SOUL TALK 3

B. Kamalakkannan describes the life of Bhogar in his "Siddhar Uruvil Sivaperuman", Vanathi Pathippakam, 2007. 

Kalangi who performed austerities at Siddhagiri in Saturagiri, continued his tapas in mainland China. As after preaching to the Chinese, he chose to go into samadhi, he sent the word out to his student who at that period of time was observing austerities with Korakkar in Palani, to return to take over his post at his Peedham. Both his student and Korakkar left for China. Following the dictates of his master Kalangi, the student hid his physical body in a cave and had some students stand guard over it while he transmigrated his soul into the body of the Chinese scholar Po-Yang. Hence he came to be known by the name Bhogar. He began to sign off as Bhogar in all his writings too. Bhogar began preaching in place of his guru at the Peedham. Then he shed the form of Po-Yang in samadhi and entered his original body and lived for some time. Again following the dictates of his guru he moved into the body of Lao Tzu and continued his preaching. He is said to have originated the symbol yin and yang. He spoke about Kundalini to the Chinese and depicted it as a dragon. Taoism then came to be defined. He dropped that body that he had hitched on and returned to his original body. He did the same feat of transmigration in further few bodies and is said to have lived some 500 years. Korakkar accompanied Bhogar throughout his stay in China.

In “The Guiding Light of Lao Tzu”, Henry Wei, writes that a recluse Wei Po-Yang believed that "man could attain immortality by reforming his personality and sublimating his vital force" and "he set forth the method by which the ancient saints and sages attained the status of Hsien or immortals or spiritual beings.

"The method he set forth involves repose in quiescence and desireless-ness, withdrawal of the light inward, stopping up the openings of the senses, and preservation of the vital force – all for the purpose of developing an inner pearl, a symbol for some spiritual entity. If this method is diligently followed for three years accompanied by the practice of breath control the inner pearl will emerge.. Eventually, the spiritual entity will ascend to heaven and take its place among the divine beings."

In http://www.subtleenergies.com/ormus/historical/thelab.htm we read that "Wei Po-Yang was a Taoist philosopher and alchemist, a native of Wu in the province of Kiangsu. In the year 121 A.D. he was offered a position at court but refused this honor. In the epilogue of his Ts'an T'ung Ch'i he describes himself as "a lowly man from the country of Kuei, who has no love for worldly power, glory, fame or gains, who wastes his days leading a simple, quiet, leisurely and peaceful life in a retreat in an unfrequented valley."

The earliest known Chinese treatise on alchemy was written by Wei Po-yang, the "Father of Alchemy." His work, called Ts'an T'ung Ch'i, was written about 142 A.D., in which he refers to earlier traditional manuscripts on alchemy. The three or four centuries before Wei Po-yang were spent in trying to transmute base metals into gold, though not for its intrinsic value, but because it was thought that this synthetic gold could produce longevity. Even to eat from dishes made from synthetic gold insured one of this ideal state. Cinnabar, or red mercuric sulphide, was also thought to be another elixir of immortality. This Chinese classic of Wei Po-yang is really a thesis on the preparation of the Pill of Immortality."

The Chinese biography of Immortals says that he entered the mountains to make efficacious medicine. With him were three disciples, two of whom he thought were lacking in complete faith. When the medicine was made he tested them. He said, "The gold medicine is made but it ought first to be tested on the dog. If no harm comes to the dog we may then take it ourselves, but if the dog dies of it we ought not to take it." (Now Po-Yang had brought a white dog along with him to the mountains. If the number of treatments of the medicine had not been sufficient or if harmonious compounding had not reached the required standard, it would contain a little poison and would cause temporary death.) Po-Yang fed the medicine to the dog and the dog died an instantaneous death. Whereupon he said, "The medicine is not yet done. The dog has died of it. Doesn't this show that the divine light has not been attained? If we take it ourselves I am afraid we shall go the same way as the dog. What is to be done?"

The disciples asked, "Would you take it yourself, Sir?" To this Po-Yang replied, "I have abandoned the worldly route and forsaken my home to come here. I should be ashamed to return if I could not attain the Hsien (immortal). So, to live without taking the medicine would be just the same as to die of the medicine. I must take it." With these final words he put the medicine into his mouth and died instantly.

On seeing this, one of the disciples said, "Our teacher was no common person. He took the medicine and died of it. He must have done that with special intention." The disciple also took the medicine and died. Then the other two disciples said to one another, "The purpose of making medicine is to attempt at attaining longevity. Now the taking of this medicine has caused deaths. It would better not to take the medicine and so be able to live a few decades longer." They left the mountain together, without taking the medicine, intending to get burial supplies for their teacher and their fellow disciple. After the departure of the two disciples, Po-Yang revived. He placed some of a well-concocted medicine in the mouth of the disciple and in the mouth of the dog. In a few moments they both revived. He took the disciple, whose name was Yü, and the dog, and went the way of immortals. By way of a wood-cutter, whom they met, he sent a letter of thanks to the two disciples. The two disciples were filled with regrets when they read the letter."

