Vilwamangalam Swamiyar - "Sreekrishna Karnaamritham"

"Sreekrishna Karnaamritham"

Vilwamangalam Swaamiyaar had a local "Ambalavaasi" for wife ("Sambandham") whom he loved dearly. He would visit his wife across the river every night, whatever be the obstacles. On a very stormy night, he took off with a torch ("choottu", lighted bunched palm leaves) and somehow managed to cross the river using what appeared to be a log with a rope at one end. After crossing the river, he tied the log to a tree using the rope. Hearing about the trouble he had taken to visit her every night, she told him that he would have obtained "Moksham" or "saayoojyam" (salvation), had he diverted all that energy and single-mindedness to pray to (please) God.

These words of his wife really shook him and there was a revelation in him, which led him to create his devotional masterpiece, "Sri Krishna Karnamrutam", which he wrote under an assumed name "Leelaasukan". Next morning he left his wife telling her that she was henceforth his mother and teacher. At the river-bank he found that the log he had used the previous night was actually the dead body of a man, and the rope, a dead python. After reaching home and taking bath, he arranged for "Punyaaham" to be performed on him, and soon thereafter he sought "Samnyaasam" and became the well-known "Vilwamangalath Swaamiyaar". His mother was Neeli and father Damodaran.