Topic started by vaidyanathan (@ 202.153.41.187) on Sun May 11 07:05:20 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
READ THE ARTICLE BELOW WRITTEN BY A FOREIGNER.THERE IS A REAL DOUBT ACCORDING TO ME ON WHO SHOULD BE DEFINED AS A SIDDHAR.ALL WELL READ PEOPLE KNOW THAT SIDDHAS THEMSELVES CONSIDER AGATSYA AS THE GREATEST SIDDHA.BUT HE BELIEVED IN BRAHMIN RITUALS.HERE THE ARTICLE PAINTS THAT SIDDHAS DO NOT BELIEVE IN VEDAS AND UPOANISHADS.IS IT BECAUSE THERE IS A LOT OF CONFUSION ON WHO IS A SIDDHA AND WHO IS NOT.CAN WE ACCEPT SOME ONE AS A SIDDHA IF HE CLAIMS TO BE ONE.BHAGWAT GITA CONSIDERS AGATSYA AS THE GREATEST AMONG SIDDHAS
An Introduction to the Tamil Siddhas:
Their Tantric Roots, Alchemy, Poetry,
and the True Nature of their Heresy
Within the Context of South Indian Shaivite Society
by Layne Little
They form a distinctive part of a larger movement which spread throughout South Asia, from Sri Lanka in the South to Tibet in the north, between the seventh and eleventh centuries. Siddhas everywhere share common practices, cosmology, and symbols derived from Tantrism whether the practitioner is Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain. All are part of a "pan-Indian tantric yoga movement" which Eliade described as formulating over a five hundred year period, between the 7th and the 11th centuries, but fully flowering only after the 12th century.
Excluding perhaps the Buddhist Siddhas, all such groups are considered radical, if not dangerous, by the orthodoxy.
An intriguing aspect of the Tamil Siddha cult is that it shares with the orthodox Saiva Siddhanta sect a common text which defines the philosophy of both groups. Since each sect emphasized different aspects of the teaching they quickly became widely divergent, with the two orders often at odds.
The Siddhas would be scoffing at temple worship, reliance upon Brahminical authority, and proclaiming the injustice of caste; while the Saiva Siddhantins would berate the Siddhas much as M. Srinivasa Iyangar did in 1914 when he wrote that the Siddhas are "mostly plagiarists and impostors" and in addition, "Being eaters of opium & dwellers in the land of dreams, their conceit knew no bounds".
At times the Siddhantins have even engaged in an organized effort to eliminate the Siddhar faction.
To the Tamil Siddhas, Shiva is the unqualified and ultimate reality beyond form or comprehension, but Shakti, the Goddess, is immanent and accessible as the divine force abiding within the body itself. There she can be coaxed & subdued, manipulated & directed. As the serpent power Kundalini, flowing through the subtle body, she can propel the consciousness of the Siddhar into union with the Absolute. Though the orthodox Saiva Siddhantin may content himself with the worship of Shiva in the temple through the rituals of the priest, the Siddha placates the goddess to intercede on his behalf and expand the consciousness of the Siddha beyond all limitation, where he may become Shiva himself. Notions, such as this, being fundamental to the Tamil Siddha, has struck the Shaivite orthodoxy as heretical.
Within the context of Hindu myth the name Siddha originally denoted one of the eighteen categories of celestial beings. These beings of semi-divine status were said to be of great purity and their dwelling was thought to be in the sky between the earth and the sun. Later they became associated with a class of more adept human being, often an accomplished yogi. The term had been derived from the Sanskrit root sidh meaning "fulfillment" or "achievement," so the noun came to refer to one who had attained perfection. Because the Tamil language lacks the aspirated consonants of Sanskrit the word has been written and pronounced by the Tamils as cittar. This has lead the Tamils to associate the word more with the Sanskrit term chit, meaning "consciousness."
All of the writings of the Tamil Siddhas, whether defining philosophical viewpoints, yogic practices, or presenting alchemical recipes for herbal tinctures and base metal amalgams were presented in poetic form, often employing the more difficult meters that harkened back to the ancient Tamil Sangam Age. These works are also riddled with tantric imagery, references to Kundalini, and clues to control the dangerous feminine power through breathing practices or the recitation of the Goddess's secret names. Because of the enigmatic nature of the Siddha imagery, and their philosophy structured in direct defiance of human logic, few scholars have ventured to address the Tamil Siddhas and then often only as mere curiosities. Needless to say, the vast majority of the Tamil Siddha works have never been translated, as has been the case with some of the verses presented here.
