Nangai-yin Mangai and Kacchapi Veena

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Dear Marthandan, Hope Vanaja Amma is doing good. When last time she complained of her abdominal pains, I asked her to chant Indrakshi Mantra she obtained from Puvendar. Yes, the Tamil Siddhas do have a sway over me still.Or rather Iam swayed by them.Some days ago I remember someone asking me whether I had seen a particular site on Pambatti siddhar and Sri Siddhayogi shivaprabhakara. I have seen it long time ago and found it interesting. There

is no inherent dischordance between the paths of Srividya and Shaivasiddhantham.Both ultimately talk of the union of the shakthi and shiva. In Shakti's templeif you controlthe left & the rightyou can hear a lutein the center of your face.And Shiva will come outdancing sweetly.I swear upon Sada Nandiwe have spoken the truth...says Thirumoolar. Here Tirumular discusses the basis of Kundalini Yoga whereby the breath, carrying one of the vital airs known as prana, flows into the solar and lunar currents which run from the

right and left nostrils down to the base of the spine and are there brought into union. The point of this union is at the root chakra Muladhara, the first of six chakras or nerve plexuses through which the Kundalini energy will flow. This energy is moved by the solar and lunar streams of vital breath that have entered the central current at Muladhara and will ascend upwards through the six chakras, each corresponding to a higher and more expansive state of consciousness. The individual awareness is sublimated into divine union at the crown of the head. It is a kind of inner journey towards the infinitude of the Divine, but begins only after the two streams flow into the central current as we learn from verse 801 of the Tirumantiram... Left handRight handBoth hands...Change!!!He who eatswith the hand of worshipneed not be depleted.The

conscious onescapable of abandoning sleepneed not die...they can live forever. The term used to denote the 'hand of worship' is Tutikai. Tuti is a verb meaning "to worship," kai is the noun meaning "hand". Together, as Tutikai, the expression also means the "elephant's trunk." This interpretation is equally viable in that Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of gateways and new beginnings is said to reside in the body at the base of the spine, at the root chakra Muladhara where the two currents flow together and enter central current Shashumna. Shashumna is sometimes envisioned as the trunk of Ganesha raised aloft and holding the full blown lotus of enlightenment, Sahasrara, at the crown of the head. What is

eaten is amrita, conceived of as both the nectar of spiritual ecstasy and the elixir of immortality. Tantra appears in its definitive form around the 4th century, but its beginnings seem to reach back much earlier. Elements of tantric thought had already pervaded the south by the time of Tirumular, as they had seeped into yogic theory and practice at some antecedent time and even impacted temple ritual and the budding bhakti cults. Tantra was more deeply rooted in a fluid set of symbolic constructs than a static enunciation of doctrine. It represents a profound refinement of the symbol system of Hindu-Buddhist South Asia. It's emphasis on the experiential aspects of the individual's religious experience collided with the Shaivite orthodoxy like the Gnostic heresy did with the early Christian Church. Now,

Marthandan, these symbolic constructs are called "Sandhyabhashai"(Twilight language) by Pamara-makkal(common place folks) I still fondly remember the days we spent reciting Thirumantiram and Thevaram in Kumbakonam temple.I again visited the tmeple with my sister and parents. After the session we had, I went to see Shekar and he introduced me to Maha-agathiyar Nadi. I should admit that Nadi-reading these days have become rather farcical. The Nadi-reader is quite clever and reads some gibberish from the texts and interprets it in a vague way, many of which don't come out correct. Some even adopt nefarious occult means like Tambula Yakshini sadhana to read from palm manuscripts. Iam not being anti-proscriptive here of any method but to use a Yakshini to divine a reading rather than the Nadi-patra sadhana/vidhi which the seer has given is abominal. In that Naadi, I did come across the reference in Thirumantiram that the Nangai yin Mangai referred to in Thirumantiram refers to Our Sacred Lady and Empress of the Universe(Ennai-eendrueduthai-Thaai) Rajarajeshwari Ammai of

