1. Sleep Knowing or Metaphysical Dream Knowing

2. Inner Visions

3. Science: Parallels with Magic

4. The Way of the Average Person - Manickavasagar

5. The End: Religious Perspectives

6. The World is the Genuine Scripture - Tayumanavar

7. The End: Scientific Perspective

8. How to Praise BEING when He Manages All? - Manickavasagar

9. Se x in in Religion

10. The Religion is Embedded in the Culture

11. Sumerian is Archaic Tamil

12. On Need of a Sat Guru

13. Worshipping BEING for Moksa and Nothing Else - Manickavasagar

14. Sadhana

15. The Metaphysical Interrogations - Tayumanavar

16. The Eight Great Acts of Siva

17. The Ninth Great Act

18. Creator of the Gods

19. Namazvar Worships Siva

20. On Authentic Existence - Manickavasagar

21. On Globodium and its Roots

22. Revelation in Science

23. Saivism Integrates and Understands All Religions - Vallalar

24. Vedic Shaivism

25. Devaram and the Moksa Experience - Tayumanavar

26. The Climbs in Metaphysical Space - Vallalar

27. The Lord is Narayana - by Pattinathu Pillaiyar

28. Precognition - On Knowing the future

29. Agastya, Tamilakam and the Three Worlds

30. The Hindu Diet

31. Merging With Siva - Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

32. BEING and the Metaphysical Indeterminacy - Manickavasagar

33. What Does God Look Like? - Saint Sundaramoorthy Nayanar

34. I Hear, I See!

35. Prayers and Worship

36. Names of Gods in Tamil Sangam Literature

37. Finally it is BEING who Teaches - Vallalar

38. Yoga and Sacred Tamil - Tayumanavar

39. Nature and Supernature

Realisations during the sleep state or inactive sleep, is also known as 'ari thuyil' meaning sleep knowing.

thirumUlar aruLiya thirumandhiram
mudhal thanthiram
upathEcam
10th thirumuRai
 
thirucciRRambalam
 
thUN^gik kaNDAr civalOkamum tham uLLE
thUN^gik kaNDAr civayOgamum tham uLLE
thUN^gik kaNDAr civabOgamum tham uLLE
thUN^gik kaNDAr n^ilai colvathu evvARE
 
thirucciRRambalam
 
Meaning:
Sleeping, they saw the world of shiva (sivaloka) in themselves!
Sleeping, they saw the union with shiva (sivayogam) in themselves!
Sleeping, they saw the bliss of shiva (sivabogam) in themselves!
How to say the state of those who saw (while) sleeping!
 
Notes:
1. The inactive sleep, is where one finds
the territory of God, the way to approach God and
to enjoy that God! Glorious is that surrender!

The opening of our inner vision of the 'third eye' is a gift and blessing from
god. It cannot be obtained by our effort. It is bestowed on us when we have
reached a stage when much of our karmas have been resolved. An indication
of this stage is when we feel we have lost our identities of race, religion, ***,
nationalities and attachment to doctrines, notions of right and wrong, and
good and bad. When all this begin to appear the same or evokes no emotions
than its an indication of our stage of maturity.

Round about this time a person begins to have spiritual experiences; hearing
of metaphysical sounds, metaphysical dreams and visions or at least some
views of the inner sights while in worship or meditation.

When the third eye opens, there is a flow of inner sight (awareness/chit)),
flow of ecstasic love (aanandam) and flow of instant intuitive knowing
(njaanam/omniscience) that does not require any conscious thinking and
rationale. All these three experiences happens together. An aspirant usually
takes some years to properly identify and 'manage' these newfound faculties.
Neither do we choose to have inner sights, as it happens spontaneously. They,
the gods, choose to let us see whatever they want us to know and experience.
We have no control over this nor can it be replicated or repeated.

Also there is nothing we can do or achieve with these newfound faculties. We
remain as powerless as before, even come to realise that we are even more
powerless, and that we have been absolutely powerless all along. These are
gifts that cannot be used. There is no omnipotence. It just gives as great
transcosmic understanding.

In the beginning one sees with the third eye but the physical eyes closed. Later
when one has become an adept at understanding these new faculties after
some years, only then can one see with the third eye even with the physical
eyes still open. This is suggested in the icon of Lord Dakshinamoorthy where
His eyes is half closed!

The rise of modern science caused a major paradigm shift in our worldview.
Science has tended to erase the tenets of the magical framework from our
collective consciousness. Sometimes science has discredited the ***umptions of
magic. Yet, there are interesting parallels between magic and science.

To begin with, both magic and science accept the existence of fundamental
entities in the universe that are ultimately responsible for our world of
experience. Both consider these entities to be invisible to the naked eye,
although one might become aware of their existence in indirect ways. In magic,
these are good and evil forces, in science they are quarks, leptons and other
fundamental particles of present day physics. Explanation in terms of the
hidden is common to magic and science.

In science, as in magic, one tries to put our knowledge of the fundamental
entities and forces to practical use. It is not enough to know that there are
good and evil forces, that there are friendly spirits and mischievous agents.
One tries to encourage them to act in our interest. Likewise, one of the goals
of science is to turn to our advantage our understanding of the laws of physics
and chemistry.

To accomplish this, one must adopt well-defined procedures: a condition which
again is as necessary in magic as in science. In magic, such procedures are
referred to as rituals. It is of the utmost importance that rituals be followed
meticulously for influencing the magical forces. In science too, unless one
follows precisely the procedures, the facts and fruits of science cannot come
under our sway.

When it turns out that even when one carefully follows well established steps,
the expected results don't ensue, the validity of the accepted principles isn't
questioned right away. Rather, one thinks that the fault lies with the
practitioner. His or her inadequacy is taken to be the cause of the failure.
Indeed, this is why one needs to be trained by an expert, whether in magic or in
science. Rigorous training under a specialist is absolutely necessary before
one can hope to take full advantage of the knowledge, be it in magic or in
modern science.

We may also see a strong parallel between science and magic in the attitude of
the public towards the two enterprises. In former times, magicians were held
in high esteem, respected and feared also. The reason for this was simple:
With the extraordinary powers arising from the esoteric knowledge about the
earth and the heavens, magicians could influence people and events in
significant ways. In our own times, the same is true of scientists. They are
the know-it-alls, and on their expertise depends the founda­tions of
civilization. So, their words must be listened to with interest and at­tention,
even if one does not always understand what they utter.

Finally, both magic and science arise from the capacity of humans to think in
symbolic terms. Abstract thought and play with symbols are unique to the human
psyche. At the theoretical level, magic presumes unseen and invisible forces
reigning supreme in the world. Magicians interact with them through gestures,
chants and rituals. They develop instruments which range from twigs and sacred
gr*** to candles and incense. In science, the abstract entities consist of
sophisticated conceptual creations bearing such inscrutable (to outsiders) names
as Hamiltonian and Lagrangian, while at the concrete level the symbols of
science include instruments ranging from thermometers and Geiger counters to
such complex systems as radio telescopes and the expansive accelerators of high
energy physics.

The Way of the Average Person

We have always a choice between the ordinary physical way of life and that of the metaphysical which brings along with it, the life of Bakti where the whole range of personal and social actions are guided by the intention to be with BEING. Under normal circumstances BEING is invisible and quite difficult to believe in the reality and truth of BEING. However as the person develops by doing actions that are purifying there comes a point where BEING discloses Himself as already there in the depths of the soul and which the soul grasps intuitively and begins to lead a religious kind of life.

BEING becomes someone very real as if a Great Person who deserves to be garlanded praised profusely with songs of praise of so forth. Most importantly the heart must be filled with love and kindness to be in close proximity with Him. Furthermore the temple is no more simply architecturally a different kind of monument, a work of art and so forth. It becomes the very place where God resides in some iconic form and hence a Koo-il, the house of God and which is a term also exists in SumeroTamil as ‘e-ku (Ta, il koo).

Then begins various religious activities - the sariya kiriyai type where the sariyai types are those where a person cleans and polishes the floor of the temple so that they always remain pure and clean. Then we have the cultivation of arts - music dance and so forth.

Once a person even vaguely feel that BEING is there then these activities take a new meaning - that of bringing the presence of BEING more and more pronounced in the soul so that the personality itself gets transmuted and the person becomes a genuine Bakta and so forth.

This is the approach towards the WAY, the way of Moksa but which the ordinary folks in their ignorance don’t follow at all and over which Manikkar laments in this verse projecting himself into such a person.

2.4.
aam aaRu un un tiruvadikkee akam kuzaiyeen anbu urukeen
puumaala punaintu eetteen pukazntu uraiayeen putteeLir
koomaan! Nin tirukkooyil tuujeen mezujkeen kuuttu aadeen
em aaRu viraikinReen satiraanee saarvaanee!

Meaning:
O my Lord ! You are the dancer and support for all.  Hasting in my own way of life, I do not pine with melting heart to be with Your divine feet. For the same purpose I do not also melt with Love unto You and all. I do not also weave garlands and offer them to you singing songs of praise. O Lord of all the celestial beings! I do not also by way of service to you sweep and wash the floors of the temple where You reside. I also do not practice the temple arts like dancing singing and so forth. Then how can I live in the WAY that will lead me towards You?

Since the dawn of human awareness reflective thinkers have been wondering not
only about the beginning, but also about the end of human life and of the world.
So, many religions say something about what will happen to us after we have
breathed our last, and about the fate and finality of the world at large.

Two principles are common to most religions which articulate belief in
post-mortem persistence. The first is that eventually there will be encounter
with the Source of the Universe. The second, one way or another we will be
answerable for the unethical thoughts, words, and deeds we have entertained and
committed during our earthly stay. Religions and sects within religions differ
widely on details.

Some scriptures give descriptions of the final day. One says that on Judgment
Day God will be with angels beside. All the deeds of mortal will be read out,
and a balance will be used to see how the scale inclines for each individual.
Idolaters will be identified. The good will go to paradise, infidels will be
dumped into a ditch of raging fire. In the Hindu tradition one speaks of a
ledger-keeper who will read out the merits and demerits of individuals and
direct each person to the appropriate destination, but there is no mention of
heathens here. It is difficult to imagine a God who will dump His creatures to
rot in an eternal Hell, but many have no problem envisaging such an
all-merciful Almighty.

Confucianism and Shinto don't mention post-mortem penalties. Certain non-major
religions believe that four souls are ***ociated with everyone, but only one
goes back to the world of the souls. After death, one soul stays with the dead
body, another in the village, and the fourth one hovers in the air.

Some religions affirm there will be a Messiah before the real End, some that the
souls will be in a waiting realm before the Day of Judgment, some hold that
there will be direct entry into heaven or hell right after death. Hinduism
states that there will be several life-death cycles before the ultimate merger
with the divine principle.

The Revelation of St. John the Divine says that at the End of Time there will be
an awesome battle at Armageddon when there will be thunder, lightning and
earthquakes of enormous proportions, and devastating hail will fall from heaven.
This will be the final battle between Good and Evil. At its close, heaven will
open up and someone called Faith and Truth will be on a white horse. A similar
Hindu prophesy is that at the close of the present eon which is called Kali
Yuga, Vishnu will appear on a white horse brandishing a sword, cause thunder
and terror to punish the wicked and re-establish righteousness after a global
deluge (pralaya).

The common theme is that God will ultimately become very unhappy with the evil
that people have been doing for a long time. It is like the deep disappointment
of a loving parent when the children squander their enormous patrimony and ruin
themselves. That's why God will re-appear, rid the world of all that is hurtful,
and establish a glorious and perfect society. We may never know through
observation, evidence, or logic if there is any post-mortem persistence, let
alone anything about its long-phase. As the Vedic sage wisely exclaimed, "ko
veda yata AbabhUva: Who really knows, who can truly say!

Religions, breaking away from evidentiary constraints in the acquisition of
knowledge, offer keys to such eternal mysteries. Faith unravels matters that
are opaque to the lens of reason.

The World is the Genuine Scripture

Human beings become religiously divided only because of different scriptures and which along with illuminating people in some ways also makes them slaves. They provide an identity that makes them religious - a Muslim  a Christian a Buddhist a Jain and so forth and which brings along with it religious conflicts,. The typical religious mind is a highly prejudiced mind and would seek to destroy other religions and propagate their own as the religion of mankind.

Now the Tamil Saivism differs from all such religions in that it does not have a scripture as THE scripture of Saivism. Or it can be said that it has a scripture but it is the whole of COSMOS itself. BEING as the Deep Structure of the cosmos makes Himself VISIBLE through the various features of the cosmos so that is the study of the cosmos that would disclose not only the presence of BEING but also His essence,

The burden of this verse of Tayumanavar is to underline this central feature of Tamil Saivism. It takes the World as the Scripture and hence does not create a religion like Islam Christianity Vedism and so forth.

The translation of the verse makes the immediate meaning quite clear and hence further comments are quite unnecessary. However we must draw out the implication of this NO SCRIPTURE metaphysics of Saivism and why it is indeed universal and why while religions like Islam Christianity and so forth will become obsolete in time Saivism will not.  It will emerge the religion  of mankind as a whole where the people will not fall into sect emotions and fiercely combative religions

For the Cosmos-as-the Scripture is ALREADY given to us only that we remain FALLEN and cling to some wordy scriptures of prophets and messiahs The scientific temper of the world now will blow up this fallen irrationality of mankind and pull back the souls to the cosmos and its  genune appreciation. This was in fact how the ancient civilizations of the Sumerians and so forth began. Now no  matter what culture or language or nationality of a person is, the COSMOS is already a common thing. Different people do not have different cosmos as they have scriptures. This the COMMONNESS of the cosmos as a Scripture will certainly make people come together in a common understanding and where there  is no ground at all for combats as in the ordinary religions.

