Talk:The Nāyaṉmār Saints:Sant Pūṣalar Constructs a Śiva Temple in His Heart
By Vishal Agarwal
In the town of Thiruninravur in Tamil Nadu, there lived a good man named Pūṣalar, a great devotee of Śiva. He decided to construct a mandir for Śiva and went around asking for donations. However, he could not collect enough money from people. Therefore, he decided to construct a temple in his own heart.
He consulted architects and made a list of all the materials required to build a temple. One day, he prayed to Śiva and laid the foundation of an imaginary temple in his heart. Every day, he would build a small portion of this temple within, until the temple in his heart became larger and more complete.
After several years, the temple in his heart was finally complete. Pūṣalar then fixed a date for its inauguration and invited Śiva to come and reside in the Śivaliṅga he had installed within his heart.
By chance, the king of that region had also built a Śiva temple in the city of Kanchipuram and had set the inauguration for the same date as Pūṣalar’s. The king was proud that he had built the greatest temple to Śiva in the country. Śiva thought, “The king has become too proud let Me teach him a lesson.” The day before the inauguration, Śiva appeared to the king in a dream and said, “King, I cannot attend the inauguration of your temple, because I am to attend the inauguration of Pūṣalar’s temple.”
The king was astonished and wondered, “Who is this Pūṣalar that Śiva prefers to visit instead of coming to my temple? Perhaps his temple is grander than mine.” He went in search of Pūṣalar’s temple, but no one had heard of such a temple. Finally, someone told the king, “Why don’t you visit that poor man in the hut, whose name is also Pūṣalar?”
The king went to the hut and asked Pūṣalar, “Have you built a temple for Śiva? It seems that Bhagavān Śiva prefers to attend your inauguration instead of mine. Where is your temple?” Pūṣalar asked the king to place his ear on his heart. When the king did so, he heard the bells of the temple inside Pūṣalar’s heart. Looking closely, he realised that the temple Śiva was going to visit was indeed within Pūṣalar’s heart.
The king learnt his lesson and said, “Śiva likes your temple of the heart more than my huge temple of stone, because yours was built with love and devotion.” The king promised Pūṣalar that he would have a stone temple constructed in his name and would not inaugurate his own temple until Pūṣalar’s temple was opened.
The king kept his promise, and the temple he built for Pūṣalar to worship Śiva still stands in Tamil Nadu.