What is Sanmarga?

In his prose work Jeevakarunya Ozhukkam, “the discipline of compassion for living beings”, Vallalar explains that the soul melts with compassion when it sees, hears of or comes to know of another being suffering from hunger, thirst, disease, desire, poverty, fear or the threat of being killed. As that melting of the heart grows, he says, the grace of God within shines out in full. He writes:

சீவகாருணியம் விளங்கும்போது அறிவும் அன்பும் உடனாக நின்று விளங்கும்; அதனால் உபகாரசத்தி விளங்கும்; அந்த உபகாரசத்தியால் எல்லா நன்மைகளுந் தோன்றும்.

“When compassion for living beings shines, knowledge and love shine with it; from them comes the power to help, and from that power every good arises.”

So he calls Jeevakarunyam the key that opens the door of liberation, and the true worship of God for everyone whose understanding has awakened.

Of all the sufferings of living beings, Vallalar put hunger first. He describes it as a fire burning inside the bodies of the poor, and the giving of food as the act that puts it out:

பசி என்கிற நெருப்பானது ஏழைகள் தேகத்தினுள் பற்றி எரிகின்ற போது ஆகாரத்தால் அவிக்கின்றதுதான் சீவகாருணியம்.

“When the fire called hunger blazes inside the bodies of the poor, to quench it with food: that is Jeevakarunyam.”

Food, he insisted, must be given without questioning the hungry about their country, religion, caste or work, because the light of God shines alike in every being. His care reached beyond people, too: relieving the hunger of animals, birds, creeping creatures and plants is also Jeevakarunyam. He did not leave this as an idea; he opened the Sathya Dharma Salai to practise it.

The fellowship he founded in 1865, today the Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Sathya Sangam, was open to all. Its name gathers his ideals: samarasam, harmony and equal regard for all; suddham, purity; and sanmargam, the true path.

For those who walk this path he described four disciplines (ozhukkam):

• Discipline of the senses (indriya ozhukkam): hearing no harsh words, speaking sweetly and truthfully, looking on nothing with cruelty, and stopping harm to living beings by any means one can.
• Discipline of the mind (karana ozhukkam): keeping the mind from evil thoughts and from dwelling on the faults of others, and letting go of anger, jealousy and pride.
• Discipline towards others (jeeva ozhukkam): treating all men and women as one’s own, as equals, with no distinction of caste, religion, creed, lineage, country, or high and low.
• Discipline of the soul (anma ozhukkam): knowing that in every being, from the elephant to the ant, the one God dwells as the inner light, and so standing at one with all, without distinction.

He also asked his followers to give up the worship of minor deities with animal sacrifice, and customs followed blindly, which he called kanmoodi vazhakkam, “the custom of closed eyes”.

The Salai at Vadalur, opened on 23 May 1867, is Jeevakarunyam made visible. Vallalar lit its hearth on the first day and asked that it never be put out. It has burned ever since, and everyone who comes is fed as an equal guest, whatever their caste, creed or means. More than a century and a half later it still feeds pilgrims and the poor every day, and on Thai Poosam it serves the many thousands who come to Vadalur.

For Vallalar, feeding the hungry was not charity handed down from above but worship. The body of every living being, he wrote, is a temple where the light of God dwells, and food keeps that light from going out.

The Sathya Gnana Sabhai, opened in January 1872, gives form to his idea of God. There is no idol: worship is offered to a lamp, the sign of the Arutperunjothi that shines within every being. The seven coloured screens that hang before it stand for the veils of ignorance that hide this inner light, and as they are drawn aside one by one, the seeker’s way to the light is shown.

On Thai Poosam all seven screens are drawn aside for the Jothi darshan, and darshan is also held on the Poosam day of other months. A sign at the entrance asks that only those who have given up meat and killing enter; others may pray from outside.

Vallalar’s compassion made no exceptions. In the Arutperunjothi Agaval he praises the Grace-Light that taught him at the very beginning that caste, creed and religion are false:

சாதியு மதமுஞ் சமயமும் பொய்யென
ஆதியி லுணர்த்திய வருட்பெருஞ் ஜோதி

“O Supreme Grace-Light, who made me understand at the very start that caste, creed and religion are false!” (Thiruvarutpa, Sixth Thirumurai, Arutperunjothi Agaval, lines 211–212)

He asked that every life be regarded as one’s own, and that the whole world come together on the common ground of the Sanmarga. For him the spiritual life and service were one: prayer to the one Light, truthful and gentle conduct, and care for those who suffer.

Sanmarga devotees gather his teaching into a short prayer, the Mahamantra:

அருட்பெருஞ்ஜோதி அருட்பெருஞ்ஜோதி
தனிப்பெருங்கருணை அருட்பெருஞ்ஜோதி

“Supreme Grace-Light, Supreme Grace-Light, boundless and unique Compassion, Supreme Grace-Light.”

A century and a half later, the Dharma Salai and the Sabhai at Vadalur still draw pilgrims every day, and his followers carry his work on in many places. India honoured him with a commemorative stamp in 2007; since 2021 Tamil Nadu has observed his birthday, 5 October, as Thanipperungkarunai Naal, a day of boundless compassion; and his 200th birth anniversary was celebrated in 2023. Scholars have traced how he came to be remembered both as a poet-saint and as a social reformer.

His questions are still ours. Hunger has not gone away, and neither have the walls of caste or cruelty to animals. His answer was simple and practical: share food with whoever is hungry, harm no living being, and see every life as your own.

Deepam Trust draws its inspiration from Vallalar’s Jeevakarunyam. Every day the Nithya Deepa Dharmachalai at Velachery and the village Dharmachalais the trust supports serve food to the hungry without distinction; the mobile Annadhanam takes food to those who cannot come; and on Poosam days our volunteers serve at Vadalur. Like the hearth at Vadalur, this work is kept going by many hands: you can sponsor an Annadhanam or donate.