The historical religions will soon belong to the inherent barbarism of mankind. In the next phase of development of human culture, this barbarism will fall off. At that point a metaphysics like that of Saivism will come to rule the world ushering in a m***ive advance in human culture and civilization.

26.
 Neeree taan uravu pakal kiidaa vaNNam
        Nittam varavuG kaLai inniliakkee vaittaay
Aaree aGkavar perumai ennee! Ebpeen
        adukinRa kaaRRee! Nii yaaraalee taan
peeraatee suzalkinRaay? Enpeen vantu
        peykinRa mukilkaL! Em perumaanum poola
taaraaLamaakak karuNai poziyac ceytynj
        saatajam ennee! Karutic saaRRym enbeen

Meaning:
Taking the whole of the Cosmos as the genuine scripture and reading the various unfailing regularities like days and nights with the arrival and demise of the Sun, I exclaim how great BEING is to establish this Nuhati (regularities) in the cosmos. O the wind that keeps on blowing so regularly!  With the help of whom you blow without deviating ever from your regularities? I will exclaim. And with regard to the dark clouds that shower rains like the love and kindness of BEING, I also marvel at the kindness that makes BEING force such munificence in nature. O you (ignorant  fools who take wordy scriptures as the final WORD of God and fight among  yourselves! Bitterly ) consider the visible cosmos and tell me about BEING by studying it.

From the 16th to the middle of the 19th century, during which period modern
science made enormous strides, there was little talk of the end of the world
from any serious scientific perspective. Rudolf Clausius' formulation of the
second law of thermodynamics in the 1850s was the first scientific statement on
an eventual Heat-Death for the Universe. No matter how reasoned or reasonable,
an announcement of m*** extinction of the human race is never a welcome news.
Scientists began to consider other possibilities, but developments in
astrophysics only made matters worse. The scientifically informed had to accept
this dire prediction. The only consolation: the ultimate conflagration would not
come about in the near future.

Since the last quarter of the 20th century, our hopes were raised again. Freeman
Dyson proposed that life would adapt itself to changing conditions as the
universe becomes less and less hospitable. With only a finite amount of energy
life could manage to continue indefinitely in time, if the energy were expended
at slow a rate. Frank Tippler proposed that when contraction occurs in a closed
universe, information processing will speed up towards an omega point, ***uring
immortality. Andrej Linde ***ured us that eventually baby universes will emerge
into which life forms from the current universe would seep: Life will always be
there in the cosmos!

This new field of immortality-physics has brought in technical terms like aleph:
a state in which infinite information is stored and processed; angel plasma: a
very, very hot state in which superintelligences "exist as computational systems
in particle interactions." Those who regret that medieval scholasticism
disappeared with Baconian-Galilean physics may take comfort from such
serious-sounding jargon.
Speaking in less ethereal but more relevant terms, Martin Rees warns us (in "Our
Final Hour") that there are any number of forces that could terminate human life
on the planet within the next century. Such as: the eruption of a super-volcano
raising immense dust clouds, nuclear terrorism, a devastating virus, and global
warming.

Planetary catastrophes spelling the extinction of Homo sapiens are not
impossible, but they are highly unlikely within the next few centuries. But one
may expect more strife from increasing population, decreasing resources, and
intolerable climate. Environmental discomfort, disease, and devastation could
augment from technological pollution. The devastating potential in our
increasing knowledge of the genome is unclear. More acts of terrorism,
instigated by frustration, envy, oppression,
my-god-is-better-than-yours-mentality, aided by easy availability of destructive
power to mindless fanatics may be expected, unless injustices are removed and
religious spokespeople grow out of their medieval mindset. The Internet ease for
spreading hate and lies can do more harm than good, and it is difficult to
arrest this.

An asteroid might land in the midst of our concerts, prayers, politics, wars,
jealousies, religions, sciences, debates, and all the rest of it. Then, after
shrieks in every tongue and nation, the noise of human chatter and the magic of
subtle thought will be erased for ever. History, philosophy, culture and science
will be gone for good. Their memories will disappear too, for there will be no
body or brain left to recall. The earth will continue its routine swing for more
eons, letting perhaps some birds to coo, frogs to croak, insects and microbes to
survive. The mute silence of a mindless pristine world will revert back, as in
ages before Homo sapiens emerged. But perhaps humanity will survive much longer
than seems probable now. That is optimism :-)

V. V. Raman
Oct 25, 2006
East Stroudsburg, PA

How to Praise BEING when He Manages All?

This is certainly one of the most celebrated verses of Tiruvaasakam that is very frequently quoted for the excellence of metaphysical insights it communicates over and above the beautiful melody that runs across the whole verses.

There is an immensely pleasing cadence that comes along with metaphysical insights that makes man really humble.  Manikkar, having noted certain things, exclaims that it is impossible to praise by way of thanking BEING for even that act will not be possible without the Grace of BEING.

The most important understanding that emerges here is that it is BEING who plays in such a way that the souls function as ego-s and go about acting in the world as if they are the agents of the actions. They do not understand that behind it all there is BEING who makes them think in terms of “I am doing this” “this is mine’ and so forth and which are immensely egoistic. Each person is led to think that he is an isolated self, an ego who has been from the beginning as such and who will continue to exist even after death as such, Here we have the concept of immortality (and not Moksa)  which is in fact fed by BEING by some games He plays whereby He conceals Himself in order to make the souls think that they are the agents of their actions and so forth.

However as they progress BRING slowly discloses Himself  and shows that he is the King, the one who rules all and therefore all the souls are in fact indebted to him for all they enjoy. This includes the biological body they enjoy and the capacity to LIVE with a body in certain environment in a manner that can sustain existence as such. There is a marvelous co-ordination between the body provided and ecological conditions in which they are thrown to exist.

But even here  it is the Grace of BEING that is the ground For it is BEING who becomes the vast container Space and the various concrete earth and so forth that fill this empty space with things. BEING is also the WIND that creates the agitations and movements in the cosmos as well as the biological body so that activities of various kinds are possible, an insight as old as the Sumerian Enlil the Lord of the Winds.

Then comes BEING becoming the LIGHT that illuminates not only the ecological regions but also the mental. When LEARNING becomes possible for creatures then BEING plays various games where the souls are led to distinguish the truths from falsities and where they get gravitated towards truths as opposed to the falsities.

It is only after BEING has done all these by remaining hidden and concealed that now decides to REVEAL himself and at which point the soul loses all its pompous egoism and realizes that it is in fact NOTHING if not for the GRACE of BEING. This realization also makes it dumbfounded even towards praising BEING out of infinite gratitude for even this act becomes an act of BEING but done in the name of the soul and hence not really that of the soul.

5.
Vaan aaki maN aaki vaLi aaki oLi aaki
Uun aaki uyir aaki uNamiyum aay inmaiyum aay
Kon aaki taan enatu enRu avar avaraik juuttaaddu
Vaan aaki ninRaayai en colli vaazttuvanee!

Meaning;

O  my Lord! You stand as the vast contaner Space of all, the Earths that gill this space, the Wind that cause various kinds of agitations and movements and the Light that dispels the physical and mental darkness. To make it possible for the souls that are already there to exist as living creatures, You become their biological bodies and enable them to live with breathing and so forth making it also possible effect various kinds of activities and hence  learn. You also stand as truths and falsities so that they can discriminate and learn what is right and so forth, Then You disclose Yourself making sure the creatures understand that You are indeed the Lord and that it is You who plays them so that they function with ego with I-ness and Mine-ness and so forth. As such it becomes impossible to praise You (as even this will be in fact Your own act).

One of the hallmarks of religions is that they all say something about *** and
related matters. Religions refer to the abstract and positive significance of
*** in human life, and also to its negative sides which range from excessive
indulgence to forbidden ***.

Begetting children was very important in ancient cultures. The Judaic god
instructed man to marry and beget children, and he also made a covenant with
Abraham that every male child be circumscribed: a practice which Islam adopted,
and extended to ***** also. There is the story of Abraham, past 90 who bore a
son through his maid servant Ha'gar because his own wife Sarah was infertile,
and of how, later, when he was 99 and Sarah was 90, God instructed them to have
a son. There are numerous references to incest, nudity, and more in the Holy
Bible. Noah was seen lying drunken and **** by his son. The Torah refers to
certain types of behavior as to'eva: abomination. One of these is "lying with
another man (homo***uality)." Monogamy is praised in Christianity, but Mormons
believe that God enjoys his many wives near the star Kolob.

In several Suras of the Koran there are references to beautiful houris in
heaven, and even to young boys for the believer's pleasure. [An Arab scholar
friend told me that these p***ages are euphemistically translated in the English
versions.] In one Hadith, we read: "In Paradise there is a pavilion made of a
single hollow pearl sixty miles wide, in each corner of which there are women
who will not see those in the other corners; and the believers will visit and
enjoy them."

In the Hindu world apsaras are heavenly damsels of ravishing beauty who can
seduce the most austere ascetic. However, unlike houris, they are not faceless
***-objects, but females with grace, intelligence and personality. In the lore,
Indra engages in some lascivious behavior with the wives and daughters of
others. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad there are mantras related to the ***ual
act for producing male progeny. In Tantric mysticism, both ***ual act and organ
play important roles. The framework of yoga speaks about the retention and
sublimation of (male) ***ual energy to serve purposes of achieving higher levels
of consciousness. Magnificent sculpture, poetry, and devotional music in the
Hindu world have ***ual themes and undercurrents.

In Buddhism, ***ual abstention is very important for monks and nuns: celibacy
being one of the more than 200 vows that bikkhus (Buddhist renunciants) take.
This is not unlike the case with their counterparts in Hinduism and
Christianity. In some traditions, men are forbidden to have intercourse with
their wives during certain days of the month.

All the rules, injunctions, heaven with seductive women and the like were
concocted by men: perhaps by virile men who had difficulty withstanding the lure
of the female form, but who recognized that giving free vent to the urge would
be undesirable for society. So they transformed their desires into heavenly
fantasies and prescribed ***ual morality to keep id and libido under check. Yet,
in ancient Rome, as elsewhere, though ******ity was prized in a bride,
prostitutes were prized no less.

In the early phases of religions *** was regarded in positive terms within the
marital context, with no shame or embarr***ment ***ociated with mentioning it.
Its expressions before and beyond wedlock were/are frowned upon in theory.
Obsession with *** as entertainment beyond the bounds of religion is very
ancient, with the modern world opening it all up in media and magazines. Some
scholars believe that the notion of *** as evil may be traced to the Zoroastrian
division of everything in black-white, light-darkness, good-evil terms: matter
and *** on the negative side, spirit and celibacy at higher levels.

V. V. Raman
October 27, 2006

Indeed we can liken Vivekananda to Peter, as he opened the Hindu world for
the western world to see. But not much more than that. He did not break
away vedanta from hinduism unlike Peter who separated christianity from
judaism.

In the past too Indic religions spread to Sri Lanka and south east asia, and
not just the religion but the culture too was imbibed by these people. Till
today the religions and cultures are existing even though there were no
communication with India for the last 700 years. And China too. One main
reason is that it was augmented by the culture as well as great monuments
like Angkor, Prambanan, Besakih. Cut off from India, Bali Hinduism is on its
own, rooted in its culture, temples and festivals. Even though all of south
east asian indic religions were on their own, they survived because they
inculturated.

Today with m*** communication and connectivity, I doubt that international
Hindu communities would be cutoff from India. Indeed they would cross
reinforce each other.

To us the religion is already built into the culture and there is no real need
for scriptures. The temple and the home shrine is our text. Most Hindu homes
have no holy books, except maybe some booklets on their favourite hymns
and bhajans. Here we differ from the abrahamic religions; they hold on to
books, we hold on to culture. So they say,

A picture speaks a thousand words.
An icon speaks a thousand pictures.
A temple is a thousand icons, a living three dimensional ever-unfolding text.

We implant our 'texts' wherever we go! We have 15,000 such 'texts' in
Malaysia and I hear they have 600 'texts' now in the US.

Another example of religion embedded in culture. Take your regular south
Indian banana leaf rice, curry and vegetables along with yogurt, resam and
pickles. Dieticians say its the most complete food and it contains all kinds of
spices to balance the doshas etc. Its an ayurdevdic and siddha concocted
meal. So instead of studying all those siddha and ayurveda books, we simply
eat the meal and stay healty!

Same thing for meditation. Instead of cracking one's mind and body in trying
to sit in a pose and concentrate, just do the daily pujas, and pranayama and
concentration comes naturally. See, meditation is built into pujas and people
hardly notice it.

Take language. The tamil words 'naam ariyom' means 'we know not'.
Embedded in this are the gutteral sounds are 'aam, uum and oom'. As is the
case with most tamil root words, embedded in it are root mantras. By
speaking this language you are actually chanting all the time.

So this is where we differ from other religions, as ours is built into the
culture. It would be difficult to be a Hindu without the culture, especially in a
'hostile' foreign environment where there are competing forces into which one can
easily lapse back and be not able to p*** on the tradition to the next
generation.

The culture gives us the identity, and of all our identity marks its our name
that we are most attached too, the one we most cherish, and simply the one
thing that speaks out loudly and clearly about who we are. We identity with
out name. And we are usually named in honour or in rememberance of a
historic personage or something.

Vedanta philosophies are great but the subconscious minds need something
tangible to hold on to and relate to and to reinforce it. Its not enough to hold
to abstract ideas in the mind. Jainism and Buddhism had to adopt puranic lore
and temples inorder to thrive. What is in the mind must be expressed three
dimensionally in the external. We do it all the time, say with our habits and
routines, in the things we keep in our homes, etc. A Nataraja icon in the
home is a powerful inescapable reminder of the religion, culture and who we
are and our subconscious belief patterns. The idea of pujas is also to bring
out that subconscious and clear it of all the fears, attachments, resentments,
desires, etc. Once the mind is mostly clear, meditation come naturally as
sleeping. Agamism comes quite naturally once we tire of all the abstract mind
stuff.

