Who were the Siddhas? What the general public knows is that the Siddhas were capable of doing Siddhis or if I may say seen in our eyes as "magic". This is mentioned in almost all books, blogs, and postings on the Siddhas and highlighted by those who take the stand on stages and public forums. The spotlight is always on this aspect of the Siddha. Is that all that these Siddhas are capable of? Is that what they are grooming us to do too? David Copperfield is known to do illusions. Many magicians can perform extraordinary feats. Those daring and raring to go can do almost similar feats scaling great heights, literally scaling mountains and the skies. Now we have scaled space too. It is only a matter of time that man shall land and live on other planets too. Science has gone beyond our imagination and is bringing in images of distant planets and stars etc. Even as we marvel at the discoveries and achievements of man in all fields throughout history till present times, similarly we can never stop marveling at the wealth of knowledge of the Siddhas in times of the past when technology was not known. For instance listening to "Agathiyar Arut Kavasam" penned by Dr. VN Jayapalan of the Agathiyar Mei Gnana Sabai, Sri Agathiyar Universal Trust, Bangalore we marvel at the revelation in the medical field by the Siddhas. He ought to know for he is a Siddha physician.
Nothing much is still known about them although all their literature is available. What we have is literature in the form of ancient songs in Tamil that is rather difficult to comprehend in present times. Most of their story and the history of their times are known by way of reading these songs. Although it is difficult to separate the myth from the history of the Siddhas, P.Karthigayan in his book the "History of Medical and Spiritual Sciences of Siddhas of Tamil Nadu", Notion Press, 2016, in telling their story begins by defining the two terms first to enable us to sieve the myth from history. He defines the former as "unconventional information about age-old history which survived as folklores and mystified as mythology" while the latter were accounts "substantiated by relics and records of archeological discoveries." P.Karthigayan sheds light on many aspects of the Siddhas little known to us. His book is a treasure-house. If modern science accepts that the human species started some 2 million years ago, the period having its equivalent calculated to be 165,000 years into the Thredha Yuga, the Siddhas had calculated and implied that human inception started much earlier in the Kredha Yuga and began to flourished and spread in groups as civilizations and societies in the Thredha Yuga - much earlier than modern science places it. How did they decipher this?
He confirms a story often told by my mother that the Gods did walk the face of the earth and lived with mortals like us. P.Karthigayan writes, "According to ancient literary records of the Tamils, the Sangam 1 was an organization of 4449 poets in total: of whom Gods (Siva, Kumaran, Kubera), immortals (Agathiyar, Mudinaagaraayar) and mortals (kings, poets, and prominent people) were 549 in number, and the rests of them were members of their literary assembly." Siva is said to have laid the rules of justice that were: rules for a just ruler (Aram); rules for the accumulation of wealth (Porul); rules for the enjoyment of pleasure (Inbam); and finally having had tasted all these fleeting forms of desires, and come to a realization that life is impermanent, Siva introduces us to the rules for attaining salvation (Veedu). As Isaikavi Ramanan in one of his talks says that Siva only knows how to give, P.Karthigayan says that Siva gave boons even to the asuras in appreciation of the spiritual excellence, a result of their extreme austerities. But Siva did "conquer them"(their hearts) eventually to save his people.
Agathiyar is known to coax Lord Brahma into changing the fate of those who step before him seeking to know the reason for their troubles in his Nadi. Agathiyar himself looks towards a higher and superior authority in the fight against Covid. He asked us to come together at the same time while remaining in our own places and pray that Lord Siva should show some mercy on mankind telling us that he too shall pray with us. We did as told. Agathiyar is known to have erected numerous Sivalinga, statues of Lord Siva, initially for his worship in all the places he traveled to, leaving it behind for mankind to continue the worship. The Siddhas are known to gather together in prayer to Lord Siva on full moon nights. They remain connected with the Lord in thought as they meditate. Agathiyar is known to feed man and beast alike and in doing so fed the elements that dwelled within them. Besides appeasing their hunger pangs, and while their diseases are cured and pain healed upon consuming the food, it was seen as a removal of their karma too. The most profound episode is that of his appearance in disguise before King Kubera, king of the Asuras, offering him food during dire times of drought and famine. The king turns him away. Soon the king due to the trying circumstances that arose as a result of an extended drought and famine that stretched for some 12 years, finds his way into the small hut on the fringes of his kingdom that the sage erected and from where he was handing out and giving away food to all the king's subjects. He too extends his hand seeking food from the very man whom he ridiculed, shunned, and sent away earlier. Follow the translation of this story as revealed by Agathiyar during Dr. VN Jayapalan's meditation at https://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2013/07/blog-post.html
Above and beyond these the Siddhas performed the feat of transforming this physical body of matter into a subtle body of energy. This was their greatest feat and one that we should at least attempt to achieve. Agathiyar is practically showing us by example what we should aim for. Sadly we have forgotten the gist of living the Siddha way, and following in the footsteps of the Siddhas, having settled for the superficial, and satisfied of our association with them and stopping there. It is sad that we are much-attached to form, structures, titles, labels, and names. Many have turned up at AVM only to tell me that they had expected to see an ashram or temple or the least a signboard advertising the place. When I dissolved the group some were upset failing to realize that it was just a Whatsapp group. Now with Whatsapp making changes to its policies, many have on their own opted for other apps.
