A story is authentic if it was an autobiography. Many gurus in recent times have either written their autobiographies or had their close associates and followers write biographies on them. Paramahansa Yogananda has introduced the world of both known and lesser-known gurus to us. Pandit Gopi Krishna has shared his experiences in unknowingly awakening the Kundalini energy and the subsequent turmoil, torment, pain, and suffering he went through. These have served as guides in understanding the guru-disciple relationship in the former and warning signs to us from the latter. Though these are exceptions, most saints seldom speak about their lives and greatness much less document their life stories. I got to know in detail Supramania Swami's life and the miracles or siddhis he performed only from his wife and son on my second and last visit to see him. Tavayogi too shied away from speaking about himself and his journey. Tavayogi never divulged much giving only scanty and brief statements about himself or about the mysteries that shroud the Siddha world. When once he felt he was revealing too much about the Jeeva Nadi of Agathiyar in his possession in an interview to an Indian Tv channel on YouTube, he pulled the brakes. See http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2015/03/moondravathu-kan-on-kallar-ashram.html . Most saints in the distant past opted to sing about their divine experiences instead as did the Nayanmars and Ramalinga Adigal who came by some 200 years back.
Much that we know has come by way of mouth carried from generation to generation. Parts and bits of the stories might have been lost in translation or modified and manipulated leaving us to either believe or doubt them or totally reject them. I have had close prominent people in several instances make a mistake in conveying a story that had me in the picture too. One was uttered verbally in a gathering and the other came out in print. But I chose not to correct them. I wonder now how much of what we hear and read is true? I remember how Norman Rockwell depicted these misinterpretations graphically through his illustration that appeared in Readers Digest many years ago.
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| The Gossips, Norman Rockwell, Oil on Canvas, 1948 |
We have all played a similar game too in our younger days where it was fun to see how a message that is related to one at the beginning of a line of people becomes misquoted when it reaches the ears of the last candidate.
Standing apart from the fraction of inaccurate reporting that is available online, is PremKV's series on Sadhguru Shri Brahma. He and his team have done a wonderful job in sourcing and gathering information about Sadhguru Shri Brahma from people who have in some way seen the man or his miracles carried out. This canvas of videos does justice to the saint.
Another work that comes to my mind is Gnanabharathi's book "Tamil Mannin Thanthai" on many unknown happenings in Ramalinga Adigal's life. "Read further at http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2013/07/ramalinga-adigal-arutprakasa-vallalar.html
History has to be preserved and not disturbed, manipulated or added on, all the more if it was a samadhi of a Siddha. We have seen this happen too often both in the West and the East. Tavayogi lamented to me as we stood at the entrance of a cave at Kutralam hills. "See son, this is "Agathiyar's Cave." But they have named it "Avvai's Cave." The Uthiyur caves where Konganar meditated and Tavayogi later stayed in, today is filled with oil lamps left behind by devotees having worshipped his painting that has been placed in an otherwise empty cave. The cave temple in Sungai Siput has idols and buntings of Siddhas now. People fail to understand that they have an obligation to preserve the historic, artistic and architectural interest of any monument or place for the sake of generations to come so that they shall not be misled by what they see later.
Agathiyar like many historians has mentioned that much of history has been manipulated for personal gains by certain quarters or individuals. He has access to countless unsolved and untold mysteries but chooses to remain silent. I guess it is the will of Kala (Time) and the might of Maya (Illusion) that coverup many stories. Reading his Agathiyar Gnanam did disturb me as to the authenticity of texts that we considered sacred. He even paints pictures of fraud gurus. Chitramuthu Adigal too I understand has touched on false gurus and teachings.
The only way to gain and possess authentic knowledge then is to have first-hand experience. Otherwise, the gurus have to come back and verify their teachings and works to us. All else is an interpretation of an individual.
From "AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF RAMALINGA SWAMI" by Dr.C.Srinivasan, we read that,
"There is only one God in the philosophy of the Swami. It must be pointed out that this philosophy has no plurality of Gods. He has made it clear that the God Supreme is Supreme-Grace-Light (அருட்பெருஞ்சோதி). He proclaims that there exists only one God Supreme. He may be in three different states. They are a form, a formless, and a form without form. (The last mentioned in the form of the container of the thing contained. To be more precise, water has no form but the form of the water in a cup or a jar is the form of the cup or the jar.)" In fact, he has graded the various powers that are personified as different deities endowed with certain divine powers. They are known as the Heads of different stages (பதத் தலைவர்கள்). To understand these powers and to distinguish them from one another some symbolic names have been assigned in religious literature."