Dr. Zhi Gang Sha shares many secrets in his book "The Power of Soul", Atria Paperback, NY, 2009. He divulges a secret. A human being has three major souls. Tian Ming, a soul from the Heaven and Akashic records that comes within us as we are born. It guides us and assists our soul's journey.  

Ren Xing is our soul, that comes from heaven too, that can lodge in one of seven specific "houses" or places in the body that corresponds with the chakras. "Where your Ren Xing or body soul resides depends on your spiritual standing in Heaven. The higher your spiritual standing the higher the "house" your body soul will reside within." For the enlightened, it sits in the heart. This soul is the one that reincarnates. Our work and effort are recorded both in this soul and the Akashic records. 

Finally, Wu Shen and its other souls form the souls of the five organs. Wu Shen comes from Heaven the moment we are born and stays for life. Upon death, it leaves first.

It is believed that every person's soul is tasked by Heaven to do a particular work here. This is soul work as opposed to what we do daily to sustain and keep us alive, taking in the pleasures of life as we go about living. After accomplishing our soul's task we are elevated to a higher level of soul standing. Making great contributions can elevate the soul standing in a lifetime. 

So what is the soul's journey then? The Dr explains, "The soul's journey is the journey to uplift your soul standing in Heaven until it has reached its ultimate destination which is the realm of the divine. The soul journey includes purification of the soul, the transformation of the soul and finally enlightenment of the soul." He says the soul can grow to boost its power with blessings from the divines exactly what Agathiyar has described in the 5 tenets he gave at the gathering of the Rishis and Siddhas at the Tamil Sangam.

A recap of the 5 tenets and the reasons to pursue it follows. 

The first and foremost task for us is to understand our purpose in taking this birth. With our purpose known then, we come to thank the divine creator or energy that brought forth our 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, we gain soul strength 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. With all 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."

What is food for the soul then? As early as in my very first Nadi reading in 2002, Agathiyar and lately Ma, Aiya, and Lord Muruga, have been giving us constant reminders on the need for a particular experience for only then the soul tends to grow.

Thomas Moore in his book "Care of the Soul", HarperCollins Publishers, 1992, says, "Just as the mind digests ideas and produces intelligence, the soul feeds on life and digests it, creating wisdom and character out of the fodder of experience." As Moore writes further, "Renaissance Neoplatonist said that the outer world serves as a means of deep spirituality and that the transformation of ordinary experience into the stuff of soul is all-important", the soul comes to learn and grow from its experiences. The spirit of God is in all things and we learn to pick up the essence of these individual spirits in his creation. Having collected sufficient experience for it to grow, the soul then it shifts into a silent mode contemplating on all that it had absorbed and begins to digest them while in solitude. Having done with the absorption, it takes on a new perspective of the world and returns to address the world and its issues from a different angle, and to educate others on true living, sharing the wisdom gained from its period of hibernation and silent contemplation. They become gurus in the eyes of others. 

Rather than ignore the world and hideaway on the onset, we need to live life to the fullest and after having had the experience, learn to differentiate the good and the bad, drop all that hurts the self and others, and extend all the best towards oneself and others. The rebirth takes place here itself. Moore says "The soul needs an intense full-bodied spiritual life as much as and in the same way that the body needs food."

Dr. Zhi Gang Sha says that the transformation of the soul brings transformation in all sectors of life.

"To transform the soul is to cleanse karma, purify, accumulate virtue, become a total GOLD and unconditional universal servant. When these are done all blockages in every aspect of life are removed." 

Man has been given numerous downloads from Heaven through the saints and gurus who came as the receptacles or agents of the divine over time. But we have ignored the call for we were too busy watching the show put on by Kaalan or Maya. As Thomas Moore says "It's easy for consciousness to become lodged in the material world and to forget spirituality" so the soul then becomes neglected, for the physical body takes precedence and importance. Only when we take several knockings after falling for the lure of this world we turn our sight to the divine seeking solace and solution.

"If one does not move one's soul life further during one's physical life it is a great pity", writes Dr. Zhi Gang Sha. He answers both Sanjiv's and my question as to why there is a sudden urgency to fast forward the process, as observed in Agathiyar's directives to us. The Dr tells us that we are living in a historic time - the beginning of the Soul Light Era.