This explains why reading a novel is interesting but seeing a piece of art or
sculpture is captivating. But travelling to a rainforest and experiencing it
firsthand is most refreshing and experiential which no picture or book can
quite convey. So it is with Hinduism. We live it. Not read it.

Now the Liberal Hindus are marked conspicuously by the absence of
Agamism. That defines this third group. In the west to cater for the
population there and make it acceptable, most traces of Hinduness is put
aside. I do not think they can survive as a separate group for long without
the agamism as described above. Charismatic gurus come and go. Even in
India, these vedanta groups sits on top of the agamists and try and speak on
their behalf. Vivekananda too was an agamist and that sustained him since
childhood. Even this vedanta groups are new. Before Ramakrishna and
Vivekananda, everybody was an agamist.

We spoke to Muktananda and Satchitananda (both since have p***ed on)
about bringing their devotees into the fullness of Hinduism - to inculturate.
They agreed but could not quite muster the courage to do so but left it to
individual choices of devotees. SRF is hardly Hindu now, its more christian.

So I dont think the Liberal Hindus would break away as christianity had from
jewism. I think they will fade away after opening the field for the agamists.
Which is good.

Now that the Gospel of Judas has emerged, I think there is a chance that
protestant churches will become more vedantic and yogic based. It was clear
to me Jesus was a realised soul, a Hindu in beliefs, a meditator and one in
joyous ecstacy, seeing him laughing heartily. Liberal Hindus may find
commonalities with the protestants and influence each other. Why, I even
think the protestants are now ready made to become Liberal Hindus en bloc.
Thanks to NatGeo. Now if that happens this third group may break off from
Hinduism and go on its own. Which is fine.

EXCERPTS

1. Sumerian is Archaic Tamil and the culture it portrays is Agamic Hinduism and which is temple centred and this is what Dravidian Hinduism is. The Yajna ritual based Hinduism is the application of the Cosmology of Fire as expressed in Suruppak's NeRi and hence a branch
of Agamic Hinduism.

2. The language of Rig Veda i.e. Rigkrit is another variant of SumeroTamil. So is Sk as that in Bagavath Gita. These facts show that Rk and Sk are Dravidian languages and we have been fooled by some European scholars into thinking that Sk is IndoAryan etc.

The Brahmins and many Indians have fallen into this trap and think that they are Aryans and with that have alienated themselves from the Dravidians. The VarNarsrama Dharma has indirectly supported this alienation.

3. VarNarsama Dharma is NOT genuine Hinduism. It is NOT FOUND in SumeroTamil literature even though some of them like Suruppak's NeRi , En Hund Anna's Sirbiyam etc are metaphysically profound. So is the case with Cl***ical Tamil literature.

Loga
April 24, 2004

While books and the internet can provide any amount of intellectual info, and guide a person towards an ethical and morale life, they cannot propel a person towards a spiritual life. Information is mind food and it simply strengthens the intellect. The mind and emotions are the greatest barrier to a spiritual life. In a spiritual life we want to transcend this info-fortified mind.

This is where we need a true guru or sat guru, an enlightened person who truly can propel a person towards not just a ethical, moral and religious life but a spiritual life.

A guru is a dispeller of darkness. What is meant is not the darkness due to lack of information but the darkess that clouds our mind and agitates the emotions. Just close your eyes and if you see darkness or blackness, then THAT is the darkness that is to be removed. No books can do that. The enlightened person does not see darkness when the eyes are closed, rather he sees brightness or at least some light. This is what is meant 'en-Light-ened'. His head is lit up in the inside.

Unfortunately most of our leaders in any sphere - spiritual and political, are not enlightened. In other words there is darkness in their minds. Just ask them what they see with eyes closed! Or if you find that too obtrusive see if they mostly teach by reading and quoting from shastras, regurgitating opinionated information from books or just singing bhajans in a satsang with accompanying musical instruments. Those still engulfed in darkness do that. Those acts creates odic forces as opposed to actinic forces. Odic forces are subtle astral 'attaching' flows of energy that are emotive. It creates attachments and raises the emotions but eases daily concerns temporarily, and which most mistake it for religious upliftment, but actually it further reinforces the mind in darkness. Its a dead end path. Those acharyas who teach that are the blind leading the blind, the darkness itself showing by the torch of darkness an endless path to those in darkness.

It is for this reason that Hinduism has always stressed observing the pujas in a temple or homas as a mode of worship, a solitude affair, as the rituals including mantras, mudras as well as the elements of water, flowers and fire burn away the odic forces and paves the way for the actinic forces to flow freely and engulf the worshippers, soaking them in it, so that their own binding odic forces are shattered and their own soulborn actinic forces or satchitananda can itself burst open and flow out freely and reestablish their soul nature! What is stopping our soul qualities from emanating from ourself is these odic forces, this darkness entraped in the mind which we see as blackness in our inner vision.

There are also many acharyas who are enlightened but not quite sufficiently adept yet or are unable or not authorised by their destiny, to lead or uplift people spiritually and hence they too encourage the same things of reading, singing or ecstasic chanting and dancing as above.

The trick is to find a true sat guru who can dispel darkness. Here is one way. When one approaches a satguru with a sincere intent on finding spiritual unfoldment, just being in his presence would lead to hearing of the inner sounds (nada) in moments of solitude, and/or, on going to sleep or on rising, seeing the inner light (bindu). It happens automatically. When this happens know that he is a satguru. When this does not happen even after two or three encounters with an acharya, know that he is not a satguru or enlightened, or that perhaps your motives for meeting him were not really for spiritual unfoldment but worldly concerns.

It is that simple! These things cannot be hidden or disguised. The knowledge is opened to a knower and closed to the rest. Once the nada is unleashed it is quite permament and when one comes into contact with ANY another realised soul, the nada is temporarily enhanced.

Such an experience can also happen when pilgrimaging to certain ancient temples (paadal petra saalai - temples glorified by saints), although admittedly these are rare events. It is in this sense that we say that a true satguru is a living and walking Diety, performing the same functions, and this is fully corraborated in our shastras.

Hearing the nada (sounds) and seeing the bindu (lights) is the first stage in spiritual unfoldment. Here is where religious life ends and spiritual life begins and all religions, sects and castes cease to have meanings. The satguru awakens the nada and bindu by his very presence but for the true seekers only. Others and I surmise that his own blossamed chakras reach out and awaken ours without any touch. Imagine a person with all his seven chakras opened and the light and sound rays and vibrations from this inner nerve chakra ganglia reaching out like spider web waves to a distance of fifty or hundred metres and touching everyone and invigorating them spiritually.

How will one know if one has heard the nada sounds and seen the inner light? You will just know it! It is like nothing before. But it will remind you of your childhood when you first heard these sounds while going to sleep. In fact many of us would remember that as a child of six or seven we played plugging our ears with our fingers and hearing these sounds while in bed. We just didn't know what to make of it then. It sounded like waves, it sounded like crickets at night, it sounder like chugging trains, it sounded like bells, all orchestrated into a one sound, sometimes diverging and sometimes converging! And we would recall that at that age being put to bed we saw colors and swirling lights, and we played with it by depressing our eyeballs before falling asleep. In the mornings we awoke to questions like 'who am I' and 'where did I come from' and 'what am I doing here'.

A true satguru would not accept anyone as his shishya or devotee unless one has attained the nada and bindu. All the rest have to continue with temple worship and home pujas, or simply leading moral and ethical lives.

There are very few living satgurus today, probably a dozen or so. There are tens of thousands of other enlightened souls living quite anonymously in the forests, wandering in the mountains or in the cities as just another citizen, guarding their privacy.

The Hindu world will elevate itself out of the darkness it is in, which indeed does appear to the mystic like a greyish black cloud streaked with rays of ominous reds and bloody maroons blanketting a subcontinent making almost everyone totally blind. When sufficient number of courageous people are enlightened and can step out of the box, break free of old shackles and old mindsets moulded and shaped by darkness, then Hindu society can elevate itself. When just one person becomes enlightened he changes the entire m*** mind and it acts as a force multiplier. For this to happen striving for our own personal spiritual unfoldment must become a primary cause of living and one of three things in our daily 'to do' list.

Pathmarajah

Worshipping BEING for Moksa and Nothing Else

People worship  in various ways BEING and mostly for gaining various kinds of blessings. Existence is full of problems miseries difficulties and so forth. Quite often even though people try on their own to solve the problems, but there are some where when  the human efforts fail they seek divine help. This is quite evident  in terminal diseases where even great advances in medical science do not seem to bring about the necessary cure.

Here Manikkar projects the powerful human beings onto the celestial beings and shows that even though he prays like them but the purposes are quite different.

There are individuals who pray unto Siva the BEING not only for living well but also to gain power in some ways so that they become the individuals who are worshipped by people. The gods or the celestial beings are worshipped by many bit not the human beings, However there are human beings who seek the grace of BEING so that they can become worship worthy. And for this purpose they surround BEING like the honey bees that surround the KonRai garland of Siva where they intend only to extract nectar.

This is an apt metaphor to describe the forms of prayers that are not only instrumental but also for self glorification. This, according to Manikkar is not genuine worship though in the world this is what largely available.

The genuine prayer must be for Moksa, the final liberation from the endless cycle of births and deaths. There comes a point in metaphysical life where the whole of embodied existence becomes painful and one wants to seek the liberation from such a way of being and which is called Moksa in Agamism, a concept of Moksa that has come from at least Sumerian times.

While many religions, including those that prospered in India have lost sight of this, Saivism keeps it alive and gave a new currency during the Bakti epoch where this ancient understanding of the ultimate MEANING of existence was recovered. This survives to this day as an integral part of Sacred Tamil.

Here you can see that I have translated ‘vaanavar’ as celestial beings also as you have noted.  However I find it difficult to accept MaNikkar in his immense humility would compare himself with the gods, the heavenly beings and ***ert that while they worship Siva for power joys and so forth he worships for Moksa. For he does this it would be quite arrogant and I am sure we cannot say this of MaNikkar.

Now it is only because of this I took the alternative  meaning to ‘celestial beings” where it is the human beings possessed by the gods who are also metaphorically called gods. Right from Sumerian times at least great kings have called themselves as gods. Even some priest  have done this. As I have said these gods overpower human beings and change their identity whereby they loose their natural one and ***ume the one of the gods. There are many Siddhas who go by the name of Adastya but who  actually are different individuals but possessed by the icon of Agastya which is actually a mantra figure.

The celestial beings in themselves as mantra figures are simply tools created by Siva for His various divine games. They do not in themselves seek to gain power so that the ordinary people  worship them and so forth. It is some human beings like kings political leaders priests and so forth who would do this.

It appears to me that Manikkar was comparing himself with such  human beings rather than with the celestial beings.

6.
vaazttuvatum vaanavarkaL taam vaazvaan manam ninpaal
vaazttuvatum taam uyarntu ellaam tozaveeNdi
Cuuzntu matukaram muralum taarooyai! naay adiyeen
paaztta piRappu aRuutiduvaan
yaanum unnaip paravuvanee!

Meaning:

O my Lord! The celestial beings putting  their mind on You pray into You for leading a life of joys. They also worship  You so that they can become great and lofty and because of that also get to  be worshipped by all. They surround    You  like the honey bees that surround the Garland of konRai flowers that You wear. Let me tell You that I in servitude to You like a humble and faithful dog,  also worship You like them but only for the purpose of enjoying Moksa, liberation from being born embodied again and again.

Loga

Dear Dr. Loga,
However I think Manikkar was not comparing himself with the gods, rather he was indirectly praising and
elevating Siva as 'the One worshipped by the Gods'. The God of gods
- deva devah! That is, all the other gods in all the religions are
worshipped because of the boon given by Siva to these gods. Implicit
is that these other gods depend on Siva for their status.

And that Manicker is not worshipping Siva for this purpose, unlike the
gods, just for moksha only. There is an implicit suggestion that the other
gods and devas have not yet obtained moksha too. We know that human
birth is higher than a birth as a deva. Even devas have to take human birth
to achieve moksha.

Pathma

Now the devas or icons or archetypes pr murties are not anything like the souls for they are simply various kinds of mantra-figures created by BEING for  playing the games and managing the world. They are like ghosts - possess the human beings (and animals) and give them a certain living character most often unconsciously. Only when the Third Eye is open such possessions by the icons are known to the human beings. They are call themselves Muruka KaNNan and so forth.

Now one of the most important differences is that these devas are amarar- do not suffer death and hence also births. While the souls suffer births and deaths and all because infected with Malam, the devas do not. They are in fact the same as BEING and it is BEING who presents Himself as a deva for the purpose of spiritual pedagogy. A soul possessed by say Muruka becomes Muruka himself and behaves thus and during the course of which he understands the meaning of Muruka and through that BEING. We can say that all icons have double structures -  the Surface Structure  and Deep Structure and where while they may DIFFER in SS but not in DS where there is BEING and nothing else.

Thus the devas do not have an existence independent of BEING and which does not apply to the souls who are  anati just like BEING Himself. When we worship a deva say  Muruka KaNNa Rama KrishNa Durga and so forth we are in fact worshipping BEING who is there as the DS.