"From the meek and insignificant creatures to the highly evolved human beings and super-human beings, all living things are simply manifestations of the light of God. The Light of God supreme is present in everything and more so in human beings. The human being is embellished with a higher sixth sense with which the fraction of light in him should be developed more and more for the complete realization of the God Supreme. He can be realized only by that divine experience."
Many besides Ramalinga Adigal have had such divine experiences. One of them is Jeganatha Swamigal who was a disciple of Ramalinga Adigal. He made his way to the peninsula state of then Malaya, (present Malaysia) and attained Jothi in the small town of Tapah in 1959. We did not know about him until Tavayogi came to our shores and revealed his story at an event we organized in Ipoh in 2008. Tavayogi came to know about Jeganathar after taking abode and refuge at the Holy feet of his Guru Chitramuthu Adigal in 1975. Tavayogi then came to Malaysia in 2004 after Agathiyar directed him to continue to preach the ways of his guru Chitramuthu Adigal, Paramaguru Jeganatha Swamigal, and Moolaguru Agathiyar himself. Tavayogi had written an article on Jeganathar in his Tirupur branch's inhouse publication in 1994. He read the account of Jeganathar's travels to Malaya to us and brought this wonderful saint and Siddha to our attention. I shared the recording of his speech on YouTube which has become a source of information for many seekers of Jeganathar.
Mahin's wife was asked to visit Jeganathar Swami's temple in a recent Nadi reading by Agathiyar that was read by the visiting Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar. They invited me to tag along. Just searching through the net a day before our departure without any particular intent, I happened to drop in on www.himalayanacademy.com/blog/taka/2018/06/12/our-link-to-a-natha-siddhar/. I was surprised to see parts of my blog post on Jeganatha Swamigal used on this site. Reading further I was pleased to see that the administrator of this website had given credit and acknowledged the source referring thus "Our slideshow today contains a blog post from http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2013/07/jeganatha-swamigal-jeganatha-swamigal.html".
I had sourced much of this information from what was delivered to us by Tavayogi and the caretaker of Jeganathar Temple during the numerous visits to the samadhi temple in the past. Both of them have since then passed away. Another wonderful source of additional information was from Nithyavani Manikam’s blog at http://nithyavani.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-post_28.html. She has referred to R.Jeyaganthan and Saravanabhavan's books on Jeganatha Swamigal. Sadly I can't seem to find more details regarding their books online. Nithyavani had sourced some portions from my now defunct website http://indianheartbeat.fws1.com/MyGuru.html and http://tavayogi.webs.com/abouttavayogi.htm too. We learn more about Jeganathar from a piece that was published in the magazine Hinduism Today in 1987. So from the interchange of information from these various sources, I believe that we can safely arrive at a concise representation of Jeganatha Swami's life in Malaya. Here it is.
Jeganatha Swami was born, "two years after the American War of 1812 - a time when the British were establishing a mercantile beachhead in India", describes Hinduism Today, and nine years prior to the birth of Ramalinga Adigal, at Puri, India in 1814, in the Tamil month of Thai.
He was a follower of Ramalinga Adigal’s principles. He carried and worshipped a painting of the saint and had that placed in his samadhi later. At the age of eighteen, he left for Chittagong in Burma. Later at thirty, he tracked down to Malaya through Thailand. Hinduism Today states that "performing body-numbing tapas (austerities to accelerate soul unfoldment) and finally crossing into Malaysia (then Malaya) in his late 60s, Swami Jaganatha was a Siddha par excellence of the Natha Sampradaya (tradition of the Siva masters). He left a legacy of pinnacle spiritual achievement for all Malaysian Hindus and a posthumous prophecy of international scope that bore true. Few knew him personally. He mainly strode the corridors of our dream world, the realities of the Devaloka surrounding this planet."
He lived in Alor Star (now Alor Setar) and the island paradise Langkawi in North Malaya. He was in Baling for eight years. Moving further south to Tanjong Malim, he worked as a brakeman in the Malayan Railways for four years. The locals there saw him as a spiritual man and addressed him as Swami. Then he decided to go on a road trail to Singapore. But en route, he was mistaken as a spy by the Burmese security forces loyal to the British in Malaya and put behind bars in Taiping Prisons. Miraculously he was released the next day without any interrogation. On his return journey from Singapore stopping over at Seremban, here too people began to take notice of his spiritual nature. He moved northwest to Teluk Anson (now Teluk Intan), a small town located at an estuary, where he undertook charity and fed the poor. Finally, he settled in Tapah where he built a hut for himself near a Chinese graveyard and continued his sadhana and tapas, or austerity here. Jeganatha Swamigal purchased three acres of rubber land in the vicinity and allowed the locals to build their homes on his land. He lived a simple life never making himself and his powers known to others. He lived alone. Often he used to be seen in a loincloth and people made fun of him calling him a lunatic. At other times he dressed in white like Ramalinga Adigal. Hinduism Today states that "Finding him was difficult enough even if he inwardly wanted to see you. And the jungle and Japanese soldiers in occupation kept the fainthearted away. But some came." It is said that he never took a bath but there was always a sweet aroma emitting from him. A Malay colleague of mine who has a guru from Indonesia in the Sufi tradition told me that each time his guru eases himself and comes out of the toilet or latrine, a sweet aroma prevails in the air.
