Saivite saint Manickavachagar received deeksha from Lord Siva, who put His feet on the saint’s head. Manickavachagar talks of the power of Lord Siva’s feet. He says that the moment the Lord’s feet touched his head, he moved away from his relatives.
The divine touch was enough for Manickavachagar to realise the futility of everything except bhakti towards Lord Siva, said K. Sambandan, in a discourse.
The story goes that the Pandya king entrusted to Manickavachagar the task of buying horses. Manickavachagar set off to complete the assigned task. But on the way he chanced upon Lord Siva, in the guise of a spiritual guru, offering instruction to his disciples. When the Lord placed His feet upon Manickavachagar’s head, He also told Manickavachagar to build a temple for Him. All thoughts about the horses he was supposed to buy disappeared from Manickavachagar’s mind. He was now engulfed by bhakti for the Lord. He began to build the temple, and used up all the money the king had given him for buying horses.
The touch of the Lord’s feet on the saint’s head had wrought such a change in him. That was the defining moment in the saint’s life. From then on, nothing else was of any importance to Manickavachagar. Devotion to Lord Siva had displaced everything else in his mind. His relatives, his position in the court — all of these became unimportant.
One of the verses of Thirunavukkarasar is a moving account of a woman’s surrender at His feet.
A woman first heard the name of the Lord. She then heard about His abode and His qualities. Then she became crazed with love for the Lord. She forgot herself. She forgot even her name, and finally she reached His feet.
