Thirumoolar Thirumantiram - Introduction
Teachings to treasure, teachings that transform.
Thirumoolar Thavamozhi
Introduction
Our ancient texts say that man is described by three noble qualities, namely, not doing sin, living with good character, and devotion to God. In order to cultivate these three qualities in man, the moral books and scriptures were written.
It is not sufficient to keep away from bad actions that societal norms condemn. Man needs to have good qualities such as sweet words, compassion, charity, helping others. Our spiritual texts all aim at cultivating good habits, and giving up bad qualities in mankind. However, just by reading moral books or listening to discourse it is doubtful that one may cultivate the good qualities mentioned earlier.
Our forefathers realized that the full growth of good qualities can be only achieved by the knowledge of the divine. Our spiritual texts emerged from this thinking.
In Tamil Nadu, Saivaism (devotion to lord shiva) and Vaishnavism (devotion to lord Vishnu) have been growing for several centuries, and have given us several rare books. While the forms of the lord worshipped may be different, since the divine principles worshipped in these books are the same ONE, their founding beliefs and worshiping procedures are also similar. In the rare songs that Saint Thirumoolar (who followed Saivaism), Azhvaars (who are followers of vaishnavism) and other saints have sung, the same type of devotion to the Lord is the underlying lifeline.
The Thirumoolar's thirumanthiram is considered the tenth among the twelve sacred texts of the saivaism and has been chanted with sincere devotion for several years. In addition to teaching about right conduct, it is a book that show the training for spiritual aspirants to live a devotional life, while seeking knowledge. Moreover, the contents of the book are exclusively what Saint Thirumoolar experienced and enjoyed.Therefore, scholars deem this book as an experience knowledge based sacred book.
Since people do not read properly the books of devotion and knowledge, to get clarity, they face several difficulties in life. Some years ago, Kalki magazine, published articles in a series. we compiled them in a small book to help youngsters to complete their education.
With humility, I consider it an honor and blessing to be able to translate this book into English.
To read the translated pages in these book, see: Thirumoolar
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