According to Hinduism Today," he lived in Tapah for some 78 years. Hinduism Today describes the place he chose to go into samadhi as follows, "... the emerald jungles of Tapah, Malaysia - his physical home a small, rude hut far from civilization, his spiritual home the infinite realms of Siva consciousness."
Jeganatha Swamigal's samadhi temple which was more akin to a simple home until it saw a renovation and after being given a facelift has now turned into a spacious temple. Many cement statues of Siddhas now adorn the columns of the temple. I made my first visit to this samadhi temple after it was renovated last Saturday with Mahin and his family. While his wife was asked to visit the temple in a recent Nadi reading by Agathiyar read by Mataji they both asked me to join them too with their two children. I took along my granddaughter too. I am happy I took up the invitation. When a couple was asked to contact Siddha physician and consume Agathiyar Kuzhambu, I had the privilege to be invited by them to see him too. I was glad I took up the invitation as I was given the Kuzhambu to consume too. When Nathan from the southern state of Johore was told about the cave in Sungai Siput where Siddhas are meditating till this day and asked to visit during a full moon by Agathiyar in his Nadi reading, after he shared the reading with me I and my wife made our way to the cave temple. I am glad that Nathan shared the piece of news as I was harmlessly jolted off my seat or rather thrown into a dark pit in a mysterious manner.
And so it seems that there was a reason for everything to fall into place again. I had previously held the opinion that Ramalinga Adigal was not at Satya Gnana Sabai, a place he had painstakingly built and left behind for generations to come, and the Dharma Salai that was to feed the hungry after my first visit there. I told myself God was not in Chidambaram temple after my first visit there and refused to go again even after Agathiyar had suggested I return there. So did I stand firm that after taking hold of Agathiyar's feet I was not going any place even to Ongkarakudil where Agathiyar suggested that I shall be well received by its patron Thavathiru Rengaraja Desigar now. Recently, I told my wife Jeganatha Swami was not at his samadhi grounds no more when we arrived to see renovations in place. We drove off without entering the construction site. The temple has gone through renovations and new installations making it lose its originality.
We were rather surprised to see a documentary on how the French take all the trouble to preserve even the charred timber roof trusses and every single bit of information was documented on the famed 800-year-old cathedral Notre Dame where a fire destroyed its spire and roof, on April 15, 2019. See https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/notre-dame-fire-melted-scaffolding.
Similarly, another 600-year-old structure, Japan's Shuri castle which was burned down on 31 October 2019, saw a second resurrection when the public from all over the world sent in their photos of the building that they captured while on tour, which was then digitized and assembled together to recreate an image of the building before the fire, right down to its details, replicated in the precise image of its prior appearance. The wooden castle, built 500 years ago, was almost completely destroyed during World War Two. The castle was extensively restored and reopened as a national park in 1992.
When we were at his samadhi temple, Jeganathar came to usher both Mahin and Manimala and his grandchildren telling them that he was waiting for their arrival and was glad they had abided with Agathiyar's instructions as in Manimala's Nadi reading. If this message at the samadhi temple was for Mahin's family, when we were at the other temple at the Tapah Hospital compound he came again this time with a message for me. After spending half an hour at Jeganatha Swamigal's samadhi temple we made our way to the temple mentioned by Mataji in the Tapah Hospital compound. Only recently did we find out from Mataji that besides the established and now famous samadhi temple of his at Kampung Sami, Jalan Chenderiang Lama, Tapah there is another auspicious spot and temple where he stayed and worship a Shivalinga. This temple is within the Tapah Hospital compound. If it was Tavayogi who brought our attention to Jeganatha Swamigal and his samadhi in 2008, it was his disciple Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar who told me about this temple. She had been brought to this temple on her recent visit to Malaysia after visiting Jeganatha Swamigal's samadhi temple. He cleared my doubt, guilt, and fear that I had, wondering if I had belittled him or had falsely made the earlier remark about his absence. But Jeganathar cleared the air and put my doubt, guilt, and fear to rest and I was told they were uncalled for. Osho used to say that the energy at the temples is always some distance away from the Mulastanam or inner sanctum. We saw this in our travels at Ekambareswarar Temple in Kanchipuram, Mayuranathaswami Temple in Mayiladuthurai, and Brihadisvara Temple in Thanjavur too. Jeganathar did imply the same too. Goddess Ma Kali told a devotee that she was not at her temple that was involved in internal feuds but would come by when a true devotee steps in.