Loga

II'd like to share this with you which some have seen. As
Bhasmoddulitavighra, Siva is a tall, lean and lanky, very old yogi, in half
veshti till His knees, no wrinkles, no beard, hair the lenght of His height,
spread out and reaching down to His feet, sitting under a tree with one
leg crossed, completely ashen-white covered with vibhuti, including His
hair which is white with ash, surrounded by the gods who are golden and
shining and in worshipful mode and gazing fondly at Him including Muruga,
Ganesha, Lechumy, Sarasvati, Vishnu, Brahma, Krishna, Yama, and several
dozen others,but He appears unpurturbed and nonchalant of the attention.
Somewhere it says that on Sivarathri all the beings of all the three worlds
worship Siva. This scene may be it. So I cannot deny what is personally
known, above and beyond the shastras or any logic.

sivanodu okkum deivam thaydinum illai,
avanodu oppu ingu yaavarum illai

Tirumular

Pathma

" For Spiritual unfoldment, we must perform sadhana. Sadhana is a repetition; time and time and time and time and time again of the same spiritual practice. The spiritual practice should be reasonable, should not take up too much time, and should be done at the same time everyday..."

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Imagine ourselves to be entangled in wires and chords and fishnets. This is how we would look like; totally entangled and not free and burdened.

When we sit in front of our altar to do our daily pujas, we are surrendering ourselves to the gods and allowing them to untangle us. Performing this sadhana again and again repetitiously, we allow the gods to untangle us until one day it is sufficiently cleared and the inner doors opens to us and we begin to have visions.

Pathma

The Metaphysical Interrogations

One of the chief features of Tamil Saivism is the continuous battle with the possible fixation of the mind and hence the dangers of becoming closed and in that dead.  A new metaphysical insight is wrested by a gifted individual and after which a school or a darsana is fabricated and with that a cult is born where the whole intial insight is frozen into something like a dogma. The so-called followers do not venture into new grounds but  become parrot-like and enjoy tireless repetitions with self enslavement and excessive adoration of the initial hero.

In India we can find this in practically all schools, the Saiva Siddhanta being no exception. But fortunately for Tamil Saivism periodically there have been great Saivites who dared to question the earlier achievements and with that break new grounds. Tayumanavar was one such an individual and who also recognized the great importance of metaphysical questioning to keep the mind fluid and always on the move refusing itself gallantly to become frozen and hence dead.

Thus here Tayumanvar, projecting himself onto a genuine metaphysical mind, enunciates the grammar of such a mind, that it will interrogate fearlessly and seek to fresh and deeper metaphysical insights.

Here again we notice that NOTHING is left outside the scope on being interrogated - a notion that became entrenched as part of Tamil Culture from at least the days of TirukkuRaL if not earlier - in the interest of seeking out truth, all persons and all books and so forth must be questioned without any fear.

Now in this verse too Tayumnavar recovers the Saiva view that it is the cosmos as a whole that is the Primary Scripture where BEING embodies Himself and the interrogation of which will disclose not only His presence but also His essence.

He notes here that there is Shruti, metaphysically iiluminating scriptures and which are held by some as infallible and so forth and with that freeze their mind and become fixated like so many Vedists in India. However he notes that the Shruti is only a Mun Urai a preface a forwatd a preliminary description and hence not the final. No scripture of any words can ever embody BEING, the forever transcendent.

But a preface towards what?

It is towards The interrogation of Nature and in this verse he interrogates the Vast Contianer Space and the Earth, the solod m*** that fills the Space. It is interesting that Tayumanavar sees the Aticedam the huge snake at the roots of everything solid like earth. Noting that Aticedan is the symbol of the largest foundation of Energy itself, it follows that Tayymanavar hints that the solid m***es that fills the Space and the vast container space itself are transforms of Pure Energy

27
karutariya viBBee! Nii enGkumaakik
        kalantanaiyee! Un mudivin kaadciyaaka
varu PoruL eppadi irukkum? Collaay! Enbeen
        maNNee! Un mudivil etu vayaGkum aaGkee
rturiya aRivudaic ceedan iiRRin uNmai
        collaanoo? Co;! enbeen surutiyee nii
iruvaraip poola anaivarukkum uNamaiyaana mun
        uraiyanRoo? Un mudivai urai nii enbeen

Meaning
In a mood for metaphysical interrogations, I will ask the Vast Space:  You have spread out everywhere as the container of all particulars. But deep within you what stuff holds as the very limit, Can you tell me what?  And O the Earth! At the lowest basis of you what remains as the foundation? Will the Aitcedan that becomes available only for distant transductive perception,  disclose the truth that he is the very limit of the earth? And turning towards the scriptures I will ask: Is not what you say towards some and all simply a forward a preface and hence not at all something final? You tell me for sure your conclusion and so forth.

There are dozens of episodes of the acts of God Siva in the Hindu shastras. References are found in the vedas, upanishads, puranas and epics in variations. Of these eight are considered 'great acts' as they establish His greatness and His primacy over the other gods, in removing evil forces and reestablishing peace and order. Tirumular mentions these Eight Great Acts in his Tirumantiram in verses 339-346. The puranic episodes are to be taken metaphorically.

1. The Destruction of Anthaka
Anthaka, a frightening blind demonic asura armed with many boons from the gods har***ed the world and its inhabitants. Helpless and in fear of destruction the gods and devas moaned to God Siva. The Lord, raised his trident high and pieced Anthaka to death. Peace regained in the world. For this act God Siva is known as Anthakasuramardana - the Slayer of Anthakasura. The theme of this mythology is that the gods and devas cannot prevent disaster and destruction from evil forces and only Lord Siva can remove evil forces and reestablish peace.

2. Punishing Daksha
Daksha who is the son of Brahma and the father of Vishnu and Goddess Shakti conducted a sacrifice worshipping all the gods except Lord Siva. Rishi Dadhichi and Goddess Shakti implored Daksha to invite Lord Siva and make offerings to Lord Siva too. Daksha ignored the advice and insulted goddess Shakti and God Siva instead. The Goddess prayed to Lord Siva to teach Daksha a lesson and then immolated Herself in the sacrificial fire.

God Siva pulled two hairs from His locks and created two powers out of Himself; Virabhadra and Kali and commanded them to destroy the sacrifice. The two beings decapitated the heads of the devas attending the ceremony and destroyed the sacrifice. Lord Vishnu came for a fight but in vain. Virabhadra then decapitated the head of Dahska.

The gods and devas then surrendered themselves to God Siva, and as the Giver of Refuge, forgave them, and replaced the head of Daksha with that of a goat and revived him. Daksha then repented.

The moral of the story here is that prayers, worship and sacrifice is useless and fatal too if devadeva, god of the gods, the divine of the divines, the essence of the essence, the core of the core, the Ultimate who is God Siva is not worshipped. No worship is complete without worship to God Siva.

By this act, gods such as Brahma, Vishnu and Goddess Shakti too are shown to be powerless and were humbled. Lord Siva established His primacy through this act, as well as create Goddess Kali. God Siva creates Gods and Goddesses and gives them powers to rule. He creates, He destroys and He establishes peace and order.

3. The Lord Appears as an Endless Tower of Flame
Before the creation of this world (the bhuloka and antarloka), a quarrel ensured between Brahma and Vishnu as to who between them was greater. Brahma insisted that since he was the creator he was therefore superior. Vishnu claimed that his role as preserver was superior as creation is useless without preservation.

Then a huge towering pillar of fire appeared before them, a linga of flame. As a solution to their debate as to who was greater, Brahma and Vishnu decided to seek the ends of the pillar of fire. Taking the form of a swan Brahma went down to seek the origins of the pillar of fire. Vishnu took the form of a wild boar and went up seeking to find the top end of the flame.

It was a futile and useless search. Vishnu realised his folly of trying to understand the Unknown, Limitless and Unending Lord who is beyond all form. Thinking that the top end of the pillar of flame cannot be reached, Brahma returned and lied that he witnessed the bottom end of the pillar of fire.

The lie was exposed. In order to teach both the gods a lesson, God Siva then appeared and plucked one of the heads of the four headed Brahma, and using the skull, drained Vishnu's blood in it. He further punished Brahma for the lie and commanded that Brahma is not to be worshipped anymore. Hence Brahma is not worshipped by Hindus anymore.

The moral of this story is that God Siva is limitless, unending and cannot be known even by the gods. He is beyond mind and form. He punishes them for their arrogance and takes away their power. One cannot strive and search for God or self realisation. One must just surrender and worship Him till He reveals. This is what Brahma and Vishnu did.

As the towering flame cannot be known but can be worshipped as a symbol or form of the Lord, which is what Brahma and Vishnu did. As Lingodbhava, God Siva blessed them both. Today the pillar of Fire is worshipped as the Lingam, an amorphous formless form, and the foremost object of worship by devotees of God Siva. Vibhuti, the sacred ash adorned on the forehead of Hindus is a reminder of the ash from this great fire.

4. The Destroyer of Jalandhara
Jalandhara was a king who with his great austerities received many boons from the gods. Using these powers he conquered the world and thereafter he proceeded to fight the devas in the devaloka. The devas succumbed to him without resistance. He then proceed to Satyaloka (Brahmaloka) and Vaikuntha (Vishnuloka). There too the gods Brahma and Vishnu were subdued. But here Jalandhara was told that only Lord Siva could fight him. Without realising what he was doing, Jalandhara proceed to Kailasa. Taking the form of an old man, God Siva stood in his way and asked Jalandhara were he was going. Jalandhara replied he was going to fight Lord Siva. The old man then marked a circle on the ground with his toe making it a disc. He then told Jalandhara to check his strength by lifting the disc. With difficulty Jalandhara lifted and placed the disc on his head and in that process the disc cut off his head.

The moral of this story is that nobody can fight God Siva, powers will corrupt and the others gods are indefensible even to a mere king. The disc that Lord Siva created with His toe later came to be called the Sudharsana Chakra and was given to Lord Vishnu, bestowing power on him to rule in the bhuloka. God Siva gives and takes powers away from men and gods.

5. The Destroyer of the Triple Cities
Lord Siva granted boons to three demonic asuras that they cannot be destroyed unless all three come together and are killed by a single arrow. Getting the boons, they created great cities and ruled the world and disturbed the devas. Though the devas complained Lord Siva replied that as long as the three asuras worshipped Him He wont destroy them. Lord Vishnu then took the form of a rishi and taught the mayavada philosophy to the asuras, after which the they stopped worshipping Lord Siva and started torturing the devas. Since all their good qualities were lost, the asuras came to fight with Lord Siva, forgetting their boons.

The earth became the chariot for the Lord, the sun and moon the wheels, Mount Meru the bow, Vasuki the Serpent the bowstring and Vishnu the arrow. The gods and devas were happy that with their help the Lord will destroy the three cities. But Lord Siva did not use them. The Lord just smiled and the three cities were burnt by his third eye!

Upon repenting, the three asuras were graced by Lord Siva; one to fan the Lord with the chamaram and the other two as guards in Kailasa.

Tirumular takes the burning of the triple cities metaphorically as the burning of the three malas; anava, karma and maya so as to release the souls from bondage and obtain His Bliss. No matter how large, robust and powerful the cities (malas) were, the Lord will destroy it. The malas (world of maya, greed and materialism) corrupts souls and takes them away from God.

The moral of the story is that a worshipper of God Siva cannot be destroyed, and He alone grants release from bondage, removes evil and that all the other gods are not required. As the destroyer of the three cities, God Siva is known as 'tripurantaka' and in tamil as 'mutpuram eriseitha Sivan'.

6. The Lord Unsloughed the Elephant
Gajasura, a demonic person who took the form of an elephant performed great penances and obtained many boons from the gods. Instead of using the powers for the good of all, he became destructive and even attacked and killed the devas. In his egoistic state he even attacked devotees worshipping in Kasi. God Siva ripped his body and tore off his skin and wore it as a garment.

The moral is that God Siva protects all his devotees and time and again when there is wickedness He will reestablish peace and order. Powers, including spiritual powers, corrupts.

7. The Lord Scorched the Lord of Death
Markandeya, born to a rishi, was destined to have a short lifespan of sixteen years. When the age and time approached Markandeya performed puja to the Linga so that the Lord can save him from the clutches of death. When the attendants of the Lord of Death, Yama (or Kala) approached to take him away they were afraid of the power of his devotion and returned. Yama himself then came to take Markandeya away while he was embracing the Linga. At that moment Lord Siva appeared out of the Linga and kicked Yama to death. He then granted long life to Markandeya. At the request of the gods Lord Siva then brough back Yama to life and ordered him not to disturb His devotees.

This is again an instance of God Siva protecting His devotees even if it means destroying a god, or delaying death or putting time on hold.

8. The Lord Vanquished Kama the Lord of Love
Vishnu desired a son and worshipped God Siva who then gave him the boon. As Vishnu had ignored Goddess Shakti, She cursed that this son will be burnt by the Lord. In shock and in pain, Vishnu worshipped both God Siva and Shakti who was then pleased and blessed that the son will be brought back to life by Lord Siva. Soon the son, Kama (Manmatha) was born and played the role of Cupid, or Lord of Love and Lust.

Meanwhile the devas were troubled by an asura by the name of Soorapadman. Knowing that only a son of God Siva and Shakti can kill that asura, the devas approached Lord Siva who was in meditation. The devas approached Kama and against his will asked him to tempt Siva by shooting a flowery cupid arrow at Him to induce love and lust so that He may have a son. Kama did so eventually but the Lord burnt his arrow and Kama to ashes.

The devas immediately realised their folly that the Lord cannot be presurred or fall victim to lust. The begged and worshipped Him. Pleased, God Siva restored Kama back to life.

He then created Lord Subramanya out of His Third Eye to vanquish Soorapadman.

The moral here is that God is beyond human qualities of lust and cannot be coerced. One must wait for Him to grant a wish, which He does immediately upon worshipping Him. Here again a god is destroyed, then resurrected, and another god is created to fulfill a mission. Truly God Siva creates gods and empowers them!

