“While the great sages who by meditating on God by fixing their mind in between the eye-brows and thereby burying it there and doing penance with devotional piety for such a pretty long time, that they have become virtually skeletal frames, have been disappointed. Oh God of Vaadavur (Maanickavaachagar) you have by His Grace obtained A Body of Love and an ecstasy bubbling Body of Grace and ultimately A Body of Bliss to merge with God!”. Realizing the manifestation of the truth of Nature and the real facts of the supreme and transcendent attainments of the saint Maanickavaachagar, I tried to trace the evidence of these achievemets in his utterances with a sense of reverential devotion and with the help of a few outstanding commentaries. Saint Maanaickavaachagar has passed on to posterity a great master piece in Thiruvaachakam. It deals with the great issues and diverse phases of evolution of life, right from the piant and animal kingdom to human life, and its ultimate goal besides quite a variety of philosophic maxims, metaphysical intricacies in the spiritual development and experiences which cannot fail to inspire, guide and raise all those who hanker after supreme Wisdom and eternal Bliss. In point of exhilarating strength, elegance of expression, melodious and melliflous composition, intense mystic beauty, distinguishing excellence in the rich display of unusual imagery and profundity of thought, lofty and noble ideals, able and erudite exposition of the greatest truths and hidden mysteries such as the nature and attributes of God, the nature and attributes of the soul, the harmonious symphony of human life and Divine Life, the innumerable travails of intellectual and more puzzles which every soul has to pass through before finally merging in the Eternal Lover. These hymns have no parallel in the Tamil language. His poems and verses, breathing as they do, the II