Nanganallur. The temple in Nanganallur had been there many thousands of years ago(5000 years according to one reading) and the site on which the temple has been constructed is a very hallowed and spiritually puissant place. In the modern era, the Siddhas have had a profound influence on contemporary Tamil society because of the impact of a single poet who lived in the last century. Ramalingar was born in 1823 near Chidambaram, the greatest of all Shaivite temples. Naturally, the heretical nature of his teaching and the growing number of his disciples caused the protest of temple officials and a variety of Saiva Siddhanta

institutions throughout the region. Eventually they were forced to call in Arumuga Naalavar from Jaffna to put an end to Ramalingar. As a Tamil scholar and Shaivite authority, the orthodox religious leaders throughout the area, were confident that he could expose the fallacy of Ramalingar's teaching and defrock the heretical saint. Arumuga quickly set about organizing public meetings to provide a platform on which to abuse Ramalingar and a horde of pamphlets were circulated issuing public warning about this dangerous little man. Eventually though, Arumuga was forced to take legal action and filed a suit against the saint. The gentle Ramalingar was dragged into court, but eloquently speaking in his own defense, easily won the case. The nature of Ramalingar's heresy is found to be all the more insidious when we learn that he also cherished and called his own the devotional hymns of Saiva Siddhanta saints other than

Tirumular. One of these, the last of the canonized 64, was Manikkavasagar, who had a profound influence on Ramalingar and Siddha devotionalism in general. Manikkavasagar's name means "He who's utterances are rubies" and in the 9th century he beautifully wrote this mini creation myth in flowing verse... Becoming sky & earthWind & lightBecoming flesh & spiritAll that truly is & all that which is notBecoming the Lord,He makes those who say,"I" & "mine"Dance in the showBecoming sky & standing there...How can my wordspraise Him? In this final work of Ramalingar, we see a different side

of the heretical Siddhas. Not the enigmatic ramblings or harsh riddles of the ascetic, but a tender ode, that views the Siddha's experience of union as the distilled essence of life's sweetness. In this poem Ramalingar praises Saint Manikkavasagar, and weaves his verse with a complex echoing of sound as he speaks again and again of the sweetness of his mystic absorption experienced when hearing the poetry of the saint. This fervent merging, savored by the ecstatic Ramalingar is described with the Tamil word Kalantha, from the verb root Kala meaning "to flow together", "to make as one", as it also denotes a sexual union. One with sky Manikkavasagar,your words...One with me when I singNectar of sugarcaneOne with honeyOne with milkand one with the sweetnessof the fertile

fruitOne with my fleshOne with my soulInsatiableis that sweetness! Although Ramalingar's hymns were penned in praise of the God Shiva, they were often addressed to a feminine audience with unqualified personal designations such as 'Amma' or 'Akka', 'Mother' or 'Sister'. Perhaps indicating that the hymn was meant for an internal and distinctly feminine force that could propel the invocation along the proper channels of the inner cosmos, towards Shiva's divine abode. The fact that his songs began to be sung in the schools, villages and even the temples of 19th

century Cennai, began to outrage the orthodox Shaivites in the area. He, as all other Tamil Siddhas, was somewhat iconoclastic, not adequately deferential to temple or Brahminical tradition. He did not worship the linga. Forgoing all such images, he perpetrated the greatest of heresies by blatantly revealing the true face of God veiled within volumes of tantric lore. At the shrine he established at Vadalur, behind the curtain that housed the holy of holy's, he established a single flame's light to illuminate a mirror that would reflect the image of the worshipper as the secret face of god and final mystery of the Tamil Siddha cult. In this context, one experience, I had with Amba and Kameshara is thus-- The day was sultry and the mosquitoes were

incessantly biting my skin.That time despite these inconviniences, I cried reading a particular Tantric-cum-poteic siddha lore and said "Amma, what is eerpu?, please enlighten this ignoramus". I then heard Suresh next to me mumbling" Shreeram don't shout aloud, you are disturbing my meditation". Then exactly for 3 hours, I was thrown in a bliss which was indecribable by any of the five senses much less by my typing now. Then "En-ammai" said to Kameshwara"Eeerpu ambe' eerpu!! " and laughed with Her Nijasallapamadhurya-vinirbharthsitha-kacchapi***(as mentioned in

