There
was a tribal youth Tinnan, who was once out for hunting a boar. On his
way, he saw a temple of Shiva. He entered it and saw the Shivalinga
there. Seeing the whole temple abandoned, he felt that the Lord must be
feeling lonely and ao he decided to give him company. He felt devoted to
Shiva.
He set out
nearby to hunt a boar and obtained its meat. He tasted the meat and
kept aside the ones which were tasty to offer it to his Lord. He plucked
some flowers and tangled them in his dirty hairs. He collected the
water from a nearby river into his mouth and finally came to the temple.
Unaware of the conventional ways of worshipping, he lovingly offered
Shiva the best he considered.
As
he entered the temple, he poured all the water from his mouth on the
Shivalinga. He unattached the flowers from his head and put them on the
Lingam. He also offered the meat he had already tasted.
He was in state of bliss. How good it felt to offer food to someone you love the most? He set out to bring more meat.
At
that time, the priest of temple arrived and was shocked to absorb the
whole scene in front of him. Foul smelling meat and water were scattered
everywhere around the Lingam. He was enraged. With great effort, he
cleaned every item and began his worship by sticking to the rituals of
Shastras. He chanted the mantras rhythmically and in a monotonous tone.
After
completing his worship, he went to his home while Tinnan came back. His
joy knew no bounds to find out that all the things he had offered to
his Lord were accepted duly as they weren't visible anywhere.
This
thing continued for several days. Tinnan worshipped Shiva in his way
and then the priest came and worshipped in his own way.
Parvati and Shiva atop Kailash were watching it all. Devi questioned Shiva that whose worshipping was admired by him?
Shiva
decided to demonstrate it to her beloved. One day, when the priest was
worshipping Shivalinga, a pair of eyes from nowhere sprouted on it. One
of them started bleeding suddenly. The priest screamed and considered it
as a bad sign from Lord and ran away.
When
Tinnan came after hunting, he saw the bleeding eye. He was shocked and
ran to embrace the Shivalinga. He tried his best to control the bleeding
but all his efforts went in vain. He tried to apply some medicines but
they didn't work.
Finally,
he pulled out an arrow and pulled out his own eye with great force.
Blood gushed out from the place where eye socket existed earlier and ran
all over his face. He offered his eye to Lord. Surprisingly, the eye
was accepted and the bleeding stopped.
The
joy was short lived as the other eye of Shivalinga started bleeding
too. Having no other option to cure his Lord, Tinnan thought to pluck
out his second eye too. But how would he place it at the exact bleeding
spot in the absence of vision? So he upraised his leg and placed it as a
pointer on one of the eyes of Shivalinga. He then took out the arrow
and was about to tear his flesh with it when suddenly Shiva appeared and
stopped him.
The
Lord appreciated the selfless devotion of Tinnan and said he was
pleasantly surprised by his tremendous love and devotion. He named him
Kannappa, the eye-saint and offered him Kailash as his new home.
So
we can see, it's not the orthodox rituals or monotonous rhtymic
chanting of mantras devoid of love we require, but a selfless devotion
towards him. When there is infinite devotion between us and the God,
here Shiva, the boundaries of rituals and other complexities collapse.
We become one with the Lord and he starts dwelling inside our heart.
So,
there is not something being easy and tough to please God. Yes, there
are rituals and mantras which form traditional way of worshipping. But
above all, what is required is the devotion from the core of heart.
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