LOVE, ONLY LOVE
 

The King VallabhaDeva had a porkizhi hung atop his court hall and had this message heralded throughout his kingdom: ‘If there is birth, there must be death. This porkizhi will be presented to whoever can prescribe a method to escape from the birth cycle. And I will not hand this gift; it will fall by itself into the hands of he who gives the right method’.    
 

Several people attempted to give a solution but none was right. Periazhwar was going about his work, unaffected by all these happening around. God appeared in his dreams and bid him give the answer. Periazhwar was reluctant, but God explained to him the importance of having to answer this question and therefore Periazhwar submitted to God’s order and declared in the court hall, ‘If someone wants to be freed from the cycle of births and deaths, the only way is to surrender to the Lotus Feet of the Lord’. Needless to say, the porkizhi presented itself to Periazhwar.  
 

Why did God insist that Periazhwar must give the answer to that question? It is because only Periazhwar was qualified enough, because of his absolute love, devotion for the Lord. Periazhwar looked upon Lord Krishna as a child. So he was constantly expressing his love in various ways like inviting his divine child for a warm bath, playing about with the child, forever in thoughts of the child Lord’s infinite pranks. 

Secondly, none of us ever thinks that the Lord could grow thin - - we have not yet mellowed enough to think of God as a living presence. But Periazhwar seeing the Lord as He is seated in the palanquin was troubled by the thought that the Lord was not keeping well and therefore has grown thin. The Azhwar sings, ‘Pallandu Pallandu Palakodi noorayiram’ - - ‘may You live hale and healthy several million years’. He had so much of love for God. And therefore God chose Periazhwar as his messenger for enunciating the path to grow beyond births. For declaring truth, the spokesman must be a perfect person. He must believe in what he is speaking, he must have total faith in the team he represents. And Periazhwar fitted the bill perfectly. If a person has to go beyond the world, if he has to attain salvation, he has to surrender to the Lord’s Lotus Feet, for which he has to have absolute love for the Lord.