With the Eight Great Acts Lord Siva is established as foremost of the Gods and the 'polytheism' of the vedas is giving way towards monotheism, but better described as panentheism - where there is a hierarchy of gods and devas yet one god stands supreme as the creator, preserver and destroyer not just of the worlds but of the gods too.

I like to describe the next act as the Ninth Great Act of God Siva.

Rishi bRingi is one of the ardent devotees of Lord shiva. He used to worship only Lord Shiva and not Shakti. Goddess Shakti, being the power as the name indicates, pulled out the energy from bRingi mahaRishi's body. Now he was even unable to stand. He pleaded to God. God Shiva provided him with a stick. On its support he stood and still worshipped Lord Shiva alone.

Goddess Shakti wanted to become an inseparable part of Lord Shiva's form. She oberved the kEdhAra mahA vrata austerity, which is now known as deepAvaLi. Pleased with her austerity, Lord Shiva granted her the boon of being part of His form. So the Lord now appeared male on the right side and female on the left side and hence became ardhanArIshvara.

God Siva and Shakti are now One, fused together and inseparable. The Worshipper (Shakti) and The Worshipped (Siva) are now One in full-fusion. This indicates the destiny for all souls.

By this act of Siva, Hinduism becomes fully a monotheistic religion in the puranas and epics in the western sense of the word.

Pathma

He Creates Gods, He Destroys Gods, He Restores Gods, He Empowers Gods

The vedas, puranas and epics tells the various episodes of God Siva in several variations but the general theme remains the same as the creator,destroyer, empowerer and establisher of peace. Here are some of them.

In the beginning God Siva created Hiranyagarbha who then became many things and many forms, many divines as Visvarupa. Visvarupa then gave rise to Prajapati. As Soma He created the heaven and the earth, generated Agni, Surya, Indra and Vishnu. For Indra was born from Manyu, the anger of Siva. He created the Maruts to a*ssist Indra and Vishnu to rule the world.

God Siva created Brahma and gave him the vedas who then proceeds to create the bhuloka and antarloka as well as the devas and humans who inhabit these worlds. He plucked his hair and created Lord Virabhadra who destroys Daksha's sacrifice. He created Goddess Kali from his hair to rule the world. He grants a boon to Vishnu and thereby created Manmatha the god of love and lust. He created Lord Subrahmanya from His Third Eye and commands Him to rule during the Kali yuga as the God of all the religions in the world.

He destroyed the asura Anthaka and established peace, He beheads Daksha, He beheads Ganesha who was created by Goddess Shakti, He beheads one of Brahma's four heads and commands that Brahma is not to be worshipped anymore. Today Brahma worship has ceased to exist. He drains the blood of Vishnu in the skull of Brahma thereby disempowering him. He destroys the Asuras of the Triple Cities, He destroys the asura Gajasura and skins him, He kicks Yama to death, He burns Manmatha the God of Love and Lust, He beheads Jalandhara with the Sudharshan Chakra that He created with His toe.

Siva manifested as Sarabha, part eagle, part lion and part man, and with his sharp claws tore Vishnu who took the form of Narasimha who was destroying the world.

He restored Daksha to life with the head of a goat, He restored Ganesha to life with the head of an elephant and ruled that Ganesha shall be the first god to be worshipped; that commandment being followed to this day by all Hindus. He restored Yama to life, He restored Manmatha to life, He restores Vishnu and gives him the power to rule making him worthy of worship. He breaks the Sudharshan Chakra into two pieces and gives one to Lord Vishnu and one to Goddess Shakti. He empowers Goddess Shakti to rule with this Sudharshan Chakra.

Today, God Siva, God Vishnu and Goddess Shakti are worshipped by Hindus as their primary gods in the three great sectarian traditions.

Yet Siva remains the god of gods or devadevah - the One worshipped by gods, devas and humans.

Pathma

[This message has been edited by Pathmarajah (edited November 07, 2006).]

Namazvar Worships Siva

BEING in many of his presentational forms, the icons - presents Himself in various colors and which all have definite metaphysical meanings. A rough division of Tamil Saivism and VaishNavism is actually based upon the specific meaning of these colors - VaishNavism focusing on the meanings of Black and Blue while Saivism focusing on Red Gold and so forth. But the best of mystics go well beyond fixation to these colored deities and worship BEING as beyond all colors and hence shapes and hence beyond the cultic differentiation of Saivism VaishNavism and so forth.

This profound sense of common origins of all deities is actually the stuff of the understanding of the ordinary people all over India spoilt only by the icon fixated theologians.

Here in this verse Namazvar shows clearly this universalism and openness the transcendence of cultic religions where he also sees BEING as Siva the gold colored, sung by Appar and so many other Saivites as Ponaar Meenian - the one on whose form only GOLD exists. This same meaning is expressed by Namazvar as Cem ponee tikazum tiru muurttt - the iconic form where only pure gold prevails. We must recall here that Namazvar uses among many other terms also karu maaNikam, the Black Jewel as the color of Tirumaal where the name itself means that. The term maal as also in Sumerian Se-ir-ma-also means black, dark etc as Ta, maalai: dusk, and Malay malam: night time.

Here the Gold also goes with the description of BEING as Sooti** also a term for Siva current from even Sumerian times as we have already pointed out. The very root of Siva (Su, sipa siba, sib) the world ‘si’ a variant of ‘su’ means Pure Light.

Now we also know that Namazvar loves to call BEING Tirumaal, the One with the color of Dark Amutu. He clearly is very emotionally attached to this form of BEING where he injects all gods into this shape and hence as an alternative term for BEING. However it appears that he questions himself of his own prejudice and predilection and against it he says he can never DENY that BEING also discloses Himself as Siva the Gold hued.

Thus we have here again the Samyaatiitam, the transcendence of cults and religions, the best kind of metaphysical understanding of Sacred Tamil that makes it so valuable.

9.

nambiyai ten kuRuGkudi ninRa ax
cemponee tikazum turu muurttiyai
umpar vaanavar aati em cootiayai
en piraanai en colli maRippanoo?

Meaning:
BEING stands as the Lord of the cosmos, the Nambi. He also stands in the iconic form where only Pure Gold prevails in the temple of KuRuGkudi. He is the originating ground of all celestial beings and whose most authentic form is Pure and Beautiful Light. He is also my Lord and how can I deny that BEING presents Himself in this form of golden hued Siva? No cannot indeed.

Loga

**Added by webmaster: sothi or jyoti - a reference to Siva who appeared as the limitless and unfathomable Pillar of Flames and Light which the gods could not comprehend.

On Authentic Existence

All creatures including the human beings live somehow without worrying too much about the kind of life they lead. However among some human beings, they interrogate their own forms of existence in view of some intuitive grasp that there is a Fundamental Meaning which is not ordinarily available to human beings. Thus the serious metaphysical question arises here: Am I leading the most authentic life or simply a false life?

This is the question Manikkar poses himself here and comes out with a definite solution to it.

The most authentic life is a life of self-purification, of freeing the soul from the fiendish hold of the three types of Malam, the binding fetters and which are the source of all the miseries in life. These are called Val Vinai - very strong binding chains that continuously pull the soul more and more into its grips. The Malam and related forms enjoy, so to speak, torturing the soul and slowly eating up the flesh and other powers there may be and bring about DEATH and all the miseries ***ociated with a painful and premature death.

This is how Manikkar sees the INAUTHENTIC life - a life where the soul FALLS continuously into clutches of the Malam in that delving deeper and deeper into the sea of all kinds of miseries.

But what then is the authentic life?

While Manikkar simply says that it is a life of worship and praise of BEING, what he means a a kind of life where the metaphysical ignorance is continuously destroyed. For this ignorance is there only because of a BLINDNESS, the inability to SEE the depths and with that LEARN the various games BEING plays and because of which the various events of life happen as they do. Keeping BEING in mind and praising Him will earn His GRACE and which will serve to OPEN up the visions and with that SEE more and more. This will then flood the soul with a flow of lumens and which will drive away the Malam already there.

This is the most authentic life - a life of deep metaphysical learning which enlightens the soul and frees it from devilish Malam.

10.

vaazkinRaay vaazaata nenjcamee! Valvinaip paddu
aazkinRaay aazaamal kaappaanai eettaatee
cuuzkinRaay keedu unakku colkinReen palkaalam
viizkinRaay nii avalak kadal aaya veLLattee!

Meaning:

O my heart! You feel you are living well but as a matter of fact not. You are already engulfed in the strong fetters of Malam and so forth and because of which you never seek to be with BEING by worshipping Him, the only One who can prevent this disastrous fall. Now you keep on falling more and more into this and with that accumulate more and more of disasters and evils, I keep on telling you but indifferent to all my words, you insist of plunging into the sea of endless troubles.

People like and dislike others on the basis of their own tastes and preferences.
This is natural and normal. When these preferences become intense, the feelings
become love and hatred. Sometimes, love or hatred might extend to whole groups.

Thus, some people like everything about a group. Thus, some love whatever is
French. We call them Francophiles. When one likes everything Chinese, one is
called a Sinophile. Likewise, we have Anglophiles, Indophiles, etc.

Sometimes people also hate a whole group. We may coin a term to signify hatred
of a whole group. Borrowing from two Latin words, we call this globodium.
[Latin, globus: crowd, cluster; odium: hatred.] More exactly, globodium refers
to the blind, heartfelt, intense hatred of a group of people who have a common
race, religion, language, nationality, or whatever. Every expression of
globodium has one or more target groups.

Though it is often looked upon as an evil characteristic, globodium is in fact a
disease of the mind, because it is utterly irrational. Yet, there have been
aspects of religions which have promoted globodium. This infirmity needs to be
attended to, rather than frowned upon. The treatment, partial or total, has to
be psychological, i.e. through education and counseling, rather than through
physical punishment. Love and understanding by members of the target group might
also be helpful sometimes.

As with other diseases it will be useful to identify the causes of globodium.
Some of these causes are obvious, some are hidden, some are real, and some are
imaginary.

Severe sense of personal and/or group insecurity is one. As a character in
Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara said: "Hatred is the coward's revenge for being
intimidated." Acute fear that one's own group will lose its identity, as a
result of the activities, practices, or existence of the target group(s). Anton
Tchekhov insightfully remarked that love and friendship, don't unite a people as
much as a common hatred for something. A deep conviction that one's own group
has the absolute truth, and that the target group is completely wrong on
fundamental issues is another instigator of globodium. The belief that the
problems faced by one's own group or the world can be solved by the elimination
of the target group instigates globodium, as also the memory of past
(historical) injustices that one's ancestors have suffered at the hands of the
ancestors of the target group. Thus the memory of the Crusades and of slavery
can fire up globodium. The conviction that one's own economic security or that
of one's group is jeopardized by the target group is another cause.

Some other causes include a mindless dislike of the appearance or skin color of
the target group, the certainty that the target group is worshipping a false
God, the fear that the target group will "pollute" the womenfolk of one's own
group, and an intense and deep-seated envy for the successes of the target
group.

Many of these are perfectly normal states and reactions. That is why globodium
is not as uncommon as one would like it to be, and is even part of certain
religious attitudes. Some believe that globodium is necessary for their
group-survival. Even in instances where there is provocation for anger, when
legitimate reactions are carried to irrational extremes, globodium emerges with
its potential for moral and physical genocide. Globodium could perhaps be
tempered, averted, or cured through enlightened education and internalization of
the idea that ultimately we all belong to the same human family,

If religions talk to us about truths regarding the human condition, its present
and future states, and about God and the worlds beyond, science tell us about
the here and the now, and most of all about the physical phenomenal world. And
even as religious truths are revealed to but a few, and then shared with others,
scientific truths are also revealed to only a few, and soon spread to the world
at large.

But there is a difference. We can count on the fingers of a hand or two the
chosen few whom the world recognizes as direct recipients of God's truths, and
perhaps a few more who are convinced that God had spoken to them also. However,
scientific truths have been revealed to hundreds of people: These are the men
and women of science who have made significant scientific discoveries.

Indeed, the recognition of every new law or principle or phenomenon or entity in
the physical world may be regarded as a revelation. Scientific revelations
generally come to the true seekers. They may come as a flash of insight during a
waking hour or sometimes in a dream when one is in deep sleep.

Many may recall the story of Archimedes of Syracuse (3rd century BCE): He had to
solve the problem of whether a crown which had been presented to King Hieron II
was made of pure gold or had been adulterated. He was reflecting over this
question, and got the answer to this when he stepped out of a bathtub: The
amount of water displaced in the bath was equal to the volume of the water. From
this and knowing the weight of an object one can calculate the density and
nature of the material. He as so excited by this principle of buoyancy which he
had understood in a flash that he ran into the streets stark naked, screaming
"Eureka!" which is Greek for "I've got it!" This is the quintessential "Aha"
experience of scientific discovery. There have been many in history.

The philosopher Descartes is said to have conceived of an important mathematical
idea in a dream. Friedrich Kekulé reported that he got his insight into the
nature of the benzene ring through a dream in which he saw a snake biting its
own tail (a closed cycle). The genius Ramanujan enunciated many complex
mathematical theorems requiring hours and pages of proof soon after he was up
from bed: his village goddess had revealed to him the theorem while he was fast
asleep.

Psychologists and philosophers have speculated on the mystery of creativity.
Whether in art or music, in science or poetry, some human brains do come up with
knew knowledge and insights, new visions and compositions which were beyond the
reach or understanding of fellow humans. It is fair to say, especially in the
field of science, that these are revelations no less. For they tell us about
aspects of the world that were till then hidden from the rest of humankind.

The revelations in science don't speak to us about worlds beyond Nature or the
hereafter. The scientific discoverers are never worshiped. Their works are not
held as sacred. There is no place of reverence for Archimedes or Kekulé or
Ramanujan.