Just as Agathiyar stood as an exemplary to all the rest of mankind, Kumaran became a savior of the Tamils too. He helped them improve their commerce bringing prosperity to their society. He helped redefine their lifestyle and imparted wisdom. P.Karthigayan writes that Kumaran after the battle, where he led the Tamils to war against the Avunas (who the author classifies as the present-day Chinese) led by Soorabanman, chose to observe penance at Siva's Nandhi monastery. He picked up yoga. He too went through the painful process of transforming his body into "a fumelike aural body." P.Karthigayan quotes him, "I attained the air-like body" and finally, in his words, claims "I saw and experienced the breathless place - Mounam." P.Karthigayan writes further, "Depriving the physical components that can lead one to death through the process of aging he regained his youth." He came to be known as Subramaniyar. He shared this secret of youthfulness with Siva. He shared the art of achieving the light or luminous body or Oli Deham. Besides that, he shared secrets about the cosmos. Could these secrets have possibly be parted to Siva during the said Upadesam or imparting of the meaning of the Pranavam "AUM" to Lord Shiva by Lord Murugan at Swamimalai? Siva who himself had attained longevity through other means cited in the Rig Veda, attained the luminous body too. Agathiyar who took Supramaniar as his guru learned the means and ways of attaining this state and in turn lifted many others to the state of an immortal like him too. This has come to be the core teaching of these Siddhas. This has come to be their contribution towards humanity and the society of their time and till this day. P.Karthigayan writes that the Siddhas guided the kings on uplifting their subjects. The Siddhas thrived to elevate the human species to that of the nature of the Gods. Agathiyar presented the 5 tenets for mankind to adopt and adhere to at the Tamil Sangam, so that man too shall gain salvation and be placed together with them in their Sangam. This is true of the Siddhas for till this day they have never given up on us although we tend to give up on them in the face of adversities. Sri Sri Daya Mata in the Preface to "God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita", published by the "Yogoda Satsanga Society of India", 1999, very beautifully sums up Agathiyar's 5 tenets for mankind in a single phrase: "No Siddha leaves this world without having given some truth to mankind. Every free soul has to shed on others his light of God-realization." I have summarize the 5 tenets translated by Vashisht Vaid into English and posted in his blog https://holysageagathiyar.com/ is given as follows.
Man has to first and foremost understand his purpose in taking birth. With his purpose known then, he shall come to thank the divine creator or energy that brought forth his birth through consultation with the lunar forefathers and their angelic hierarchies that co-exist with us down here. With the constant showering of his blessings that come to us by way of living a purposeful, meaningful, and fruitful life, the soul grows in strength and gains power or Soul Power or Atma Balam. Showing appreciation to the divine that gave us an opportunity to take birth again to sort out our lives, we then thank all the caretakers both seen and unseen, in the present and the past. After knowing ourselves through their blessings and grace showered on us, there is an obligation on our part then to "dutifully aid and help, the ongoing evolution of all co-existing human beings." The final task is to extend this aid and help, towards "the ongoing evolution of all co-existing beings and entities, existing upon the lower levels of the evolutionary ladder, dutifully supporting the manifested matrix or prapanjam."
