Gone are the days when the cock was the alarm clock timed with the sun’s arrival on the threshold of dawn
Cows mooing,birds chirping children already out helping mothers and grandparents.
Smells of hot breakfast delicacies enveloping the house, then off to school or place of work, wherever we are supposed to be.
Man has developed, materially and intellectually, but most of the time in a haphazard way,trespassing most of the time on another creatures domain.
He being stronger and a highly evolved creature has managed to bring the rest of creation under his feet.
Gigantic machinery, cut down forests,level up once standing gracefull hills and mountains to the ground, all this is happening all around and fast,if this trend continues man will succeed in killing and destroying Creation itself
Today man has lost all principles and lives and struggles only for himself and his immediate family, this shift of personality is the cause of his doom
This was not how it was a few years ago. People lived for the structural betterment of society without hurting nature, reaping from her bounties without uprooting her,and they were guided by pundits and purohits the former gave them physical support concerning health and advice and the latter took care of their personality development by relating and regaling them with stories from our epics and puranas
These learned scholars studied and were greatly influenced by the verbal or written instructions left behind by highly evolved Divine teachers called Siddhas or Siddha Purushas.
Who are Siddhas
Siddhas are Divine Incarnations and have come on the earth plane for enriching knowledge and upliftment of humanity .
They are either direct Divine Incarnations or have taken human birth, these have left their homes and families to live in seclusion to attain the pinnacle of spirituality and enlightenment
They have attained perfection in every aspect of life,even learnt to live for hundreds of years by taking Jeevan Samadhi.
In a simple way of explanation, they don’t die like normal beings, they calculate their time of death and prepare for their death by entering into a prebuilt samadhi structure and instruct their shishya or students on how to close the crypt,having excelled in yogic powers,their body remains intact the spirit is set free so are no longer bound by space and time
Some of the siddhas even travel anywhere they wish across the globe,some travel incognito
Fascinating is it not? read further
There are eighteen siddhas and they have written treatises, sutras on medicine, astronomy, yoga on everything
Patanjali
The foremost among the eighteen siddhas is Patanjali, conferred as the Father of Yoga
He is the incarnation of SheshNag, Lord Vishnu reclines on His coiled up huge body, the large Hood protects the Lord from above.
One day as Lord Vishnu was reclining on the comforting soft Nag bed, Sheshnag fell asleep,but soon after he began to feel the weight of Vishnu uncomfortable and unbearable .
Looking around,He found Vishnu sitting and enjoying himself pounding and beating around ecstatic
Shesha could hold on no longer,he implored upon the Lord the reason for this ecstacy, to which Lord Vishnu said, you were sleeping and missed Lord Siva’s Divine Dance called Shanta Tandav
Shesha was sad and inconsolable, having lost the chance to see Shiva’s Tandav Nritya .Lord Vishnu told him to perform penance on the hills of Thillai. Shesha along with Viyakarmabathar, performed severe penance,Lord Shiva happy with their single minded devotion appeared before them and asked them to go to Chidambaram Temple it was here that Shiva performed the Tandava Nritya to his ardent devotees.
Having done severe devoted austerities, Adishesha was blessed with the essence of the knowledge of “Vyagarana Suthiram”.Having gained this knowledge,he had to impart the same to his students and he was also in a hurry to return to his abode Vaikunta but before that the knowledge had to be imparted to his disciples
He chose the thousand pillared Chidambaram Temple to impart his newly gained wisdom to his disciples who were sixty of them.The condition to be adhered to by the students was that he would impart knowledge from behind a curtain so they could not see Him, reason for which He did not give.
Days went by, the disciples were constantly thinking about why their GURU was teaching from behind the curtain
One day,one of the shishya fell sick so remained absent .Among the others,there was one student who was so curious he could not contain himself so dropped the curtain dividing them.
Shesha was imparting knowledge in his true form, as Nag,real serpent,spewing venom all around, it did not reach the disciples because they were behind the curtain, now they were exposed and all the disciples were turned to cinders because of the Poison.
Shesha, gave out a huge cry and took a human form,which brought the sick boy to His presence, having narrated the happenings,Shesha imparted the rest of the knowledge to this single disciple Siddha Kaubathar whose disciple was Govinda Bhagwat Pada who is the guru of Shri Adi Shankaracharya
Dhanwantari
He is an incarnation of Shri Krishna, having risen from the churning of the ocean holding the kumbha of necter in His hands.
Lord Shiva, is the Guru and Teacher of Medicine, Vaitheeswaran, He taught Danvantari the intricacies of the sciences of Siddha medicine under a Neem Tree,where now stands the Vaitheeswaran Temple
Sri Valmiki
This siddha was initiated by Holy Nandi,Shiva’s bull and attained Spiritual knowledge which inspired the Holy epic Ramayana which glorifies right living and moulds the Indian way of life
Shri Kudambai are later age siddhas
Shri Ramadevar, is said to have attained Soruba siddha, so could visit places by the aerial route
He is said to have visited mecca and there he was named Jacob
Siddha Bhognathar
He was an alchemist,having gained knowledge of alchemy it is he who has moulded and breathed life ( prana prathishta )into the diety at Palani using his knowledge of alchemy,which today is a great pilgrimage center
Shri siddha Karuvoorar
He is the disciple of Bhognathar and was also initiated by him
Born into the clan of Vishwakarma,he is popular for his contribution in constructing the massive Brihardeeshwarar Temple in Tamil Nadu and also to have sculpted in gold Nataraja Dancing Shiva
Sri Idaikadar
He is another of the siddhas born in a Shephard family,later initiated by siddhas Bhognatar and Karuvoorar,he too has scripted a collection of books on various subjects
These are the eight Siddhas of prominence,who have strived to enlighten the world, It is for us to delve deeper into the sciences and mysteries they have left behind, some are lost the rest are kept securely among the mystics it is for us to strive and search to devour it’s contents
This is BharataVarsha, our Land, yes be proud to be an Indian.
Pranams
Shashi