As to the truth contents of the two kinds of revelations, religious revelations
are significant and valid for members of a given faith system who may analyze
and interpret them in different ways, but not reject them altogether. Scientific
revelations are verified and built upon by fellow scientists who have no
problems rejecting them altogether should new knowledge call for it. It is no
offense to challenge scientific discoveries, as long as it is done in the
framework of scientific methdodology.

Saivism Integrates and Understands All Religions

As it has been pointed out many times, Saivism as developed by the Dravidian folks is not a religion among religions but rather a meta-religion, a religion that comprehends all religions. Like a zoologist or a botanist who would seek to cl***ify and place in the proper place a new flora or fauna, so would a Saivite Philosopher when he meets a new religion. He would see this as another production of the same BEING who has produced so many religions and seek to locate its the relationship to other religions. Thus all religions like various rivers contribute to the immensely vast Metaphysical Space that hovers there as a sea without any boundaries and BEING the Maha Deva also as such.

Just as coming into being new animals and plants is a process that can never arrested so are the emergence if new religions. BEING dances with His Sakti making all the processeses, including the cultural, immensely creative  where something new is always woven and presented.

But how the eternal and untiring NOVELTY is possible? VaLLalaar sees and here as a typical Tantrist that BEING is wholly EYES and who SEES without seeing everything so that he is aware of every production and against which something NEW is always possible,

This also enables Him to pacify the cravings of the souls. For He becomes the Magical  and Heavenly Tree - the KaRoakat Tary that yields endlessly whatever is desired by the creatures and because of which they are temporarily pacified having attained what they desired. BEING is also a Path of beautiful blossoms and which means He is the source of all kinds of JOYS that pacify the desire-prone souls.  They can take on a journey where on the way the travel is joyous. But most importantly he SHINES as the Inner Sun which through proving metaphysical illuminations about their desire-prone states FREES them from such cravings and with that make them become pure and clean.

Here at this point where worldly and selfish desires that founded existence so far are no more BEING swells in the heart as the Red Lotus, the phenomenal presence of metaphysical Moon and which is BEING with Bindu. This makes them LOVE all and with that find a NEW kind of  existence where service to society becomes the central dynamics.

Reflecting on all these activities of BEING, VaLLalaar notes that BEING is indeed a Power a Siddha who is capable of all. There is NOTHING that is impossible for BEING to accomplish.

49.
poGku pala samayamenum natikaL ellaam
        pukuntu kalantida niRaivaayp poGki oogkum
kaGku karai kaaNaata kadalee eGkym
        kaNNaakak kaaNkinRa katiyee anbar
taGkla nizal parappi mayal koNda ellaam
        taNikinRa taruvee puue tadamee njaac
ceG kumuta malar varu matiyee ellaam
        cwyyavalla kaduvuLee teeve teevee!

Meaning:
O Maha Deva!
You give rise to many religions which with swelling waters flood the areas and finally meet in a confluence fulfilling each other towards a completion and fullness but where You stand as the boundless vast ocean! You become only the EYES and see everything as they are in themselves.  You become the Divine Tree that not only provides whatever the souls seek but also provide the cool shades in which they take shelter ftom the burning desires that heat them up. In that You also provide metaphysical illuminations that dispel all their false desires arising from misperceptions and where You also become the Way of fine blossoms so that they continue their journey joyously. Now in addition to shining as the Inner Sun, You also become  the Inner Moon and cause the blossoming of Red Lotus and which makes them all love and show kindness unto all. Thus You remain a Power capable of doing all and hence the true God.

Loga

Vedic Shaivism

"Be gracious unto us, o Rudra, bring us bliss!" (Rigveda, I.114.2).

Out of 6 main Shaiva-sampradayas five are Agamic and one is Vedic. This one is Pashupata-shaivism (see G.V.Tagare, "Saivism: Some Glimpses", Delhi, 1996, p. 3). Pashupatism is the earliest Hindu cult that survived till present time.

Worship of Shiva (as Bhava, Rudra or Pashupati) was prominent already in Vedic times. Rigveda (I.43.5) calls Rudra "luminous like the Sun, gratifying like gold, best among the Gods".

The famous Mrityunjaya-mantra of Shiva occurs both in Rigveda ( VII.59.12) and Yajurveda. The great mantra of Shiva, Panchakshari, appears already in Yajurveda, in the Rudradhyaya section of Taittiriya-samhita (IV.5.7) and Satarudriya of Vajasaneyi-samhita (Ch. 16,18).

Five mantras of Shiva, corresponding to five letters of Panchakshari, are found in Taittiriya-aranyaka ( 17.1-5); Sayanacharya, a famous Rigveda commentator, regards that the first words of these mantras are the names of the five Shiva's faces. Parts of these five mantras were taken by Lakulisha (100 B.C.E.), a Pashupata-shaiva teacher and reformer, into his Pashupata-sutra ( 1.40-44).

Rudra is identified with Indra and Agni, main deities of Rigveda. Maitrayani-samhita of Samaveda (II.1.10) and Shatapatha-brahmana of Yajurveda (VI.1.3.10) say "agnirvai rudraH", while Rigveda (II.33.3 ) and Atharvanaveda ( IV.28.3; II.2.7; X.1.23) describe Him as a thousand-eyed God, a holder of vajra and a killer or Vritra, i.e. Indra.

Vedas identify Rudra with Rigvedic (X.90) primal Purusha. Taittiriya-aranyaka (X.14 ) calls Purusha as Bhutanamadhipati, i.e. Rudra; Yajurveda (Taittiriya-samhita, IV.5.1) describes Him in a same manner as a Virat-Purusha, and same is repeated in Shvetashvatara-upanishad (which belongs to Taittiriya-brahmana).

Sayanacharya while commenting upon the verse IV.28.1 of Atharvanaveda, tells us that the Lord is called Bhava for having everything coming out of His body, and that He is called Sarva because of His destructive character at the time of dissolution.

Shatapatha-brahmana ( VI.1.3.17) says that Ishana, the highest form of Rudra, is same as Aditya. Shvetashvatara-upanishad clearly describes Rudra as the Supreme God, Maheshvara (IV.10), Purusha of Rigveda and Vishvakarman who is seated in the hearts of all human beings ( IV.17). Thus, Rigvedic Vishvakarma-daivata hymn (X.81) also describes Rudra and no other god. Rudra is identical to Soma, who was worshipped in a pillar, very similarly to Shivalinga worship.

Mandukya-upanishad (verse 7) names the fourth, the highest pada of Brahman, as Shiva.

Mahabharata mentions Krishna's initiation into Pashupatism (Anushasana-parvan, 14.379-380). In the same chapter Yajnavalkya and Vedavyasa are said to have been Pashupata-shaivas. Gautama and Kanada, founders of Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools respectively, were Pashupatas (see Prof. R.K. Siddhantashastri, "Saivism Through the Ages", Delhi, 1975, p. 99).

To conclude with, Shaivism is essentially Vedic religion (as Pashupatism), which later got developed with the independent Agamic revelation. This Agamic revelation is considered to be the essence of Vedas.

In Bhairava-Agamas Shaivism takes a Shakta form, but this Agamic Shaktism has its root in Vedas again. Shakta-Agamas view Vedic Agni (who is said to be all Gods together: Aitareya-brahmana, II.6.3) as Devi, Durga, Bhairavi or Kundalini. Durga is invoked with Vedic Rik ( I.99.1) connected with Agni. In Devi-upanishad, also known as Devyatharva-shirsha (verse 9), Durga is called Agnivarna and Tapasa-jvalanti.

Agni and Soma of Vedas (invoked in pair, for example, in Rigveda, I.93), or Agni and Indra (similarly coming in pair: Rigveda, I.21), are Shakti and Shiva of Tantras.

Sri Bhaskararaya in Lalitasahasranama-bhashya (Name 407) quotes Shruti: "One Rudra hidden in all beings, he is with Maya, with parts and without parts. He is Devi herself, and is not separated from her. By knowing this, one attains immortality."

Supreme Shakti of Tantras was known in Vedic times as Aditi, mother of gods, and her manifestations were Sarasvati, Ushas ("Face of Aditi" — Rigveda, I.113.19) and alike. Rigveda (I.89.10) says: "Aditi is Heaven, Aditi is Mid-region, Aditi is Mother (Earth), Father and Son. She is all the Gods; she is the Five peoples. Aditi is all that is born and what is to be." In Rigvedic Devi-sukta ( X.125.3-4) the Goddess says: "The Queen, I am the dispenser of wealth; conscious, I am the first among the Gods… They that ignore me run to ruin."

Kena-upanishad (which belongs to Tandya or Jaimini-brahmana of Samaveda) shows Uma revealing the knowledge of Brahman to the gods (according to Mahavasishtha, "Uma is so called because it contains the essence of the Pranava").

In Muktika canon there are eight Upanishads devoted specifically to Shakti: Bahvricha, Bhavana, Devi, Saubhagyalakshmi, Savitri, Sita, Tripura, Tripuratapini.

The worship of Shakti as the Yoni has also got Vedic roots: Aitareya-brahmana ( II.6.3) says that "Agni is the womb of the Gods"; Shvetashvatara (V.5) calls Rudra as "Yoni"; and Brihadaranyaka (Kanva VI.4.2) refers to worship of women's Yoni by Prajapati. Both Brihadaranyaka (Kanva VI.4.3; VI.2.13) and Chandogya ( II.13.1-2) view ***ual act as holy practice. Tantric doctrine of divine nature of women also finds support in Vedic Shruti (Brihadaranyaka, Kanva III.9.11).
 
"May the Goddesses favour us with increase and great happiness!" (Rigveda, I.22.11).
 
Regards
Prasanna Kumar

Devaram and the Moksa Experience

The burst of Bakti literature, the core of Sacred Tamil compiled into the m***ive Devaram and Divvya Prabantam are the greatest achievements of the spiritual mind where they were sung not just by ordinary religious souls but by those who were already enjoying Moksa though still embodied. Thus the MEANINGS of the hymns are related to the Final Liberation and no one can really appreciate the profundity unless they also have a clear grasp of Moksa and its human possibility.

Since the days these hymns were sing they have displaced the Vedas by the universality they proclaim and the possibility of Moksa they outline as a possibility for all and hence dealing a death blow to the VarNasrama Dharma so deeply entrenched in the whole of Sanskrit literature.

Tayumanavar was a great mystic on his own where his hymns are deeply metaphysical and where we come across for the first time the use of the word ‘camayaatiitam’ the transcendence of religions, the main spirit of Sacred Tamil literature from very ancient times.

Now Tayumanavar outlines the reason why the great Three, Sambantar, Sundarar and Appar are very special for him for despite being a humble and a filthy dog, a study of their verses has destroyed many doubts he had about Moksa for their hymns clearly indicate that they were already enjoying moksa and hence attained the final liberation.

But what is Moksa here?

The soul, already infected with Malam and hence atomic, ***umes a physical body because of the violation of this Malam by the Grace of BEING. Since then the soul has been thrown into existential repetition, being born again and again each time ***uming a physical body consistent with Karma elicited.

Now Tayumanavar sees the millions and millions of souls still caught up in this historical process with no hint at all of ever becoming free from that miserable condition. For Tayumanavar this is very highly depressing because a stuffy of such living creatures gives him no hope at all that he can one day enjoy Moksa and get freed from this condition of being born again and again into the physical world and die again and again suffering all the miseries that death entails.

However he notes that the hymns of Devaram composed by the Great Three, outline to him very clearly that these great souls are different from millions of others for they were not only aware of genuine Moksa but also enjoyed it as shown by the various events in their life.

30.
anRu nutal inRai varaic canana koodi
adaintu adaintu aGku yaatanaiyaal azintatallaal
inRu varai muktiyinRee, edutta teekam
eppootoo teriyaatee, ippooteetaan
tunRu manak kavalik keda[ pulau naayeenaiat
tozumbu koLac ciikaazit turaiyee! Tuutu
cenRidavee poruLai vaitta naavalooy! Nam
civan appaa! venRa arud celvat teevee

Meanimng:
From the primordial times when the souls atomic with fully enveloped with Malam, ***umed a embodied existence with this Malam being violated, to this day there have been millions and millions of such souls who have suffered this being thrown into embodied existence repeatedly and where they have never enjoyed the final liberation of being free from this existential repetition. I do not know when I ***umed this present body but now after studying the hymns of Sambantar of Sikaazi, Sundarar who implored BEING Himself to serve him as a messenger and Tirunavukkarasar who was called Father! even by BEING Himself, I feel that Moksa is possible. With this I destroy the growing mental depression that Moksa may not in fact be possible. These three great souls who are indeed blessed have made me to be in their service by the excellence of their metaphysical achievements.

The Climbs in Metaphysical Space

Since the primitive times when the ancient Tamils built their temples on hill tops to the day where they built m***ive pyramidal structures by way of modeling the Metaphysical Space and that man must climb it step by step to reach the peak, we have already the essence of genuine metaphysics outlined. While the Tamils still retain this ancient and profound metaphysical insight many other cultures seem to have lost it with their religions and various kinds of ideologies.

This verse is important in that VaLLalaar recovers this ancient wisdom and adds a new depth to it. There has to be a movement, a climbing up in genune metaphysical life.

As many Saiva Philosophers have already indicated there is a PULL of the soul by BEING unto Himself, an irresistible pull like that of a strong magnet pulling pieces of iron close to it. The soul experiences this magnetic pull and because of which it is metaphysical. To respond to this pull and allow that to dictate life is to lead a metaphysical way of life.

Not clear of the source of this pull except that once one goes by it, one will encounter the most authentic shape of BEING, a soul enters into various kinds of metaphysical activities. First it seeks philosophic clarities by raising many fundamental questions. As it gets claries with respect to such questions, various kinds worldly desires seem to drop out making the soul quite free of mundane desires. Now the pressure is towards knowing only the Axiomatic Truths and because of which misleading ways are avoided and the soul remains steadfast in it search for TRUTHS.

