Muruga saves His bhaktas – The Hindu

A vehicle travelling towards a destination can be delayed for any number of reasons. But there is one vahana, which always arrives on time. That ever-punctual vahana is the black buffalo which serves as Yama’s mount, said So.So. Meenakshisundaram in a discourse. If Yama arrives to take a person’s atma, then the atma is sure to go to Yama loka. Arunagirinatha prays to Lord Muruga to save him from this fate. If Muruga takes an atma, He escorts it to Siva loka. So Arunagirinatha prays that before Yama comes at the appointed hour, Lord Muruga should come on His peacock, to take charge of Arunagirinatha’s soul. Once Muruga arrives, Yama will not dare approach His bhaktas.

In Kandar Anubhuti, verse 10, Arunagirinatha refers to the asura Vala, who was the enemy of Indra. Vala had a boon from Lord Siva, because of which his body parts would turn to gems when he died. A fight broke out between Vala and Indra, and Indra killed Vala. Indra had another enemy Soorapadman. When Sooran came in the form of a mango tree, Muruga threw His spear at him, and the tree was split into two. One half turned into a rooster, which became Muruga’s flag. The other half turned into a peacock, which became Muruga’s mount. These incidents are recalled in this verse. Even in recent times, we have seen how Muruga saved a noble soul. Kripanandavariar, the great Muruga bhakta, was travelling from Mumbai to Chennai by flight. From the plane he saw the Tiruttani hill. He said, “Muruga is always with His devotees.” And those were his last words. He had spent his life reading about Muruga, and giving discourses about Muruga, and when the time came for him to depart from this world, the Lord of Tiruttani gave darshan to him. His lifeless body returned to Chennai, while his atma was taken away by Muruga.