A sage called Pattinathar lived with his disciple Badragiriyar in a village called Tiruvidaimarudur. Every day these two used to give their leftover food to a dog.
Sometime later this dog died and took birth as a princess in
the household of the king of Benares. When she grew up, the king wanted to
arrange her marriage, but she refused, saying that instead of marrying, she
wanted to see a sage called Pattinathar who lived in Tiruvidaimarudur. Seeing
how determined she was, the king himself agreed to take her to see this man. As
soon as she arrived there, Pattinathar recognised her and told his disciple
that in her previous life she had been the dog that had been given their leftover
food.
Then Pattinathar added, ‘She will become enlightened because
she ate that food’.
The disciple found this whole story hard to believe.
‘How can a dog take birth as a human being?’ he asked. ‘And how
can she get enlightened merely on account of having eaten this food?’
Pattinathar answered, ‘I will show you,’ and then proceeded to
walk to a nearby Siva temple. The princess and the disciple followed.
As they stood together inside the temple, Siva appeared in front
of them in the form of light. The light engulfed both the disciple and the
princess and absorbed them into itself.
Pattinathar was left standing alone.
He asked Siva, ‘I am all alone in this world now. Please
tell me how I can also merge with you.’
Siva replied, ‘Take this bitter-tasting sugarcane with you
and visit my temples. Each time you visit a temple, taste the sugarcane. If it
tastes very sweet, there, in that temple, you will attain samadhi and become
one with me.’
Pattinathar followed these instructions and visited many temples,
but during this period, which lasted many years, each time he tasted the
sugarcane in these places, it always tasted bitter. Finally, he arrived at Thiruvanmiyur,
a small town near Madras (now Chennai). He bit into the sugarcane, and in the
moment that its sweet taste touched his tongue, he attained mahasamadhi and physically
disappeared.