|
Bhogar Mahārshi |
|
Bhogar receiving instructions from his teacher, Kālāngi Nāthar |
|
Bhogar, traversing the sky, observes faraway places like Arabia, Rome, and China. |
|
Bhogar worshipping Lord Dandāyudhapāni. |
|
Bhogar worshipping Lord Dandāyudhapāni. |
|
Siddha Bhoganāthar: An Oceanic Life Story
Click on pictures at right to visit: The Life of Bhogar in Pictures.
Bhoganāthar or Bhogar, the Jñāna Guru of Babaji, in the
poem "Bhogar Jñāna Sagarama" (Bhogar's Oceanic Life Story,
consisting of 557 verses, verse number 2, lines number 3 and 4), identifies
himself as a Tamilian, (Ramaiah, 1979; 1982. p. 17).[1]
In the same verse he states that the great Siddha Kālangi Nāthar
initiated him in Jñāna Yoga
(supreme self-knowledge).
Kālangi Nāthar was born in
Kaśi (Benares). He attained the immortal state of swarūpa samādhi at the ago of
315, and then made China the center of his teaching activities. He belonged to
the ancient tradition of Nava (nine) Nāth sadhus (holy ascetics), tracing
their tradition to Lord Shiva.
There are nine important shrines associated with
this tradition, five of which are in the Himālaya Mountains: Amarnāth (where Shiva
first taught Kriya Yoga to his Shakti partner, Parvati Devi), Kedarnāth,
Badrināth (India), Kailāsanāth, (Tibet) and
Paśupatināth (Nepal).
Meanwhile, Bhoganāthar practiced
Kundalini Yoga in four stages. The first three stages arc described in a later
chapter on "The Psychophysiology of Kriya Kundalini Pranayama".
Bhoganāthar chose the Palani Malai (mountain) in what is now southwestern
Tamil Nadu as the site for intensive yogic practice (tapas) for the final
stage. He attained swarūpa
samādhi at Palani, through the grace of Lord Muruga, or the eternal
youth, "Kumāra Swāmi".
The Kumāraswāmi temple at Palani
became the epicenter of his activities. He visited many countries astrally,
and physically and through transmigration. In one of his songs Bhoganāthar
claims to have flown to China at one point in a sort of airplane which he built: he held discussions with
Chinese Siddhas before returning to India (Kailasapathy, 1969, p. 197-211). His
visit to South America has been confirmed by accounts left by the Muycas of
Chile: "Bocha, who gave laws to
Muycas, was a white, bearded man,
wearing long robes, who regulated the calendar, established festivals, and
vanished in time like others (other remarkable teachers who had come across the
Pacific according to numerous legends of Incas, Aztecs and Mayans)." (Lal 1965, p. 20).[2]
He convened a meeting of many siddhas just before the beginning of the present
Kali Yuga, in 3102 BC, to determine the best way for humanity to progress along
the spiritual path during the coming period of darkness. The Yoga of love and
devotion, Bhakti Yoga, was chosen as being the best means. Bhoganāthar was
entrusted by the siddhas with the task of defining the rituals for the worship
of their favorite deity "Palani Āndavar", the Lord (Muruga) of Palani.
Many rituals that center around the bathing (abhishekam) of an idol of Palani
Āndavar with many substances, including panchaamirtam
consisting of five fruits and honey, were developed by him and continue to
be followed to this day. The idol had to be created from a substance that would
last throughout Kali Yuga.
The most resilient of known substances, granite, was
known to wear and crack after thousands of such rituals. So Bhoganāthar
fashioned it out of nine secret herbal and chemical ingredients, nava pashanam, which made it harder than
granite. Eight of the ingredients were combined in a mold of the idol. The
ninth, was added as a catalyst, to solidify it.
In recent times the scientists who attempted
to determine the composition of a small sample of the material of the idol,
were startled to find that it immediately sublimated when heated. Thus its
composition remains a mystery to date. The traces of the substance are
contained in the ritual offerings in which it is bathed. When these are
returned and consumed by the devotee, their spiritual progress is enhanced.
A mission to China and transmigration
Kālangi Nāthar decided to enter into samādhi in seclusion
for 3,000 years. He summoned Bhoganāthar telepathically from Tamil Nadu to
China to take over his mission. Bhoganāthar traveled by sea, following the
trade route. In China, he was instructed by Kālangi Nāthar in all
aspects of the Siddha sciences. These included the preparation and use of the
kaya kalpa herbal formulae to promote longevity.