On the macro-level, their teachings catered to each sector and division of mankind according to the stages their soul had transformed into. Then again on the micro-level, their teachings were catered and customized to each individual soul. The Siddhas went beyond race, language, religion, and form. They only saw the soul that dwells within this body of matter. They always addressed this soul. Their concern was for this soul to develop and advance further. Their intention was to help this Jiva(n) Atma to merge with the Para(m) Atma from whence it came hence leading it and bringing it back to its home or origin. In the event one fails to achieve this during this birth, his soul leaves the body to live in "other parallel worlds" momentarily before making another attempt. This and here is the only place that we can place a concerted effort and attempt at achieving this transformation, as a physical body is required to house the soul and strengthen the soul to gain Atma Balam gained through engaging in tapas, going about doing charity, learning, and performing the rituals, etc. Thus the reason even the Gods take Avatars and Siddhas take birth as our kind. It is said that many souls are waiting in line to be given a chance and an opportunity to attempt to break this cycle of birth and death. Passing through as a human he takes up the task, mission, and target of attaining this state of no return. Otherwise, he hovers and lingers beyond sight yearning to be given another chance at it. We have been given a chance, let us do it as we have already come this far in having our souls evolved to the state of attaining a human body.
At this juncture, we take a moment to turn to and reflect on sage Patanjali's teachings brought to us by the world-renown authority on Yoga BKS Iyengar. Iyengar says that Patanjali listed ways to attain Yoga or union, beginning with the control and mastery of external issues and finally bringing one within. The eight aspects or limbs of Yoga of which the first five namely are:
1. Yama - restraints or ethics of behavior;
2. Niyama - observances;
Even as I carried out rituals, my heart and soul were not in it until Agathiyar told me that I was doing it for the good of the world. Only after that did I engage in it fully. Soon Agathiyar showed many to my home. All those who were showed to AVM either by Agathiyar in their Nadi readings or through their associates, came to know Agathiyar and learned worship to the Siddhas. These aspirants came empty and it was pretty easy to mold them into subsequent candidates to take up the cause of the Siddhas. When many became attracted and pulled to the worship and rituals, I feared that AVM was becoming another temple for them to congregate. I encouraged and made them engage in these prayers and its accompanying rituals in their own homes bringing together their family and friends too. The circle shall widen by doing so too. Many shall come to the fold of the Siddhas. Many picked up the cue and lessons and began on their own occasionally gathering at AVM for major events. Remembering Tavayogi's words that we should not stagnate in bakti or devotion but move up the spiritual ladder to Gnanam, although I could not make much sense of the word Gnanam, I harbored that wish and waited for the day to dawn where we could step into it. I guess sensing my fear that we might stagnate at this phase and never rise to the stages above and beyond bakthi or devotion; that we would remain forever in Sariyai and Kriyai, to everyone's surprise, Agathiyar ended this phase abruptly in September of 2019 when he made me pull the plug and dissolve the seven-year-old group that we all began to cherish and love to the extent of getting attached to it. Sadly very few stayed back to continue the journey, not understanding that it was only the Whatsapp group that was dissolved but he remains seated majestically as always at AVM. If Agathiyar prior to shutting us down worked on us having us engage in external matters, bringing us to adopt high virtues and values in life, and have us follow religious observances religiously, and in doing charity have us serve the poor and unfortunate, he soon brought us to take notice of the body and the breath. I wanted to bring the shutters down on AVM too but Agathiyar stopped me saying he had yet to see others too who shall come by. He told me to bring those who came by henceforth to Yogam and Gnanam rather than to revisit Kriyai as previously carried out. There was a paradigm shift in our apprenticeship to him. The ground was laid anew for those coming in search of Gnanam now. The seeker who was shown to my house by a friend and devotee a couple of days ago told me he had this sudden urge to take up meditation. Opening up, he told me that he was satisfied and grateful in life. I was pleased and happy to hear this for there was one individual who did not come with his bag carrying his past. Neither did he come to empty his bag of problems and troubles. Just as the earlier aspirants came empty and it was pretty easy to mold them into subsequent candidates to take up the cause of the Siddhas, he too came empty and willing to learn. Since he carried very high and noble virtues in him hence he could skip the first two angas of Patanjali's Yoga Sutram namely Yama and Niyama. Though this seeker satisfied the criteria for the next phase as foretold by Agathiyar, I passed him a booklet carrying the names of the Siddhas asking him to recite these names and seek the blessings of the Siddhas before venturing forth into stepping into and carrying out the next phase that of
3. Asana - physical postures;
4. Pranayama - control of the prana (breath);
Most of us take up these two angas as a subject and a regime and learn to practice them perfecting the body but miss out on a rather critical aspect of it that is paying homage to the gurus who created, assembled, or discovered them for the good of mankind. In whatever engagement we take up it is very important that we pay homage to the master before we engage in it. Due respect should be given to the guru who initiated us on the path. There are chances for something to go wrong in the practice if we venture to go it alone having picked up just the method or techniques. The master then even if he is not in the physical body shall come in the subtle to bless the engagement and guide us into the practice, ritual, or learning and heal us if something goes wrong. Similarly in the ritual that accompanies the simple puja Nadikku Dhanam that follows the very first Nadi reading, we pay homage and thank the Siddhas for recording our life's happening throughout the ages and for revealing them to us at the most appropriate time. Sadly most of us forgo this part, be it with the Nadi or some other practice learned from the Siddhas, skipping it to go directly into performing the parikaram or the practice respectively.
