To behave in a dharmic manner requires a pure heart. Everything else is just needless showing off. Those are the words of the poet Thiruvalluvar. To be of pure heart, we need to keep our thoughts focused on the feet of God, and this is emphasised by Saint Arunagirinatha, said R. Narayanan in a discourse.
Singing Lord Shanmukha’s names is one way to attain mukti. But we may lack the capacity to sing. Fasting is another way, but we may not be able to forego food. Bathing in sacred waters grants mukti, but we may not be able to travel to sacred rivers. It is said that if a person is born in Thiruvarur, or dies in Varanasi, he will attain mukti. Where we are born does not lie in our hands. What if we can choose the place of death? We could make a conscious choice, but there is no guarantee we can stick to it.
There is a story of a king who decided that he should move to Varanasi to spend his last days, so that he would die there and thereby attain liberation. But his astrologer said that he might move to Varanasi, but he would not die there. The King did not believe him and moved his court to Varanasi, and remained there, without moving out of the city. One day he noticed a man struggling to control a horse. The King said that he could control it and he mounted the horse. The horse took off at great speed, and the king gradually managed to slow it down. And just when he had the horse almost fully under his control, the exhausted horse died, throwing the king off as it fell to the ground. The king too died. But it so happened, that the horse had stopped galloping only after inching beyond the border of Varanasi. The king did not die in Varanasi. So, for people to get mukti, the only guaranteed way is to focus on the feet of Lord Muruga.