One of the most basic characteristics of Tamil composition, and one that is particularly relevant to Siddha poetry, is the tendency to layer the work so that each word or image builds upon the last. Because each component image is presented so as to be viewed autonomously and in relationship both sequentially and to the totality of the verse, the images of the poem may seem slightly disjointed and contradictory. Though this may at first seem to undermine the aesthetic quality and over-complicate the simple act of enjoying poetry, the Tamil Siddha compositions pattern the imagery to expound the subtle complexity of their philosophical concepts or to map out the terrain of the inner landscape which is dominated by the dormant serpent energy.
As we can see in verse 730, the Siddhantins were confronted with the tantric orientation of their philosopher Tirumular, when he relates that it is the human body itself that is the temple of the Goddess Shakti...
Tirumular discusses the basis of Kundalini Yoga whereby the breath, carrying one of the vital airs known as prana, flows into the solar and lunar currents which run from the right and left nostrils down to the base of the spine and are there brought into union. The point of this union is at the root chakra Muladhara, the first of six chakras or nerve plexuses through which the Kundalini energy will flow. This energy is moved by the solar and lunar streams of vital breath that have entered the central current at Muladhara and will ascend upwards through the six chakras, each corresponding to a higher and more expansive state of consciousness. The individual awareness is sublimated into divine union at the crown of the head. It is a kind of inner journey towards the infinitude of the Divine,
but begins only after the two streams flow into the central current as we learn from verse 801 of the Tirumantiram...
In an effort to demonstrate that the macrocosm is reflected within the microcosm, Tantra began to emphasize that the universe, in all its totality, is contained within the body of the individual. It superimposed universal symbols over the human body to help demonstrate this relationship. The spine, along which the Shashumna or central channel ran, became the cosmic axis. All the Gods that oversaw the mechanism that is this universe we-re hidden in the lotus centers of the body's chakras, like blossoms flowering on the vine of the spine. But it was the portly god Ganesha, who guarded the gate to the inner world. He became a patron of Kundalini yoga in the South and was invoked by the female Siddha mendicant Avaiyar, in this excerpt from her 14th century work Vinayagar Agaval. Here she relates how the elephant-headed god has reconciled the dualistic nature of the universe as the various manifestations of Shiva were taught to be part of her inner savoring.
In about 1661, as Aurangzeb set about to expand his kingdom throughout the subcontinent and free the land of heretics, he was at the same time extending his protection to an obscure Hindu monastery in the Punjab. At the time in question Aanand Nath, the abbot of the monastery and a Natha Siddha alchemist, was providing history's great persecutor of Hinduism a regular supply of treated mercury which promised to confer longevity.
In the modern era, the Siddhas have had a profound influence on contemporary Tamil society because of the impact of a single poet who lived in the last century. Ramalingar was born in 1823 near Chidambaram, the greatest of all Shaivite temples. Naturally, the heretical nature of his teaching and the growing number of his disciples caused the protest of temple officials and a variety of Saiva Siddhanta institutions throughout the region. Eventually they were forced to call in Arumuga Naalavar from Jaffna to put an end to Ramalingar.
Although Ramalingar's hymns were penned in praise of the God Shiva, they were often addressed to a feminine audience with unqualified personal designations such as 'Amma' or 'Akka', 'Mother' or 'Sister'. Perhaps indicating that the hymn was meant for an internal and distinctly feminine force that could propel the invocation along the proper channels of the inner cosmos, towards Shiva's divine abode.
The fact that his songs began to be sung in the schools, villages and even the temples of 19th century Cennai, began to outrage the orthodox Shaivites in the area. He, as all other Tamil Siddhas, was somewhat iconoclastic, not adequately deferential to temple or Brahminical tradition. He did not worship the linga. Forgoing all such images, he perpetrated the greatest of heresies by blatantly revealing the true face of God veiled within volumes of tantric lore. At the shrine he established at Vadalur, behind the curtain that housed the holy of holy's, he established a single flame's light to illuminate a mirror that would reflect the image of the worshipper as the secret face of god and final mystery of the Tamil Siddha cult.
Tell your friend about this topic