I showed the new seeker eagerly waiting to begin his meditation, Nadi Suddhi for a start, to cleanse his nerves so that with further practice the subtle energies within the body and that was to be tapped from the cosmos eventually can easily flow through without much resistance avoiding pain and discomfort. We shall take a look at the technique of Nadi Suddhi too at this juncture and refresh ourselves too. The tool is the breath that comes with us, stays with us 24/7, that is not easily misplaced or lost or needs an upgrade or to be purchased, hired, or renewed. Swami Vivekananda speaking about this practice of Nadi Suddhi or purification of the nerves quotes from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad:
First, the nerves are to be purified, then comes the power to practise pranayama. Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, through the left nostril fill in air, according to capacity; then, without any interval, throw the air out through the right nostril, closing the left. Again inhaling through the right nostril eject through the left, according to capacity; practising this three or four times at four hours of the day, before dawn, during midday, in the evening, and at midnight, in 15 days or a month purity of the nerves is attained; then begins pranayama.
Swami Vivekananda mentions the reason and the need to engage in this rather simple but often ignored practice.
Nerve currents will have to be displaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibration will begin, the whole constitution will be remodeled, as it were.
Patanjali then brings us to the withdrawal of our senses 5. Pratyahara. This is the reason Agathiyar had us stop the rituals and charity so that we interact less with the outside world giving us the time and space to take the step forward in moving into the next phase of going within. Just as our baggage of past bad karma has to be left behind on this journey we cannot possibly carry along the sweets, presents, and treasures gifted to us because of our good karma too. We should leave empty-handed, taking up and using only the tools that are laid along the way for our immediate purpose and leaving them behind after it has served us well. If we take the tools along with us in anticipation of dangers ahead or in event the need arises to use them again, it would be tantamount to besides carrying a load, inviting these dangers as our thoughts shall shape the future, bringing these fears to take shape. Going empty is total surrender. When I went empty in undertaking my maiden pilgrimage of temples in India as mooted by Agathiyar in the Nadi some 18 years back, ....
It brought me to the pinnacle of my journey where a chance meeting brought me face to face with my first guru Supramania Swami of Tiruvannamalai, ......
He started me on the new journey of devotion to the guru or Guru Bakti, ......
My second guru Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal of Kallar Ashram at the beginning of our journey in tracking into the jungles and before sleeping in the caves where the Siddhas had roamed and meditated in the past, turned to me with a wide grin on his face telling me "Only now the true journey begins, Son!"
Similarly now another new journey begins to unfold that of working on our souls. Iyengar classifies the first five means as a journey forward - from the body towards the soul. Patanjali then takes us on a reverse path, he says, or a return journey now moving inwards, from the body towards the soul. This is true renunciation, contrary to the common belief and understanding that of renouncing the world, he adds. If in Sariyai we spend hours at the abode of God that were man-made temples, driven by his desire to pay homage to Him, with the coming of the guru they clear the path in our hearts or Edaya Kamalam for the arrival of the Good Lord within. Just like Karuvurar or the one from Karuvoor or Karur as the town is known now helped in the installation of the great Siva Lingam in the Thanjai Big temple or Thanjai Peruvudaiyar Brihadishvara Temple, the guru comes to place God in our hearts. The search ends henceforth. The guru helps us erect God's abode within after showing us His existence out there in nature and as one with nature. Patanjali now comes to show us the way to reach the abode of the soul forever so that all the actions he performs in the world, will not reflect any reaction, hence severing the fine thread of birth and rebirth. This journey reaches the inner confines of one's within finally meeting up with one's Self or Atma. The day the Jiva (n) Atma realizes that it is one with Para (m) Atma, the Jeevan dissolves in the Param. Duality seizes to exist. You are That!
This final phase of the journey that goes within begins with
6. Dharaṇa - concentration; leading to
7. Dhyana - meditation; and finally settling in
8. Samadhi - absorption.
It is pretty obvious that though the journeys are many but each has a purpose that is ordained.