This reminds me of the moment Tavayogi called me up from his Kallar Ashram on phone and excitedly told me that my brother, his wife, and son were blessed to have had Lord Murugan's darshan. My brother was visiting Kallar ashram with his family then. As they were having lunch with Tavayogi and Mataji, Tavayogi spotted a young man in his 30s dressed in pants and a shirt making his way up the hill where the old ashram was perched on. But something was peculiar with him. If devotees were known to hike up the hill briskly, this lad stopped every few steps and looked around him, and stared at the environment all around him before continuing. Finally, when he stood at the doorway to the ashram kitchen cum dining hall, Tavayogi invited him to take some food. He replied he had taken. He then began to talk gibberish. This went on for some time when suddenly he mentioned that he was in Kataragama and he did not like it there. Then he continued his gibberish talk only to mention Thiruchendur and say the same again about the place. He continued speaking gibberish till he mentioned Palani and said the same about the place. He spoke gibberish again and finally mentioned that he had come by after hearing that there were good souls at Kallar ashram. Tavayogi immediately saw a connection between the places he mentioned and knew it to be Lord Murugan in disguise. When he visually showed that he knew who had come, the lad hushed him and entered the meditation room. This room was always out of bounds except with prior permission from Tavayogi. The 6-tier peedham made of granite is housed here. Tavayogi and everyone else followed him. He applied the sacred ash on their forehead and blessed them before leaving the same way he had come. What was the significance of his visit we wonder? What was the message he tried to convey across?
Agathiyar reminded us of our conduct when visiting Siddha samadhis through a Nadi reading for Suren read by Nadi Nool Aasan Tamaraiselvan some time back. Agathiyar says as a result of the saints' lifelong tapas, these samadhis having accumulated much energy, were energy spots. Realizing that they could do more in the subtle and spirit form compared to being in the physical and mortal form, these saints had chosen to go into samadhi. Hence there was no requirement on our part to energize the place by performing rituals and agamas. He asked us who are we to energize the place with our rituals when the sages themselves are already a powerhouse of energy? He has asked us to just sit in silence, contemplate on the Siddha present at the spot, imbibe and take in his energy within us. That would suffice. What we should do is to sit quietly and partake in the energy present and bring it within and bring it back with us.
If no rituals are required then why did he permit us to conduct a yagam at Jeganathar's samadhi temple in the past and again with Tavayogi and Mataji during their visit to Malaysia in 2016, I wondered? When the AVM family was touring India later the same year, prior to attending the inauguration of the new Kallar Ashram, a "lady" in a green saree who came around a second time following us and sat with us, insisted we complete the recitation of the Siddha names even as the temple priests motioned us to end the recitation pointing to their watches reminding us that it was time for closure of Bhogar's samadhi temple at Palani.
In another Nadi reading read by Tavayogi to Dyalen, a devotee from AVM, Agathiyar conveyed the wishes of Chitramuthu Adigal that we conduct a Siddha puja at the Murugan temple at Taneermalai in Taiping. We did as told bringing paintings of the Siddhas along.
I guess Agathiyar made these exceptions because our rituals and puja revolved around the Siddhas. In fact, Agathiyar directed us to light oil lamps and pray, telling us that the Siddhas grace is in all the abodes of Lord Murugan including Batu Caves. He says the way to tap into these energies and receive their blessings at the Siddha spots is by reciting the names of the Siddhas. We lighted oil lamps at Batu Caves and recited the names of the Siddhas three years in a row. We had also been approached by the chairman of the Sri Mayuranathar Srimath Pamban Swamigal Temple, the late Supramaniam Aiya to jointly host several Siddha puja at his temple premises that included lighting the homam and oil lamps.
