Vallalar’s answer is that the point of life is more life. We are not here to wait for a heaven after death. We are here so that this body, through compassion and the grace of God, can become free of disease, old age and death, here on earth.
That may sound far from where you are tonight. If the question comes from tiredness or emptiness, not curiosity, you are not alone in it, and nothing is wrong with you for asking. People have asked it in every age. Vallalar asked it too, and he left one of the most direct answers anyone has given. If the question has come with a long season in which God feels silent, our page on the dark night of the soul may help as well.
If the question has become “why should I go on living?”, please talk to someone today. In India call Tele-MANAS on 14416; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123; in the USA, 988. Elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
Who was Vallalar?
Ramalinga Adigal, known as Vallalar (1823–1874), was a Tamil saint and poet. He opened a free kitchen in Vadalur in 1867 that still feeds everyone who comes. He wrote the six books of the Thiru Arutpa, the “Songs of Grace”. On 30 January 1874 he entered a room at Mettukuppam, the door was locked, and he was never seen again. No body was found. Read more about his life.
Why most answers feel thin
Most answers to this question point somewhere else: to a reward after death, to a self we must escape, or to a purpose we must invent for ourselves. Each asks us to accept that the body ages, suffers and dies, and to look for meaning in spite of it.
Vallalar did not accept that ending. He taught that death is not the will of God for the human being. It is a limit we have not yet outgrown.
Vallalar’s answer: life, made deathless
He described the purpose of human life as a change in the body itself, in three stages:
- Suddha Deham, the pure body. Through compassion for every living being and a clean, plant-based life, the body becomes free of disease and its decline slows.
- Pranava Deham, the body of grace. As grace grows in it, the body becomes subtle and full of light.
- Gnana Deham, the body of wisdom. The body becomes one with the Grace Light of God, Arut Perum Jyoti, beyond death.
He did not offer this as a symbol. His own disappearance in 1874, witnessed and recorded at the time, is why so many have taken his words literally. In the last of his four petitions to God, the True Petition of the Sangam, he asks that this very body be freed from death and made eternal, and that every living being receive the same life.
What this asks of us
The path rests on two things, and both start today.
Compassion for every living being (Jeeva Karunyam). Vallalar called it the key to the door of God’s grace. It means relieving hunger and suffering wherever we meet it, and not causing it: this is why the path is plant-based. His own words on it are in Jeeva Karunya Ozhukkam.
Calling on the Grace Light. Vallalar gave a short invocation, the Mahamantra:
Arut Perum Jyoti, Arut Perum Jyoti, Thani Perum Karunai, Arut Perum Jyoti.
(The Vast Grace Light, the Vast Grace Light, the Unique Great Compassion, the Vast Grace Light.)
A first step for today
Think of one person you know who is in pain. Sit for five minutes and repeat the Mahamantra for them, not for yourself. Then, before your next meal, give some food to someone or something that is hungry: a neighbour, a stray dog, the birds.
It is small. It is also exactly where Vallalar said the whole path begins.
Questions people ask
Is there a point to life if we all die?
Vallalar’s answer is that death is not the final word. He taught that a life of compassion, held by God’s grace, can change the body until it no longer dies. If the question comes from fear, read how to overcome the fear of death.
What did Vallalar mean by “deathless life”?
A human life in a body that has become pure, subtle and one with the Grace Light: free of disease, ageing and death. He called it the full purpose of being human.
Do I have to leave my religion to follow this?
No. Vallalar’s path, Samarasa Suddha Sanmargam, is open to every human being, of any faith or none. It asks for compassion, not conversion.
Where do I start reading?
Begin with Jeeva Karunya Ozhukkam, his short prose work on compassion, then the Thiru Arutpa.
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