Now as such axiomatic truths begin to swell within the soul the projective forms “ I am that", and which brings about temporality of time consciousness and hence the -tic the-tic consciousness, the CuuduNarvu drops off and the soul is pulled towards a state of Deep Silence.

Here too there are various metaphysical insights but finally there is simply an EMPTINESS, a NOTHINGNESS and at which point BEING is experienced as Pure Bliss. Now as Meykandar expressed it quite clearly in his Botham, this is Catttu etir suunyam, a state of enjoying the Sat-ARivu, the Absolute Understanding an understanding beyond which there is only a NOTHINGNESS.

51.
meynjnjaana vruppattil eeRik keeLvi
miiteeRi teLintu iccai vidutal eeRi
anjnjaanam aRRa padi eeRi uNmai
aEinta padinilai eeRi atu naan ennum
kainjnjaanaG kazanReeRi maRRa ellaam
kadanteeRi mavuna iyal katiyil eeRi
enjnjaanam aRak teLintoor kaNdum kaaNoo
enkinRa anubavamee inbat teevee!

Meaning:

O Maha Deva the source of Supreme Bliss!

Moved by a desire to witness Your most authentic form, I climbed many steps of the Metaphysical Space. First there were the desires for metaphysical wisdom and for which I raised many fundamental philosophical questions. On the basis of the various clarities I attained I climbed the steps of FREEING myself from various kinds of worldly desires. Then seeking only truths I avoided the steps if false knowledge and climbing up the steps of where only axiomatic truths are encountered, I enjoyed also the dissolution of projective understanding of the sort “ I am That’ that also freed me from the the-tic consciousness, the CudduNarvu. Having climbed up even this space I entered the realms of Deep Silence where I climbed up a few more steps. Then I saw people who are without any kind of the-tic consciousness but who declare they do not see You at all. Thus You emerge as the Nothingness but which produces endless Bliss.

paTTinaththup piLLaiyAr aruLiya thirukkazumala mummaNikkOvai
11th thirumuRai

thirucciRRambalam

mAnum mazuvum thirumiDaRRil vAzum iruL
thAnum piRaiyum thariththirukkum - vAnavarkku
veLLaaththE thOnRik kazumalaththE vIRRirun^thu en
uLLaththE n^inRa oLi

thirucciRRambalam

Meaning:
It wears deer, axe, darkness residing in the holy throat
and crescent. It is the Light that appeared in the flood
for the divines, sat in the thirukkazumalam and stood
at my mind.

Notes:
1. Lord shiva and shakti appeared in a boat at cIrkAzi
during one deluge, thus giving it the name thONipuram.
2. While the world was yet to be created and brahma
and viShNu wondered from where they came from,
Lord shiva appeared (as a Light) from the water as the
Source for all. Since the Lord first appeared to the divines
through water, Lord shiva is also called nArAyaNa (nAra ayaNa - through water).

shaivam.org

Precognition is knowledge of what is going to happen. It is easy to imagine an
all-knowing God who, by definition, knows the future also. But do or can human
beings have precognition? Even if there is predestination, normally, in the
phrase of a popular song, the future's not ours to see. While we have footprints
on the sands of elapsed time, there is no trace of events yet unborn, especially
of events in the world of human beings. To be told that one recognizes the marks
which will be left by future events may sound like psychic mumble-jumble to
some, unacceptable to rational modes, but not to all, much less at all times.

All through history, knowledge of the future has ranged from the majestic
splendor of religious mythology, through foretelling of royal undertakings to
journalistic astrology which dishes out occurrences in individual lives on the
basis of birthdays in relation to zodiacal signs.

Sometimes specific techniques were spelled out for knowing the future. For
instance, in an ancient Babylonian tablet we read the following: "If smoke
bunches towards the east and disappears towards the thighs of the baru (priest),
you will prevail over your enemy. If it moves to the left, not to the right,
your enemy will prevail over you."

In 2600 B.C.E. beautiful Nefertiti of ancient Egypt is said to have predicted
that "A king shall come forth from Upper Egypt called Ameni, the son of a woman
of the South." Ancient Rome had its soothsayers who read the auspices.

In the Hindu world, aside divination on the basis of lizard sounds, horoscopes
still play a role in giving approval to martial matches, although, with increase
in love-marriages, stars are losing importance. But there is also a system of
variable prediction: Undertakings (travels, weddings, playing the foundation
stone for a building, etc.) are started in certain months, on certain days, at
certain time intervals, etc. the project will meet with success. Thus, the
period between winter and summer solstices is regarded as more auspicious, and
here too the weeks from new to full moon is preferable. Or else ...

While prophets and astrologers foretell catastrophes, there are also some
people who report flashes of recognition of as yet un-transpired events. Many
folks have had dreams that seem to have materialized; vague feelings that
something is going to happen, before it actually does. Per Shakespeare, Caesar's
wife Calpurnia dreamt he was going to be ******inated.

Nostradamus is the best known non-religious prophet. His clever quatrains are
vague enough to be interpreted to mean different events of later centuries.
Enthusiasts have seen in his lines prophecies about Napoleon, Hitler,
Khrushchev, Kennedy, and more. Nostradamus had predicted major upheavals
("pestilence, long famine, wars and floods") on June 22, 1732. [Nothing of the
sort occurred.] There never was a more pessimistic prophet who let his
frightening fancies run more wild: earthquakes, plagues, pillages, poisons,
rapes, wars, tyrants, deaths, and such

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, panic raged in California because
Nostradamus had written: "A very mighty trembling in the month of May, Saturn in
Capricorn, Jupiter and Mercury in Taurus. Venus also, Cancer, Mars in Virgo,
Hail will fall larger than an egg." It mattered little that the stated planetary
configuration will occur only in 3755.

Obscurantism has an appeal that the rational might of science cannot easily
extinguish. There is more thrill in the game of groping in the dark than in the
impeccable proof that pi (p) is a transcendental number. Nothing is more
unwelcome than the killing of a fanciful dream by the rude awakening wrought by
science and reason. So people who speak or write against clouded beliefs are
generally not welcome.

V. V. Raman
29 November 2006

The gods and the devas gathered in Kailas for the marriage of Siva and Parvati. Brahma, Vishnu, Sarasvati, Ledchumy and all the rest were there to witness the holy union of the Worshipper to the Worshipped in matrimony.

The three worlds tilted precariously due to the concentration of the gods and devas in one spot. There were natural disasters - volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. Destruction and chaos reigned everywhere. The gods and devas appealed to Ishvara for deliverance.

Siva commanded Rishi Agastya, one of the seers and scribe of the vedas and agamas, to proceed to the south of the Vindhyas, to the lands of Tamilakam, so that the tapasic weight of the rishi would balance the tilt and bring the three worlds back into order. Agastya did as ordered and harmony was restored.

The metaphoric moral of the story is that Agastya, by the weight of his tavam (tapas) balanced the rest of the gods and devas in power.

Secondly it implies that even before this event Tamilakam, which means the lands, language and culture of that region, is equal to, and balances the three worlds like a see saw, and maintains equilibrium.

This purana glorifies Agastya and the lands south of the Vindhyas. Following this event a number of saints arose in these lands that glorified the Lord and brought a resurgence of Hinduism.

-from the Puranas and the Tirumantiram

Pathma

Hinduism has evolved over the milleniums. Today vegetarianism has become a part of a strict Hindu diet, that reflects its principles.Hindus can be cl***ified the following diet based way (in order of diet discipline):

1. Lacto Vegans
2. Lacto Vegans that consume eggs
3. Lacto Vegans that consume eggs and seafood
4. Non vegetarians, but abstaining from beef, and Lacto Vegans on
Holy Days
5. Non vegetarians, but abstaining from beef
6. Non vegetarians

Most Hindus fall in the 4th category.

Each Hindu chooses according to his sensibilities, upbringing, devotion or commitment. But the yamas and niyamas of Tirumular and Patanjali and others say that its necessary to be a lacto vegan to progess spiritually. Thiruvalluvar says similarly too.

"Having walked the San Marga through the charya and kriya margas, and having disciplined mind and emotions, the shishya is ready for the fourth merger into Sivaness. This is accomplished through art, calligraphy, drawing divine forms, writing out scripture in one's own hand and depicting through drama, by learning and playing music, by having all bodily currents move into the rhythm of the sounds of nature, for nature is nada in the external. It has its own choreography, and this merger is with Nataraja, Lord of the Dance. It is also the merger with knowledge of all kinds, of language and mathematics, of the many sciences and arts."

"The fifth merger is deeper: endeavoring to penetrate the intuitive world, communing with nature, encountering the many dreams, visions and other mystical experiences that await the seeker of Truth. It is merger with the selfless life, of seeing oneself in others, and others in oneself, of losing the barriers that divide one from another, and the internal world from the external world. It is living a harmonious life with a heart filled with love, trust and understanding for all, desiring to give rather than wanting only to receive.

The light that lights each thought picture when traced to its source is the sixth merger -- the yoga of detaching awareness from that which it is aware of and being the light that lights the thoughts, rather than claiming identity as being the thoughts, then tracing this light of the mind out of the mind into the beyond of the beyond. Yea, this is the sixth way we merge into the Divine. The Lord of the Dance emanates His own lighting effects, does His own choreography, creates His own music and enjoys, as the audience, His own performance."

"The seventh merger is into the nada-nadi shakti, that unrelenting sound heard as an inexplainable "eee," of a thousand vinas being played simultaneously by Vinadhara, another form of Lord Siva, the maker of sound, the composer of the symphony. The nada is traced to its source, deep within the within, the city of a thousand lights and sounds, for sound is light and light is sound in this sphere of Satchidananda, all-pervasive oneness with all form, the Self flowing through the mind, untouched by it, yet sustaining it in a mightily mysterious way."

"The eighth merger with Siva is ParaSiva. Becoming and being timeless, formless, spaceless is the total transformation of the soul body, the mental body, the astral body, the pranic body and the physical body. It is the breaking of seals which subsequently makes changes never to be repaired. A new, an entirely new, process begins. It is the ultimate healing of all karmas, the ultimate knowing of dharma."

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

BEING and the Metaphysical Indeterminacy

Saivism practices an OPENNESS because of which  fanatacism, so typical of the world religions, is anathema to it. Saivism notes that BEING in uncanny and wholly indeterminate with respect to form color qualities  functions and so forth so that the mind taken along and shaped by BEING Himself enjoys a metaphysical INDETERMINACY that enables the soul escape from  fanaticism, so typical of world religions.

Thus Saivism is NOT to be placed along with such religions but rather a Meta-religion, a religion that transcends all religions and feels quite comfortable with certainty of the presence of BEING but with total uncertainty with respect to form and functions.

Manikkar begins by noting that even the celestial beings are befuddled with respect to the WAY that will lead them to the most authentic form function color and so forth of BEING. They are immensely confused only because in showing as the Red Rudra He also shows that He is NOT that color. The same kind of game goes on with other colors -  white black and forth. These colors are simply the presentational forms of BEING, the multi-dimensional and immensely complex Power, the aneekan (not One) that BEING is. However He also destroys these presentational forms and functions and showing Himself as the Supreme and absolutely brilliant Light, destroys these complexities and discloses that HE is ONE and Same for all.

BEING also shows, for those who would seek to know His size that He is atomic and at the same time That which  transcends even this.

Thus BEING defeats every human and divine attempt to FATHOM His essence and come out with a determinate knowledge of Him by showing that He is always a SURPLUS, an EXCESS, an atiitam as they say.

Now Manikkar thanks BEING for sparing him the most unwelcome certainly such as this, that BEING is X and Y and nothing else. He notes that those who are still locked with such certainties are those without an understanding of the WAY- the Vazi - from which he has been soared by BEING Himself.

BEING has possessed Manikkar’s soul so that it is NOT  trapped into these metaphysical certainties and religious fanaticisms.

        
5
vaNNam taam ceeyatu anRu veLitu anRu
        aneekan  eekan aNu aNuvil iRantaay
        enRu aGku
eNNam taan tadumaaRi imaiyoor kuuddam
        eytum aaRu aRiyaata entaay! Un tan
vaNNam taam atu kaadi vadivu kaaddi
        malarkazalkaL avai kaaddi vaziaRReenai
tiNNam taan piRavaamal kaattu aadkoNdaay
        emperumaan! En colic cintikeenee?

Meaning:
You show Yourself as of the color red and then destroy that understanding. Similarly for the color white (and all other colors). While showing that You are MANY You also deny that show that You are One and Same always. You show Yourself as of the atomic size and then show that You are even beyond it. Thus You confuse the minds seeking a determinate knowledge and because of which even the celestial beings, befuddled do not know the WAY towards understanding Your essence. Now You have saved me from such determinate understanding. For You  showed the colors and forms along with flower-like and anklet feet so that they kept on moving and changing and because of which I was spared of the fanatical determinate knowledge. Oh My Lord! Now in terms of what can I think of You?

Hymn 7.24, Thirumurais, by Saint Sundaramoorthy Nayanar* - Describing his vision of the Lord

Tamil transliteration:

ponnaar mayniyanae,
pulitholai araingkasaithu,
minnaar chen chadai mel,
milir kondrai annin dhavanae,
mannae maamaniyae,
mazhapaadiyul maanickamae,
annae unnai illaal,
ini aarai nenaikaynae.

pon - gold
ponaar meyniyanae - golden bodied one
pulithol - tiger skin
araingkasaithu - tied around the waist
minnaar - One who shines like lightning flashes
chen - red
chadai - long hair
milir kondrai - glittering kondrai flowers
mannae - king
maa - great(est)
mani - jewel
Mazhapaadi - a town in Tamilnadu
maanickam - rubystone
annae - mother, creator of all
unnai illaal - without you
eeni aarai nenaikaynae - now who shall I think of

Golden bodied one,
girthed in tigerskin around the waist,
Shining One like lightning, on whose flowing red hair
decked with glittering kondrai flowers,
Oh King, Oh the greatest Jewel,
The ruby of Mazhapaadi,
Mother, without you,
now who else shall I think of.

