2. Thirumūla, The Sage

I think I could turn and live with animals, They are so placid and self-contain'd, I stand and look at them long and long.                              -- Walt Whitman Once upon a time a worshipper of Siva, dwelling on Mount Kailas, wanted to meet a great sage called Agastya who lived in one of the mountains of South India.     On his way he came to a village called Sadanur (Sattanur). From a wood nearby on the banks of the Cauvery he heard a loud noise, as of a large herd of cows wailing in a pitiful manner. He ran to the place whence the noise came. There he saw a large number of cows standing round the body of a dead man and bellowing miserably.     He thought for a moment, and the meaning of it was plain. The dead man was the cowherd. These dumb animals had learnt to love their master who had always led them to rich, green pastures. Now that he was dead, their grief was very great.     The holy man from Mount Kailas was a man of miraculous powers. He took pity on the grief-stricken cows and made up his mind to end their grief and fill their hearts with joy. So by his  wonderful powers he took the life out of his own body and passed it into the body of the dead cow-herd, whose name was Mūla.     When this was done, Mūla slowly began to wake up and move about as one does when getting up from sleep.     The delight of the cows when they saw their master alive was great. They actually frisked about like lambs and jumped for joy.     The wife of Mūla, who had missed her husband, came in search of him there. When she found him she wanted to take him home. But the cowherd was not the old Mūla, her husband. The body belonged to Mūla but the life within belonged to the holy man from the North. He refused to follow her. He passed his days in a holy place to the end of his life.     Because he passed his life into the body of a cowherd called Mula, in order to end the grief of the cows, he was called Thirumūla or Saint Mula. ****  **** Additional Information of Interest

Click here to find more information on Sage Thirumūla. He was a Tamil Saivaite mystic and writer, one of the 63 Nayanars or Nayanmars. His main work was Thirumandhiram , which consists of over 3000 verses, forming a key part of the Tamil Saiva Siddhantha called Thirumurai.