Lalitha-sahasranama) voice mockingly. Now I know why Kameshwara is described thus in Mandasmithaprabhapoora-majjath-kamesha-manasa! He though having swadheenam(self-control) seems to fall and again rise in Her pleaseant smiling coutenance which coruscates with effulgence. (To translate the the above sentence uttered by Mother--" Union! Union ! it seems!" (****As an aside: Yesterday, I was saying to a friend of mine whose daughter's name was Surabhi regarding the connection with Amarakosha and Lalitha Sahasranama.(Surabhi as many wrongly think has no connection with a musical note in the original etymological root---It refers to a nose-satisfying fragrance. Fragrances being of many kinds.

Amarakosha describes many many types of fragrances). Similarly, many wrongly(I have seen some Lalitha sahasranama popular texts also translating the word "Nijasallappa madhurya vinirbharthsitha Kacchapi" very wrongly because of a faulty application of Bahu-vreehi samasam.One other text also says "Kacchapi" refers to the Bharya of Kacchapi!(Meaning Lalitha Parameshwari is the wife of Kachhapa!!(a mythological character)!!!). These are the shastra-granthis who stick to just shaatsras as their guru, who bear a very very humble and self-effacing facade of following a Guru and who swear by their sanskrit knowledge who make a mess of things. Suresh was aksing me to write a Lalitha Sahasranama Bhashya, I said "My hand shivers with fright at the very divine

thought"...whereas these people simply write whatever or rather whereever their pens take them! One day their pens will become their enemies(law of karma) "Kacchapi" refers to sarswathy's veena. Vishwaavasu bears the Bruhathi Veena, Narada bears the Mahathi Veena, Thumbura bears the Kalavathy Veena and Saraswathy bears the Kacchapi veena. The chandas or meters comes from these Dhwani.(There is something called "Adhwani" which forms shadjaswara but that will be too much of a dialatory discussion for this email). The decscription is a negatory cum transcendatory description(vyatireka-athikramana). It says that my Divine mother's voice "rejects" Saraswathy's Veena because it is even more melliflous.There is a story in Soundarya Lahiri too regarding the Alapanam of Divine mother and Saraswathy Veena(this too will be deviatory from what I intend to tell you my friend) ***) ----------------- After this experience where I saw Amba clearly but not Kameshwara so clearly,my respect for the profound path of the Tamil Siddhas and Vallalaar grew. I did enquire

about this surreal experience with my Gurunathar who asked me to dwell on Mantra-japa more for a particular period and then suddenly said one day"Stop it". --------------------- These days, I do dream about Kodaikanal a lot. I see some siddhas and I cognize that plae to be the notorious Jeevajyothi murdercase spot! Human beings will always be human beings!! Haha I then asked telephonically my friend who is leaving that pristine beauty for the maya of Texas whether it is true that siddhas used to roam there. He affirmed postively. It would be a wonderous beauty to meditate on the avaranas there!The weather is so salubrous to even internal healing

that my heart longs to go there soon! But my friend, the busy life here seems to claim my vital energies here. When will I be released from all these fetters that bind me Amma? Should I say like Veeramani" Om Sing rang ang sing...sakala kattukalai arutheri Ammaaa!"? poruLe poruLmuDikkum bOkamEarum bOkam ceyyum maruLemaruLil varunyeruLeen manattu

vaattutuiruLetum indri oLiveLi yAkiirukkum unDRanaruLEtu aRikinDRai lEnambuyAtanattu ambikaiyE Oh Thou who art in every material thing!Oh enjoyment that material things bring!Oh delusion that from enjoyment comes!Oh clarity into which this becomes!Oh darkness that clouds my mind so small!Oh light of knowledge that clears it all!Oh effulgence that shines so bright!I'm unable to fathom your spiritual might!Oh my goddess Ambika. Yours yogically, Shreeram Balijepalli

 

 

 

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