This was the vision of the Lord that Sundarar had at the temple in Mazhapaadi and describes it in his hymn. Here he sees the Lord as a Being, in Person - a golden skinned shining being who wears a tigerskin around the waist, has long red flowing hair decked in kondrai flowers.

So many saints and sages have seen the Lord in visions - whether in prayers in the temple or home altar, or in meditation, or in dreams just after deep sleep in the hours before dawn. The Lord as shown Himself in many, many forms to souls on earth. But it is this form that appears recurringly, and seen and attested even today by many. The form is as described by the child-saint Sundarar and is celebrated as the OneLord by Saiva Hindus - Paramesvara, the creator, preserver and destroyer of all that exists.

*nayanar translates as saint.

When you come to understand that you are powerless in everything, and that you'll always be powerless even if you become a realised soul;

When you come to realise that you are unable to do anything, unable to influence events and whatever your contributions is just a drop in the ocean;

When you realise with hindsight that everything that happenend in your life was not your doing, and that things just happened on its own including all the successes and failures;

When you realise that really you are just a puppet in this world and that someone or something else pulls all the strings;

When you realise that you are really exhausted with all the things in the world as well as all the relationships with people and want to surrender and let go of everthing and just flow along accepting everything that comes along;

And when you realise that the events of the world just cannot be understood and will never be understood why things happen the way they do and you surrender trying to understand them;

When you then prefer to be alone and uninvolved with the world and solitude seems best;

Then you are ready to be auto piloted by the Lord.

After surrendering, when the first metaphysical sounds are heard one exclaims, 'I HEAR'!

Even in the middle of a busy street or a noisy shopping mall the inner sound is heard amidst the din. After this a new perspective is gained over some time; the ability to be involved in the world but not quite attached, unable to connect with other persons or things of the world, nothing impresses, inability to get excited or grief over anything in the world. Feeling lonely amidst people. 'Walking in the rain but not getting wet'.

With the first burst of inner light one exclaims, 'I SEE'!

For the first time one sees the light with the eyes closed.

kaNdeen avar tiruppaatam, kandariyaatana kaNdeen

I saw His Holy Feet, I saw what cannot be seen by the (physical) eyes!"

Manickavaasagar

It is such a person who can 'hear' and 'see' who by the force of their personality and clarity are able to lead and show the path. The rest remain deaf and blind and cannot understand the intricacies and mysteries of the world and religion, and are unable to lead the people.

Pathma

All religions have different ways of expressing their faith or communicating with God. Christians pray, which is a solemn request, beseeching and thanksgiving. Muslim recite the 'doa', which is an affirmation of faith.

Hindus worship their gods. Worship is is an expression of adoration and reverence to the deities in the temples and home shrines with offerings of flowers, food, incense, ringing of bells, presentation of lamps, as well as most importantly, singing of hymns.

The vedas, thirumurais and bakti literature are hymns sung to the gods in adoration. During worship, Hindus chant and sing these hymns expressing their devotion to the gods.

In this they are quite different from the other religionists. Hindus worship and sing to the gods.

The first scholar to preside over that first Sangam or Thalai Sangam was iRaiyanaar (Iraivan or Siva). He is identified with "'Thiripuram eriththa virisadaik KadavuL' (the God who burnt the Three Cities). The patrons were, hereditarily, the Pandiyan kings. This, then, was the earliest Madurai. 

After a cataclysm, the capital shifted to a place called Kabaadapuram by the river Kumari. This city was south of the present Kumari Cape. It is mentioned in the Raamaayana of Vaalmiiki. Here was the Second Sangam or Idai Sangam and was thought to be presided by Murugak KadavuL. Murugan in this context is called "KunRam eRintha KumaravEL" (Kumara who Burnt Kunram). Incidentally, Krishna has also presided over this Second Sangam. He is known by the name of 'Thuvaraik KOmaan' (King of Dvaraka). The TholkAppiyam is the only remaining work belonging to this time (the second Sangam). 

Finally it is BEING who Teaches

The concept of Guru plays an important part in Saivism where it is BEING who is taken as the genuine GURU who in the shape of TadciNaamurty, teaches the gifted the Njaanam sitting in Deep Silence with the Cin Mudra and is beneath the Bothi Tree.

Until the soul qualifies to have BEING Himself  as the Guru within, the spiritual  pedagogy by BEING Himself proceeds in a number of distinct modes.

Meykandar in his celebrated Botham provides the most interesting philosophical explanation of this spiritual pedagogy that takes place all the time and many different modes. He cl***ifies the souls into the very advanced Vinjnjaana Kalar then PraLayaa Kalau and finally Sakalar, a cl***ification of souls in terms of the Three Fetters - aaNavam Kanmam and Maayai. The Sakalar are those with all the three, the PraLaakalar only with Kanman and aaNavcam and the Vinjnjaana kalar only with aaNavam. Kalar means here the LEARNER, coming from the root ‘kal’ meaning to learn.

For Sakalars BEING teaches only indirectly, through rituals festivals mythologies and so forth. For the PraLayaa Kalar BEING becomes a human guru who pulls such souls to him and teaches the Njaanam through many edifying discourses. But for the Vinjnjaana Kalar, no such human Guru - BEING Himself becomes the Maha Guru deep within, instructing the soul in various ways so that Njaanam begins to shine brilliantly engulfing the soul totally so that it loses its identity. It becomes the egoless Pure Self.

Clearly VaLLalaar is such a soul and who recounts in this verse how BEING becoming the True Guru within taught him the various metaphysical truths that are beyond the reach of a wide range of scriptures. No scripture, being a text of words can ever incorporate the Njaanam which is beyond language. No matter skillful a person is in exegetics and no matter how extensively he has read such scriptures, singing chanting and so forth if necessary, one has to go beyond and practice Deep Silence to bask fully in the Njaanam for it is something beyond  temporality, the basic time consciousness.

A a matter of fact VaLLalaar was a great scholar where he had mastered most of the important cl***ics in metaphysics both in Sanskrit and Tamil. However after such an initial scholarly way of life, he was relieved of that burden where BEING became His Guru from within teaching him things directly and which produced supreme bliss because they drive away the Malam from his soul.

Becoming PURE and CLEAN, life becomes a pure joy to live.

52
paRRaRitaa muttar tamai ellaam vaazaip
        pazampool vizuFkinRa paramaa , maacu
peRRaRuyaap parum patamee patattaik kaaddum
        pweumaanee aanantap peeRRin peruvaazvee
uRRaiyaatu innum innum maRaikaL ellaam
        oo;amiddut tteeda ninRa onRee onRum
kaRRaRiyaap peetaoyeen tanakkum inbam
        kanintaLitta arudkadalee karuNait teevee!

Meaning:

O Maha Deva!
You swallow like swallowing banana fruits those muktas who have freed themselves from all worldly attachments.  You also remain Pure and Clean and You also indicate Your essence to all. You also indicate that this state of being Pure and Clean is also a state of real bliss. There are many metaphysical treatises that I have studied but You overpowering me and becoming the Great Guru deep within make these treatises cry and run out of shame. I am an ignorant fool in such matters but becoming the Guru within and  making me Pure and Clean shining with Njaanam You also blessed me with endless bliss. It is difficult for me to thank Your immense kindness and love!

Yoga and Sacred Tamil

Many Tamil scholars and who are very proficient in Sanskrit language and literature as well, praise Tamil literature especially Sacred Tamil literature for its metaphysical profundity and openness. They always feel and not for silly chauvinistic reasons that it is indeed a real blessing to be born a Tamil and who enjoys the Sacred Tamil literature. Even foreigners like G.U. Pope belongs to this category of scholars.

For the souls that are exhausted with endless problems in worldly life - the dark sea where lurk the sharks of various kinds of cravings, it becomes a real BALM to indulge in the stuff of Sacred Tamil. In the earlier verse (verse 29) Tayumanavar singled out the trio of Devaram and where he also noted that Sacred Tamil is peculiar in that the verses are of those already enjoying Moksa and hence is a literature a study of which will also help the ordinary persons to gain glimpses of Moksa and with that overcome many problems in life.

In this verse Tayumanavar takes up MaaNikkaVasakar of Tiruvasakam, Tirumular of Tirumantiram, AruNakiri of Teiruppukaz and a host of other great souls. He says that even the celestial beings worship Manikkavasakar only because every word of Tiruvasakam is a gem, a diamond- words of metaphysical insights that are priceless.

Now Tirumular comes to the scene with the Siva mantras and where the study of Tirumantiram would institute the desire for Moksa in the mind of the people by opening up their metaphysical eyes. AruNaKiri is noted for his famous ‘cumma irukkum cukam’ the bliss of being without any actions and predispositions to act.

This is the state of frozen physical stillness, the Sahaja Niddai and which becomes possible only when the soul destroys every bit of dirt within and which causes ignorance. A man has to be ACTIVE doing this and that unable to remain still only because there is IGNORANCE deep within and which pushes him to act learn and destroy that darkness these patches Malam create.

What Tayumanavar notes here is that a study of Sacred Tamil literature leads to self-purification so that a soul that becomes absolutely Pure and Clean cease to ACT in any way with the impulses to act wiped out completely. It enjoys the Yoga of remaining physically and mentally frozen whereby every possible misery is destroyed even before they ***ail the soul

31.
 ‘teevar tozum vaatavuur teevee!’ enbeen
        ‘Tirumuular teevee! Ic cakattoor muttikku
aavaluRa civa en vaakkudanee vanta
        aracee! Cummaa viruntun aruLai saap
puulakil vaLar aruNa kiriyee! maRRaip
        puNiyarkaaL o' enbeen  purai onRillaa
ooviyam poola asaivaRavubn taanee niRpeen
        ootariya turyar kedavee uraikku munnee!

Meaning:

I will exclaim (after reading Tiruvasakam) “O The lord of Vatavuur! You are in fact worshipped by the celestial beings themselves! “And then I will say O divine Tirumular! You came down with the ‘civa’ mantra and pulled many people lost in worldly life into a life where they seek moksa and nothing else. I will also hail AruNa Kiri who taught the art of being action less and with that kind of Yoga of Niddai the soul becomes pure and clean by destroying all the remnants of the Malam still in the deeper recesses of the soul. I will also hail the so many other great souls (who developed Sacred Tamil with its own excellence).  Now after studying all these great souls, I remain absolutely still in body and mind like a painting without any defects and in that stillness destroy all possible miseries that may attack me and before  they even get mentioned as such.

Loga

As we look around wherever we are, we see objects, people, animals: There are
cars and houses, plants, trees, and birds, clouds in the sky and sun on high,
and on and on we can make an endless list. All these constitute the world around
us, and they extend from the center of the earth and dust bits to the very ends
of the universe and the most distant galaxies imaginable. All this is part of
Nature. Is there anything more than what we see and feel as tangible entities?

Yes there are: Like beauty, music, notions of truth and justice, love, hate and
thought. What are these intangible, insubstantial items that are no less real in
our experience as sentient beings? They too are part of the natural world, one
can argue, for none of these would have arisen without the materials that
constitute the universe. Love and lunacy are surely not material things, but
they could never arise in a world without neurons, and that means electrons and
protons, sodium and calcium, and all the rest of it. Thus, ultimately, there is
only Nature: so proclaim the naturalists and many in the scientific
establishment.

But this is not so obvious to many who wonder about this bewildering universe
where we enjoy and suffer for a brief span of time and then disappear. By we, I
don't mean just the bone and flesh and blood that embody us, and the skin and
skull that encase it all. I mean rather this individual entity that thinks and
reasons, computes and creates in its own fantastic mode with symbols, equations,
and all. The question persists: The universe, with all those twinkling stars
and grandiose galaxies spouting endless energy and whirling and wandering, all
in accordance with perfect mathematical laws, why did all this come to be, and
with such balance and elegance, culminating in a mind that knows right from
wrong and good from bad, or at least thinks it does?

It seemed to the hearts and minds of some ancient visionaries that there is
something beyond nature. Every traditional religion accepts some kind of a
supernature, as it is called in Latin-derived tongues. Aristotle called it
metaphysis: beyond-nature, because he believed it to reside way beyond the
stellar dome. Hindu thinkers described it as alaukika: not of the world. The
Hindu word for nature ***umed its creation, for it is srishti in Sanskrit,
meaning that which has been created. It seemed reasonable to suppose that the
supernatural something must be powerful enough to create the world and oversee
it too. Being beyond nature, it must also be intangible, and not subject to the
laws and rules that govern the world, and hence it must be able to cause
occurrences (miracles) that don't conform to the laws of nature. One also
pictured the supernatural entity to be in some ways very like us, and so this
all-powerful, all-knowing creative principle came to be envisioned as God. Some
Hindu seers pictured the world as the play of a Supernatural Mind (bhagvaan ki
leelaa), even as Dante talked of eternal God whose art Nature is (Deus aeternus,
arte sua, quae natura est).

How can we know if the supernatural exists? One may believe in, postulate, or
recognize modes of perception beyond our sensory channels. One can affirm its
existence through extra-sensory perception (ESP). From this perspective,
religious visions are instances where supernature is recognized; and there are
also supernatural processes, like clairvoyance and clairaudience. Some people
accept such matters on the basis of personal experience, or because they are
convinced that the world must be richer and more complex than has been painted
by naturalistic science.

V. V. Raman
December 13, 2006