மலாயா தேசத்தில் கருத்தான முறையில் சித்தர்களைப் போற்றி வணங்க கூடிய மக்கள் பரிபூரணமாக இருக்கிறார்கள். முருகன் இருக்கும் இடம் எல்லாம் சித்தர்கள் பார்வை இருக்குதென்று பொருள். அதுபோல பத்துமலையும் சித்தர்கள் வாசம் செய்த ஸ்தலமாகும். சித்தர்கள் முருகனுக்குச் சிவ பூஜை செய்த ஒரு ஸ்தலம். அடியவர்கள் அத்தலத்தில் தீபம் ஏற்றி வழிபட உத்தரவு அளித்துள்ளோம். பஞ்சபூத ஸ்தலங்களிலும் ஆறுபடை ஸ்தலங்களிலும் எங்களுடைய ஜீவம் கண்டிப்பாக இருக்கு. அதனால் அந்த ஸ்தலங்களில் சென்று சித்தர்களின் நாமம் உச்சரித்தால் அவர்களுடைய ஆற்றலும் ஆசியும் வந்து சேரும்.
It was truly amazing to have the Paramaguru Jeganathar speak to us. That is the force of the lineage behind the worship of Siddhas. Believe shall set us sail and just as the "wind has the power to affect the boat's speed and direction and can influence the skipper's navigation", the daily prayers shall build momentum in our lives, and these gusts of winds shall power the boats sail onward. The night sky and its stars that are guardian angels, past saints, sages, Rishis, and Siddhas, shall guide us on towards reaching our target or rather the target set for us after coming to their worship. The protective arms of the Siddhas shall keep us safe.
No commentary on Sri Jeganathar would be complete without mentioning Chitramuthu Adigal. Chitramuthu Adigal left for Malaya in 1922, staying in Kuala Kangsar, Perak. He worked as a toddy tapper for six years before returning to India in 1928. He married the following year and had a child in 1930 who survived only for three days. He came again to Malaya and stayed in Taiping, Perak. He went back to tapping toddy. This was when he met Jeganatha Swamigal and Jeganathar took him as his disciple and gave him the name Chitramuthu. Hence began a wonderful Guru Disciple relationship between them. Jeganathar helped Chitramuthu realize his true Self, his full potential, and his mission in life.
Both Tavayogi and Hinduism Today mention one Gurusamy Pillai as having visited Jeganathar in 1951 and again in 1953. "The Swami asked Pillai to write to a close disciple in Sri Lanka telling him to go see Yogaswami (a renowned Sat Guru of the Natha Sampradaya who died in 1964)." The disciple was none other than Chitramuthu Adigal who was in Ceylon then, in 1953. Hinduism Today continues that "Then Jaganatha predicted another "soul" from America called Subramuniya would come. He would reside in Hawaii. Subramuniya will travel around the world and everyone will receive his darshan. Then I, too, will join him," the Swami declared. And indeed Sivaya Subramuniya, born in America, took Yogaswami as his guru, founded Saiva Siddhanta Church (headquarters in Hawaii), and traveled annually from the West to the East."
When the time came for him to go into samadhi, Jeganatha Swamigal asked to be buried alive but the authorities in Malaya as elsewhere did not allow that. Therefore, he dictated that his followers leave an opening with a pipe protruding from the ground. The pipe protruding into the samadhi is just behind the Shivalingam. On my maiden visit to this temple many years back, the caretaker was gracious enough to let me enter the Holy sanctum to view it.
Like Thirumular and Arunagirinathar before him, Jeganathar must have transmigrated into another living thing and left behind his presumed ‘dead’ body to be laid and buried. He must have entered back into his body later, through the pipe that protruded from the ground at his samadhi.
It is mentioned that Arunagirinathar who left his body in the form of a bird, to fetch the Parichatha flower that would cure the eyesight of the king, from another world, to his dismay, found it missing on returning to the towers of Arunachaleswarer temple in Tiruvannamalai, where he had carefully tucked his physical body away. His arch-rival, Sambanthan, had the body removed and buried elsewhere in his absence. If we are told that as it was already buried under soil, Arunagirinathar had no way to return to his body and stayed in the form of the bird until his reunion with Lord Murugan, Agathiyar revealed that Arunagiri was in his physical human form till his last days.
Jeganatha Swamigal went into samadhi at 4.30 am on 25 January 1959 in Tapah. He chose a full moon and a Thaipusam day to go into samadhi following in the footsteps of his beloved guru Ramalinga Adigal. Eyewitnesses mention that flashes of light were emitted from his samadhi at that moment.
A Shivalingam was installed above his samadhi later. The locals collected funds to build a roof over it and soon a small temple emerged. In 1980, the famed businessman and philanthropist N T S. Arumugam Pillai of Penang built a small hall. Later in 1990, A.V. Pasupathy Pillai of Malacca renovated the existing Shiva temple.
Jeganathar lived for 145 years. He had three disciples: Chitramuthu Adigal from Panaikulam, India, Veemavar from Indonesia, and Sathyananthar of Sudha Samajam, Malaya.