Bhogar--an oceanic life story

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Dear all

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, w ho 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 Andavar 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:

 

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.

 

 

 

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

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.

 

Yours yogically,

Dattu