Featured image/artwork borrowed from Google.

Kannappa – The Stout Devout

He became one of the sixty-three

Nayanmars, the stout devouts of Shiva.

A hunter from the banks of Kalahasti,

Kannappa a hunter, a devout, a giver.

One day while on his hunt,

he found a stone divine,

put all his faith in it,

leaving everything aside.

Kannappa’s God was his friend,

for whom he carried water in his mouth.

And shared what he hunted

with a caring heart.

Lord accepted it all,

but one day , to test his faith,

Shook the earth,

the temple collapsing under its weight.

When all priests ran out to save their lives,

Kannappa ran for what lay inside,

He covered it with his body,

the falling stones littered aside.

One day he saw the lord’s eye bleed,

so he took out his own to fix it.

When the second eye started to bleed,

he marked the bleeding eye with his foot

and set upon pulling out his own.

The story goes, he attained nirvana

Stayed in bliss day and night.

Kannappa had met Shiva

and all was now set right.

for knowing the whole episode in detail please visit https://ourdharma.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/203/ .