science of spirituality

Change yourself today the Siddha way

Oh! Highness, if the bag of minerals (human body) wastes its time in search of the past, it would miss the technique of choosing its own rebirth and will be stuck in Maya.

“utta jadalamedi uppiruntha pandamithu mattippirakka marunthenakku kittavillai”

These are lines from a poem by Sage Agasthya. This poem stresses on the importance of using the present life to achieve perfection of body mind and spirit and never to dwell on the past. The Siddhars achieved the indestructible body, by which they extended their lifespan by thousands of years. During their extended lives on earth, they engaged in spiritual practices to achieve the highest of spiritual goals and gaining the ageless wisdom we call the Siddha today.

So how did these Siddhars extend their lives? They achieved indestructible body or the kayakalpa through kayakarpam, or the science of kayakalpa where a combination of internal medicine and external wellness therapies were combined to preserve the human body in its optimum state, so as to enable the soul to continuously function through it.

This news letter we would like to share the story of Sri. Bogar, a Siddhar famous for his contributions to the science of Kayakalpa, some other things for which he was famous like, spreading Siddha to china, description of Kundalini yoga and being the guru of Mahavatar Babaji.

There is a temple in south India, at Palani that is dedicated to Lord Muruga, the son of Lord Shiva. Bhoganāthar was entrusted by the siddhas to define the rituals for the worship of Lord Muruga. Armed with his deep knowledge of alchemy, Bogar created an indestructible idol of Lord Muruga, to last this Kali Yuga, using nine Poisonous substances or Nava Pashanams to withstand the continuous rituals of bathing (abhishekam). He fashioned it out of nine secret herbal and chemical ingredients, which made it harder than granite. The idol is still intact today and has defied scientists who attempted to analyse its contents. Even the strongest granite would not have withstood the test of time over these years with such continuous rituals.

Bogar being an adept of kayakalpa made the idol in such a way that when bathed with many substances, including milk, pancha¬amirtam consisting of five fruits and honey so that traces of the substance are washed over into the ritual offerings in which it is bathed. When the devotee consumes these offerings he gets a kayakalpa treatment as well as a boost in his/ her spiritual progress.

There is yet another incident where Bogar transformed his physical body. . In his poem Bhogar Jñāna Sutra 8 Bogar describes how he overcame the limitations of his physical body by cosuming a kayakalpa preparation he made and lived for 12.000 years in China. The incident goes like this. Bogar, while in China had transmigrated into the body of a Chinese to facilitate teaching. This Chinese body had many limitations and hence he decided to overcome the limitations of the Chinese body using kaya kalpa herbs and thus extend his life to attain Swarupa Samadhi. He carefully made some kayakalpa tablets using thirty five different herbs. Once done, he took three of his best disciples and his faithful dog on top of a mountain. He first offered the tablet to the dog and the dog immediately fell over and looked dead. He then offered tablets to his disciples who hid it in their garments, except for Yu who immediately consumed it and fell over dead. Bogar also consumed the tablet and died immediately. The disciples stricken with fear and grief went down the mountain to collect firewood for cremation. On returning they couldn’t find the bodies but only a note left by Bogar which read “The kayakalpa tablets worked. After getting out of the trance in which I was, I restored the faithful dog and Yu, but you missed your chance for immortality.” This transformation allowed Bogar to feed on his Ojas or Sublimated spiritual energy and live for thousands of years. His body developed a lustrous golden colour and according to the words of Bogar, he lived in a world of gold.

Today Bogars teaching are a store house secret Kayakalpa wisdom but there are few who can interpret and assimilate such wisdom and use it in the modern world. Many formulations have been based on his teaching but none found the efficacy that it was supposed to carry, mainly because of lack of knowledge in carrying out the procedures Bogar describes and the rarity of many herbs he used. Today if we need to revive this science, we need to find the modern day equivalents of such herbs and make efforts, the Siddha way. Gicen below is general classification of Kayakalpa system as known today, but may the reader be aware, that this information cannot even scratch the surface of the deep science of Kayakalpa in its true essence.
Kayakalpa drugs can basically have two actions (1) rejuvenating the body, as well as (2) be prophylactic in action. The Siddha Materia Medica describes, Kayakalpa formulations to include Herbs, Minerals and materials from Animal kingdom as well.

This in turn has been classified into (A) Pothu Karpam, which are preparations that can be taken for general wellness viz. optimum health, beauty, longevity and consciousness and (B) Sirappu karpam: taken during the period of illness and physical imbalances.

The Karuvoorar Kaaviyam, a Siddh text describes 108 herbs which can be used for kayakalpa drug preparation. These formulations when consumed at prescribed timings of the day with a prescribed healthy diet and after careful preparation of the body can bring about tremendous rejuvenation. Kayakalpa has no effect of an already destroyed body, e.g. a body damaged by uncontrolled long term diabetes and on overly aged people. Kayakalpa is a wellness science and need to be taken up during the early stages of life.

A tremendous transformation of the body, mind and spirit can be achieved when coupled with transformative spiritual practices and can tremendously boost once spiritual progress. The art of attaining the Arokia Deham and the Suddha Deham as described by Swami Ramalingam are advanced states of Kayakalpa easily attainable a dedicated spiritual practitioner.

Why do we need wellness solutions?

The World Health Report 2002 — Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life stresses the need for immediate action on promoting wellness. It advocates that, worldwide life expectancy can be increased by 5-10 years if major health risks can be tackled. According to WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, MD, this strategy of preventive approach can equip our scoeity to better tackle a wide range of preventable conditions that are killing millions of people prematurely and robbing tens of millions of healthy life. Many lifestyle diseases fall in the top 10 diseases and many other influence disease indirectly. Together, they account for about 40 per cent of the 56 million deaths that occur worldwide annually and one-third of global loss of healthy life years.

These leading risks are comparatively much more important than widely believed. The burden from many of the risks is borne almost exclusively by the developing world, while other risks have already become global. More than one billion adults worldwide – in middle income and high income countries alike are overweight or obese. About half a million people in North America and Western Europe die from overweight/obesity-related diseases every year.

WHO warns that the “cost of inaction is serious.” Unless action is taken, by the year 2020 there will be five million deaths attributable to overweight and obesity, compared to three million now; that the number of healthy life years lost by underweight children will be 110 million, which, although lower than 130 million now, is still unacceptably high.

Christopher Murray, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Director of WHO’s Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy says that “Globally, we need to achieve a much better balance between preventing disease and merely treating its consequences,”.

Rising health care burden is a cause of major concern in most developing and developed countries. Very few people can afford the huge medical bills that starts rising by the end of their prime age. People have started to realise that, today’s youth are the future investment of modern healthcare providers. Inevitably, like the aged people of today, our youth are looking into a grim future of more medical bills and hospitalisation. A considerable part of this burden could be reduced by a set of cost-effective interventions like promotion of wellness, preventive therapies and bringing alternative and complimentary medicines to front. This is the right time to adopt the policy ‘Prevention is Better than Cure’.

How can Siddha help?

Siddha based wellness therapies offer a range of solutions and lifestyles that can promote and healthy living. This is best explained in the science of kayakalpa. SASI’s research focuses on progressing siddha knowledge through innovation and integration. According to WHO reports the mortality due to lifestyle diseases is more in developed countries than developing and underdeveloped countries. This situation cannot be tackled by modern medicine alone. People need safer and effective alternatives which they can adopt into their lifestyle so that they can achieve a state of optimum health. This would include, nutritional/ herbal supplements, special exercises, meditative practices etc that would provide a holistic solution for the modern man.