After Kālangi Nāthar
entered into trance, Bhoganāthar assumed his teaching mission to the
Chinese. To facilitate this, he transmigrated his vital body into the physical
body of a deceased Chinese man, and thereafter went by the name "Bo-Yang".
"Bo" is a derivation of the word "Bhogam" which means bliss, material and
spiritual.
This bliss, for which he was named "Bo-Yang" is experienced when the Kundalini shakti, the feminine primordial yin
energy awakens, passes up to the crown of the head, the seat of Shiva, the
masculine yang pole, in the Sahasra
cakra at the summit of the head and unites with it. The result of this
integration of feminine and masculine parts of the being, or union ("Yoga") of Shakti
and Shiva, Yin and Yang, is Satchidananda: Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
Transformation of his physical body
Bhoganāthar decided to overcome the limitations of the Chinese body,
with its degenerative tendencies, and prolong its life through the use of the
kaya kalpa herbs long enough for the effect of Kriya Kundalini Pranayama and
related yogic techniques to bring swarūpa
samādhi. In his poem Bhogar
Jñāna Sutra 8, verse number 4, he describes vividly what happened
after carefully preparing a tablet using thirty five different herbs:
With great care and patience I
made the (kaya kalpa) tablet and then swallowed it: Not waiting for fools and
skeptics who would not appreciate its hidden meaning and importance. Steadily I lived in the land of
the parangis (foreigners) For twelve thousand years, my fellow! I lived for a long time and fed
on the vital ojas (sublimated spiritual energy) With the ojas vindhu I received
the name, Bhogar: The body developed the golden
color of the pill: Now I am living in a world of
gold (based upon
translation by Yogi S.A.A. Ramaiah, 1979, p. 40-42).
He chose three of his best disciples and his
faithful dog, and took thorn to the top of a mountain. After first offering a
tablet to the dog, the dog immediately fell over dead. He next offered it to
his leading disciple, Yu, who also immediately fell over dead.
After offering
it to the two remaining disciples, who by this time were extremely nervous, and
who promptly hid their tablets rather than swallow them, Bhoganāthar
swallowed the remaining tablets and also fell over unconscious. Crying with
grief, the two remaining disciples went down the mountain to get material to
bury the bodies. When the disciples returned to the spot where the bodies had
been left lying, all that was found was a note, in Bhoganāthar's
handwriting, which said:
The kaya kalpa tablets are working. After awakening from their trance I restored
faithful Yu and the dog. You have missed your chance for immortality. (Ibid.)
This kaya kalpa enabled Bhoganāthar to
transform the Chinese body over a period of 12,000 years, during which time it
developed a lustrous golden color. (The physiological transformation to the
state of swarūpa samādhi was, however, completed only later, at
Palani in the final phases of Kriya Kundalini Yoga and related practices. These
phases will be described in chapter 11. Bhoganāthar's own graphic
description is recorded in the poem at the end of this chapter Initiation into Samādhi.)
In this poem Sutras of Wisdom — 8. he sings prophetically of the taking up of
the practice of pranayama in modern times by millions of persons who would
otherwise have succumbed to drug abuse:
|
Kriya Babaji, disciple of Bhogar |
|
Bhogar Nath and his young disciple Babaji Nagaraj at Kataragama, illustration from Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition |
|
Kriya Babaji shrine, Kataragama
|
|
|
Will
chant the unifying verse of the Vedanta. Glory to the holy feet of Uma
(the Divine Mother of the Universe. Shakti), Will instruct you in the
knowledge of the sciences, ranging from hypnotism to alchemy (kaya kalpa).
Without the need for pills or
tablets, the great scientific art of pranayama breathing, will be taught and
recognized By millions of common people
and chaste young women. Verse no. I (based upon translation by Yogi S.A.A. Ramaiah, 1982, p. 40).
Becomes known as Lao-Tzu, founder of Taoism
After this incident with the Chinese disciples, Bo-Yang became also known
as Lao-Tzu, and was accessible for nearly 200 years, and trained hundreds of
Chinese disciples in Tantric Yoga practices, wherein semen and sexual energies
are conserved and sublimated into spiritual energies. The advanced techniques
which he taught involve raising the energies from the mūladhāra cakra corresponding to the perineum up to the sahasrara cakra during sexual intercourse with a spiritually minded partner, resulting in sublimated energy, tejas. manifesting throughout all the
cells of the body. In the fifth century B.C., Confucius met Lao-Tzu Bo-Yang and
afterwards said of him:
I know a bird can fly, a fish can swim, and an animal can run. For that which
runs, a net can be fashioned; for that which swims, a line can be strung. But
the ascent of a Dragon on the wind into heaven is something which is beyond my
knowledge. Today I have met Lao-Tzu, who is perhaps like a Dragon. Among the Chinese, particularly, the Taoists,
the Dragon is the symbol of Kundalini Shakti, the primordial force.
