AGATHIYAR & THE SAPTHA RISHIS

Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal called to say that he was leaving for Rishikesh and the Himalayas some years back. It was Agathiyar's directive. He would be there for 21 days, he said. I was excited too. Along the way he called me over the phone to update me on his pilgrimage. One fine day I received a suprising news from him. He told me he had just seen the Saptha Rishis. I burst into tears of joy upon hearing him say that. That day I realized that bliss can be contagious. Agathiyar asked him to cut short his trip and return to Kallar immediately.

http://tamilblog.ishafoundation.org/yogigalai-urpathi-seitha-agasthiyar/

From the above blog, interesting facts are revealed about these Saptha Rishis and Agathiyar.

As it is an interesting read,  I have translated it from Tamil to English.

Lord Shiva was in the midst of teaching his seven disciples intricate subjects including Yoga. Amazingly throughout the whole period he dispensed this knowledge to his students without speaking verbally. But yet his students understood and learnt the seven different Yoga methods. 

There are four kinds of sounds. The spoken sound is vaikhaari. Another voice that arises within upon seeing external things is Matyamaa. Pasyanthi is when a voice arises within without any external stimuli. Paravak is the creators or Erai’s voice, or vibration that emits from the source.

This exchange between Lord Shiva and his seven disciples went on for years. At the end of the tutorship, Shiva sent his disciples, now full fledged Saptha Rishis, to all corners and directed them to pass on the knowledge to other worthy students. 

1. One Rishi left for Central Asia. 

2. Another Rishi left for North Africa and the Middle East

3. Another Rishi headed for South America. 

4. Another Rishi took his newly learnt knowledge to East Asia. 

5. Another Rishi sat with Adhi Yogi Shiva, not moving a limb. His meditative power encompassed and resounded throughout the Himalayan range.

6. The sixth Rishi came down from the Himalayas to preach the Kashmiri Saivam at the foot of the mountain range.

7. The seventh Rishi took to the south of the Indian continent. He was Agathiyar. His teachings stood out not as a philosophy, practise or doctrine but became part of life itself. He brought devotion to the commoners and made it part and parcel of their lives. The path of devotion was also instilled in every facet of the commoners daily life. They end up doing some form of Yoga in their daily chores without even realizing it. India is reaping the benefits of his hard work today. We can find his imprint in every Indian home. He went in search of worthy students without leaving even an inch of land out. Hundreds of Yogis were made and moulded under the tutorship of Agathiyar.

See http://www.drsvoboda.com/sacredspeech.htm, http://komarraj.blogspot.com/2012/10/mantras-sacred-words-of-power.html for more on the four degrees of speech.