Picture shows Lord Krishna listening to the blind poet Surdas
Miracles by the Blind & Oldest Organ Donation
God is great. When he shuts one organ he gives more powers to other organs. Hindu scriptures are full of miracle stories by the blind. It gives details about the earliest organ donations as well. The most popular story of eye donation is of a hunter belonging to the scheduled tribe.
Dhinnan was a hunter in Tamil Nadu. One day he went to hunt wild boars. One of the boars was a dodgy animal. It took all his time and energy. When he finished the hunt it was already dark. Next day he was attracted towards a holy place like a magnet attracts iron. It was a Shiva temple. When he went there he wanted to do the ritual bathing of the Lord. But he was an illiterate and knew nothing about scriptures. So he did the worship in his own way in the temple where a proper priest was also doing Puja (worship) every day. Dhinnan offered meat pieces to the Lord. When the trained priest saw this next morning he was angry. But he had a dream in the night that he should watch a great devotee next day morning from a hidden place. He did that and saw Dhinnan spitting a mouth full of water on the statue to do Abhishek (ritual bathing) and offered flowers plucked out from his hair. He threw some meat pieces to the Lord.
Lord Shiva wanted to test Dhinnan’s devotion so that the properly trained priest also can see it from his hiding place. Suddenly blood started bleeding from one of the eyes of the Lord. Worried Dhinnan plucked out his eye and applied it to the Lord. When the second eye also started bleeding heavily, Dhinnan plucked out his second eye and applied it to Lord Shiva. Immediately God appeared before him and gave him the name Kan Appan (meaning one who applied eye). He regained his vision in both the eyes by the grace of Lord Shiva. Kannappan (Dhinnan) lived in the fifth century.
Picture shows Kannappa Nayanar placing his foot on Shiva to mark the place for placing the second eye.
Jeevaka’s Eye Operation
There is a similar story that happened in Northern India one thousand years before Kannappan. Jeevakan was a great physician cum surgeon in the days of Buddha. He lived in the Maghada (Bihar) empire during Bimbisaran’s rule(603-551 BC). One of the kings who ruled the north western part of India was Sibi. A blind Brahmin approached him asked for eye donation. The Brahmin asked him because the king had already earned the reputation of a big philanthropist donating any thing you ask for. The king sent a word for Jeevaka and he came and removed both the eyes of the king and fixed them to the Brahmin. This is recorded in the Buddhist chronicles. Both these stories show that the organ donation was in vogue in those days. Big surgeons did eye operations and other surgeries easily.
( I have already explained in my post. Look at the bottom for link)
Story of Upamanyu
Upamanyu was a young student of Vyagrapatha. In those days, students have to live with the teacher (Guru in Sanskrit) for at least 12 years to learn the Hindu scriptures. It is like a residential school. One day Guru asked Upamanyu to take 50 cows for grazing. When he went back to Guru’s house in the night with the cows he was refused dinner for no reason. The kitchen staff told him, ‘It is Guru’s order’. Even after a week, he was hale and healthy doing the same task of cow herding. When the Guru asked him the secret of his good health, he told him he got the food by begging. Guru ordered him to bring all the food to his house. A week passed. Still he was energetic. When the Guru asked the secret of his good health, he told him the cows give him the milk after they fed their young calves. Guru ordered him not to drink the milk any more. He did it as per Guru’s order but drank the milk from the plants. He became blind because it contained poison. He fell in to a disused well on his way home. Guru’s party searched him and ultimately found him in the well. When he was asked to recite the Vedic Mantra on Aswini Dewas, they gave him the eye sight. But he refused to accept it without Guru’s permission. Guru felt very happy about his devotion and loyalty and brought water from the heavenly Soma River and poured it on his eyes. His vision was restored. Thus goes the story in Hindu Mythology. In the ancient India, Gurus gave practical lessons according to the Upanishads. It was more than what a chemistry or physics student can learn in the labs of modern day universities.
Lord Vishnu’s Eye Donation
Thiruvvizimizalai is a small town in Tamil Nadu with a Shiva temple. The resident god is called Nethra Arpaneswarar meaning Eye Donation God. Lord Vishnu was praying here to Shiva to obtain the Sudarsana wheel. It is like Boomerang and will come back to Vishnu after every attack. Vishnu did offer worship with 1000 lotus flowers every day. One day he fell short of one flower. Without any hesitation, he gave his one eye to Lord Shiva. Eye is a synonymous word with lotus in Indian literature. All these stories prove organ donation, Organ transplant and advanced surgery existed in those days. This temple is pretty old and existed at least 1300 years ago.
Miracle by Two Handicapped Tamil Poets
There were two Tamil poets by name Ilam surya and Mudu surya (meaning Junior Sun, Senior Sun). One of them was blind and the other was lame. The lame carried the blind on his shoulder and travelled from one town to another singing the glory of the Lord. When they went to Thiru Amathur in Tamil Nadu they composed some verses and arranged to launch the book at the temple. There was a mistake in the verses rightly pointed out by a scholar in the crowd. The poets sung that the temple is on the western side of the river Pampa. Actually it was on the eastern bank of the river. The crowd teased them saying both of them were not blind! At that time the rain started heavily and the crowd dispersed. In the night the river changed its course due to heavy rain in the hills. When they assembled next day to continue the launching event, they need not correct the verses. The river was running like they sang the previous day!!
Sundarar regained vision
One of the great Four Saivaite saints,Sundarar, lost vision in one eye and went to Tiruvarur. He begged to Shiva to give him the vision back. He sang a decad there. Immediately he regained his vision in the right eye.
Tamil Reference:
மீளா அடிமை உமக்கே ஆளாய்ப் பிறரை வேண்டாதே
மூளாத் தீப்போலுள்ளெ கனன்று முகத்தால் மிக வாடி…………
Nayana Deeksha (Passing power through eyes)
Hindu goddesses have names with eye: Meenakshi, Kamakshi, Visalakshi, Neelayathakshi, Rudrakshi, Indrakshi etc. It shows that the goddesses always favoured them through their eyes. It is called Nayana Deeksha. A Guru or a god can pass miraculous powers to a devotee just by looking at him or her. Nayana, Akshi are Sanskrit words for eye.
We have got a number of stories about miracles of blind poets like Surdas. We will look at them separately.
Read my previous posts:
1.How did a Pandya King get a Golden Hand?
2.Miracles by the Deaf and Dumb
3.Time Travel by Two Tamil Saints
4.Did Agastya drink the ocean?
5. Great Engineers of Ancient India
6.Amazing Powers of the Human Mind
There are 15 more posts on Miracles by men and animals.
