Vallalar was born in South Arcot district , at a village called Maruthur, located near Chidambaram. His father Ramaiah Pillai was a village Munsif, and his mother was Chinnamayar. He was born on 5th october 1823 as a 5th child to this noble couple.
Once a great Saint came to Chinnamayar for some food. She served him with a great respect! Pleased with the service of Chinnamayar, the saint offered her noble ash as Prasadam and blessed her saying "You shall very soon have a son like me born onto you". It is said that the saint was Lord Siva himself. After recieving the noble ash, Chinnamayar had Vallalar as her 5th child!
They named him after Lord Siva as Ramalingam.
When he was 5 months baby, his parents took him to Lord Nataraja's temple in Chidambaram. The 5 month old Ramalingam laughed towards Lord Siva and waved his hands towards the deity. The temple priest assured the parents that the baby was a sacred child of Lord Nataraja.
When Ramalingam was 6 months baby, his father passed away! His brothers Sabapathy and Parasuraman took charge of running the family.They settled in Madras after the demise of their father. Ramalingam, at the age of 5, was put into school. The elder brother Sabapathy kept teaching him tamil verses too.. But Ramalingam gave very poor attendance to school and seemed absolutely uninterested in academic progress.
Sabapathy was very angered and thought of giving him a serious punishment and he ordered his wife not to allow him to take his meals thereafter. But his wife (named Pappathy) was too kind and noble lady kept on feeding Ramalingam during Sabapathy's absence. As on a day, the memoir of Ramalingam's father's demise, everyone including all the poor people had free gift of food. Ramalingam is the only person to have his food. His sister-in-law, Pappathy burst into tears and requested Ramalingam to put an end to all this and live the life of a good regular student. Ramalingam promised her that he would prove to be a deityful student from theron. He also requested her to allot a room upstairs for his private lonely study.
In his room upstairs, oneday Ramalingam had a spectaculr view of Lord Muruga in the mirror.
Ramalingam's elder brother Sabapathy would often visit the residence of Somu Chettiar, a rich merchant who lived in Lingichetty street, Madras. He used to deliver spiritual discourses to a huge audience gathered there. Once, Sabapathy could not able to attend to deliver speech due to his illness. He sent Ramalingam to report the matter. The audience there requested him to substitute his brother and he started to speak. His performance was so excellent and the audience admired him very much. All the eager listeners pleaded Ramalingam to deliver the lectures thereafter. When the news reached Sabapathy, he couldnot believe himself and came to listen his brother's speech. He was astonished by his lecture.
By listening to Ramalingam's lectures, many rich people offered him gold and money. In order to please those rich people, he would accept all the gifts but he threw away them into a near by pond.
In 1850, Ramalingam was married to his sister's daughter Dhana Kosthi merely to satisfy his family members. But the wedding night was spent by Ramalingam in a strange way. when the bride and bridegroom were allowed to sleep together, Ramalingam started reading Thiruvasakam written by Manikkavasagar. The whole night was spent in this way.
He then departured from his family and left Madras. He chose Chidambaram for his next residence.
He attained a state of blissfulness of Immortality. He felt that religion, caste, creed and such diversities are great barriers to man. He felt disillusion of vaidik cult of spiritual ceremonies. He tried his level best to put an end to the vaidik domination in the temple of Chidambaram. The vaidik priests of the temple did not allow him to putforth.
His physical body was transformed into divine light. Vallalar cured the diseases of the two wives of Vettavalam Zamindar. The Zamindar and the people in and around Vadalur offered their lands for the construction of Samarasa Sudha Sanmarga Sathya Sangham at Vadalur. He constructed DharmaSaalai - house for feeding the poor and GnanaSabhai - the temple of true wisdom. On 23rd May 1867, DharmaSaalai was inaugarated and the Gnana Sabhai was dedicated to the public on 25th January 1872 with the star poosam representing the day.
Vallalar lit the lamp with the help of water in Venkat Reddiar's house in Karunguzhi while Reddiar's wife forget to keep oil for the lamp in his room. On 18th April 1972, in Mettukuppam, he wrote ArutPerum Jyothi Agaval in a single night. It explaines about his whole transformation. The first Sanmarga Flag was hoisted at Mettukuppam on 22nd october 1873 and offered Perupadesam on the same day at Mettukuppam - Sidhivalagam.
On 30th January 1874, friday at midnight Vallalar locked himself inside the room at Mettukuppam - Sidhivalagam and ordered his disciples not to open the door until they get the next message. If the door was opened before with the pressure of govt, there will be seen nothing!
Later, the government ordered to open the door. when it was opened, there was seen nothing except ArutPerum Jyothi. It clearly indicates that Vallalar had transformed into grace light! Also, in his last words he said that from then, he will enter into all the physical bodies of the universe.