At the end of his mission to China, about 400
BC, Bhoganāthar, with his disciple Yu (whom he also gave the Indian name
Pulipani) and other close disciples, left China by the land route. As recorded
in the Taoist literature, at the request of the gatekeeper at the Han Ku
mountain pass Lao-Tzu crystallized his teachings. He did so in two books, the Tao Ching, with 37 verses, and the Te Ching with 42 verses (MacKintosh,
1971).[3]
In book two he says ‘Do good to him who has done you injury', which was also said by the
contemporary Tamil Siddha, Tiruvalluvar in his Tirukkural (Tiruvalluvar, 1968). Taoist yoga traditions continue
to seek physical immortality using techniques remarkably similar to those
taught in Tamil Shiva Yoga Siddhānta.
Return to India
Along their way, they visited several shrines
in the Himalayas and Kāmarūpa, the famous Tantric Shakti shrine in
Assam.[4]
He composed his greatest work of 700,000 verses near Mt. Kailasa with the
blessings of Lord Shiva. It was later abridged to 7,000 verses, and is known as
Bhogar Sapta Kandam. He later visited
Gaya, India and Arabia.
Upon his return to Tamil Nadu he introduced the Chinese
salts and chemistry, which he called Cīna-cāram
and porcelain making. He submitted his 7,000 verse manuscript for
evaluation to his guru, Agastyar at Courtrallam and to an academy of siddhas
there. It was endorsed by all of them as a great work.
Following this, many siddhas, including
Konkanavar, Karuvoorar, Nandeeswar, Kamala Muni, Satta Muni, Macchamuni, and
Sundarandar became his disciples to study the sciences of kaya kalpa and yoga.
He eventually turned over his teaching mission to Pulipani.
Establishes shrine at Katirkamam and attains swarūpa samādhi
After performing tapas at Sathura Giri, and Shiva Gin, he went to
Katirkamam in Sri Lanka to perform tapas and win the grace of Lord Muruga.
Under inspiration from the Lord he established the famous Yantra shrine,
representing the 1,008 petalled lotus cakra, which blossomed in Bhogar there.
Next he went to Palani where he attained swarūpa
samādhi. He retired to Katirkāmam, where Babaji Nagaraj met him around
211 AD.
Second Mission to China
Later, after the period of the Six Dynasties (220 to 590 AD),
Bhoganāthar returned with some Tamil disciples to China. He left his
mission in Tamil Nadu with Pulipani, the Chinese Siddha. During the
construction of the Brihitīswarar Shiva Temple in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, around 900 AD.
Bhoganāthar advised its builders as to how to raise the eighty ton
capstone to the top of the temple, more than 200 feet high. This was done
through his disciple Karuvoorar and another Tamil disciple who acted as
intermediaries and through messages tied to the legs of courier birds, like
today's homing pigeons.
At Bhogar's suggestion a gradient ramp five miles long
was built, up which the stone was pulled to the top of the temple. This was one
of the most remarkable engineering feats of all times. About this time he also
advised the King of Tanjore to build a small shrine dedicated to one of his
greatest disciples, Karuvoorar, behind the Bhrihiteeswarar Shiva Temple.
Current Activities
While Bhoganāthar is reported to have left the physical plane at
Palani, he continues to work on the astral plane, inspiring his disciples and
devotees, and even in rare instances he transmigrates into another's physical
body for specific purposes.
Source: Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition, by M. Govindan (Kriya Yoga Publications,
1991), pp. 113-118.
End Notes
[1] Material in this chapter is based upon the
life story of the Siddha Bhoganāthar narrated by Yogi S.A.A. Ramaiah in
his introduction to the third volume of the collected works of Bhoganathar, Bogar
Kandam Yogam: Babaji's Yoga of Boganathar, and notes in lectures.
[2] Authorities quoted by Bancroft in the Pacific States, Vol. V., 23-24.
[3] See ‘The Wandering Taoist', by Deng Ming-Dao.
1983 for a contemporary account of Taoist immortals and their practices in
China, and ‘The Tao and Chinese Culture' by Da Liu. 1979 for a description of
the highest goal of Taoist practices, ‘golden" immortality.
[4] It is here that Macchamuni
(Macchendranātha), one of his disciples, later composed the first great
treatise on the scientific art of Kriya Tantra Yoga, from which arose the
Kalpia and Kapalika tantric traditions.
|