given prior to the birth of the divine child, and called it as “a liarbinger of a new age.”
