Poosalaar Naayanaar, an ardent devotee of Lord Siva, lived in the sacred town of Thiruninravur. His mind and heart was forever fixed in the Lotus Feet of his beloved Lord.

This devotee of Lord Siva was an adept in Aagama, Veda shastras. He had a deep desire to build a temple for his Lord Siva in Tiruninravur. But he was unable to collect the funds required for this and this disconcerted him. It was then that a thought struck him. "I may not be able to build a temple for my dear Lord in my town but I can build as big a temple as my heart craves in the cavern of my heart." He then set about collecting mentally all that was needed for constructing a big temple.

On an auspicious day Poosalaar Naayanaar sat in a place, controlled all his senses and started building the temple mentally, within his heart cavern, as per 'aagama shastra'. He took that number of days to build this temple in his heart as would take to build one physically in the external world! He then fixed a date for conducting the 'Kumbabhishekam'! (holy consecration of the temple)

It was at this time that the Pallava King had completed the construction of a big temple for Lord Siva in Kancheepuram and had fixed a date for conducting its 'kumbabhishekam'. On the eve of the 'Kumbabhishekam' the Lord appeared in his dream and said, "Poosalaar, a dear devotee of mine, living in Tiruninravur, is conducting 'Kumbabhishekam' tomorrow for the temple that he has built for me. Fix another date for the 'kumbabhishekam' of the temple you have built for me as it is my Will to be present in Poosalaar's temple tomorrow!" With this instruction the Lord disappeared.

On waking up from the dream the King felt dumbfounded. At the same time he deeply desired to visit this temple of Poosalaar, where the Lord Himself longed to be. On reaching Tiruninravur the King searched for this temple but in vain. It was not to be 'seen' anywhere. And none knew of its existence!

The King then searched out the home of the Lord's devotee, Poosalaar and met him. The King narrated his dream to Poosalar and asked him, "Where is this temple of yours which is attracting the Lord's Presence?" Poosalaar, too, was dumbfounded. He then spoke, "Oh! King! The Lord has been so kind to pour forth this much love on this slave! Though I entertained a deep desire to build a big temple in this town for my dear Lord I could not go about it due to lack of funds. So, I built one in the cavern of my heart and have decided to conduct the 'kumbabhishekam' tomorrow."

The King marveled at the deep devotion of Poosalaar and realized the power of true worship of the Lord. He fell at the feet of this true devotee of the Lord and returned to Kancheepuram.

The Lord presented Himself in the Sanctum Sanctorum of Poosalaar Naayanaar's temple at the time fixed for the 'Kumbabhishekam'! From that day onwards Poosalaar worshipped His Lord, all the five 'kaalaas' (times), in this temple in his heart and attained the Lotus Feet of the Lord.

Children, do you now understand that God is enslaved not by external extravaganza but only by true inner devotion and worship ?