Sivayoga is Agamic Hindu
Dr K.Loganathan, 25-5-11
India has seen different types of Yoga that though similar in some ways are also very different from each other. I am confining myself here to the Sivayoga also called the Siddha Maayooga of Tirumular for whom the best date is around the 5th cent AD. While the whole of Tirumandiram of 3000 verses is replete with many observations on Yoga, most of them are concentrated in the Third Tantra (not all agreed on this division). I have studied the AstaGka Yoga of Tirumular that constitutes the main chapter of his very extensive treatment of Yoga that breaks into several distinct but interrelated branches such as Addamaasitti, Kesari Yoga PariyaGka Yoga Candra Yoga and so forth
My study of this AstaGka Yoga of Trumular is complete now and the essays are uploaded at:
https://sites.google.com/site/ulagansbooks/yoga-of-tirumular
Now I believe that this Yoga of Tirumular is not only Saivite and hence Agamic Hindu but also egalitarian in the sense it does not condone VarNas and Jaties. This may explain why there has been a series of Tamil Siddhas quite a number of whom were the Dalits but who excelled in this Sivayoga ending up writing many interesting treatises. Many Tamil Muslims are also known to have practiced this Yoga.
Divinising the Body and the Notion of Temple
Perhaps quite unique to Tirumular is that he sees the essence of Yoga as divinising the body for securing excellent physical and mental health that also ensures longevity, something exemplified by many Tamil Siddhas. Here what is interesting is that this concept of divinising the body is derived from the notion of TEMPLE and to divinise the body is to transform the body into a TEMPLE by a process of purifying and which constitutes the purpose of almost all the eight organs of Yoga.
Here is where it emerges that Sivayoga of Trimular is not only Agamic in the sense of a temple-centred metaphysical system, but also Saivite that presupposes the metaphysics of Saiva Siddhanta. For making the body Divine, one must remove from the body and soul the Malam, the primordial soul defiler that introduces Darkness and hence ignorance. This Malam is the primordial dirt that gives rise to Maayaa Malam, mental bewilderments and Karma Malam, that which throws the soul into endless existential repetition and so forth. This Malam is also the most potent poison, the Alakaala Visham, the cause of death of not only the living creatures but also the universe.
The whole purpose of Yoga, as a discipline concerned with securing excellent body and mental conditions, has as its primary task not just practising various kinds of Asanas but actually gaining metaphysical illuminations that would dispel the presence of Malam in the body and soul.
This driving away the fiendish hold of Malam begins to be articulated from Pratiyaakaram, the fifth organ in the AstaGka Yoga of eight organs and which I take as the sanskritization of Tamil Parutti aakaaram, enjoying the food of Parutti, metaphysical illuminations, the lumens-- the CiRsakti.
Yoga only after Cariya and Kriya Padas
Another reason why Sivayoga of Tirumular is strictly Agamic, is that Yoga does not begin just like that but rather anticipates the practices of Cariyai and Kriyai, the various kinds of temple rituals and worship of deities and so forth,
Yoga begins only when a person is sufficiently familiar with a temple and what transpires there so that there comes a moment where he would seek to transform the body itself into a Temple, in the sense of a place fit for the deities to reside permanently. Only when the different deities begin to be present in the body, will the body function properly and with youthful vitality, The biological processes of ageing that bring about senility and hence untimely death, are not only arrested but also reversed when the deities take residence in the body. Of particular importance here is the Female Deity, the Vaalaip PeN, the Young Maiden whom almost all the Siddhas worshiped and the most important deity in Tantrism as well. It is this deity who secretes the Amutu, the ambrosia that not only arrests the processes of body decay that brings about ageing but also rejuvenates so that the person emerges energetic and active like a youth again (also along with recovering the sexual virility)
Hermeneutics Yoga and Tantric Psychology.
By Tantric Psychology I mean the psychology of Siddhas , a pan Indian phenomenon where the notion of Cakras and ascending them and reaching the Peak, called the Sahasraram, the Meru Mountain, the Lotus of Thousand Petals and so forth constitutes its essence. For an essay on it see:
https://sites.google.com/site/ulagansessays/tantric-psych-and-personality
Tirumular asserts as an important part of Yoga the ascending of all these Cakras and reaching the very peak, the Meru Mountain to enjoy the blessings of Vaalaip PeN who resides there. But how can one ascend these Cakras?
It is here that Hermeneutics comes in. Tirumular is very clear that one practicing Yoga should strive to seek TRUTHS and nothing else and in that gain metaphysical illuminations that would facilitate the flow of Lumens which alone would dispel the Malam, that which introduces Ignorance and thus atomises the soul. The seeking of TRUTHS and nothing else begins even with Breath Control, PraNaayama where Tirumular states quite clearly that breathing is like riding a horse and once a person breaths but seeks fantasies and indulges in vain imaginations and so forth, it will throw him and run away abandoning him.
Along with practising Asanas and so forth the central concern of all yogis must be ascending the cakras and reaching the peak and which is possible only by becoming more and more metaphysically illuminated and which is possible only by the practice of hermeneutics of various kinds including that of Hermeneutic Semiotics, the witnessing the various archetypes and interpreting them by taking them as TEXTS of a kind and wresting out the metaphysical truths encrypted. Only when understanding is deepened widened with TRUTHS, there will be accessing of higher and higher Cakras.
This explains why Yoga has been egalitarian and eschews VarNa and caste distinctions. Anyone can practice Hermeneutics and enjoy metaphysical insights that purify the soul. The Njaanam that a person comes to enjoy on Samadhi stage as if natural to it, is already in the soul right from the beginning but impelling the person by its concealed presence. What the proper Yoga exercises do is to destroy this hiddeness or concealment and let it shine brilliantly in the soul. To immerse oneself totally in this vision of Inner Radiance is Dhyana proper. When this happens the soul ascends to the final state of Samadhi, where the person is said to enjoy Manolayam, a supreme contentment and calmness and which is not possible by any understanding of the Sastras. This cessation of cognitive processes comes naturally when the very hermeneutic efforts meet its closure on enjoying the Njaanam at the state of Samadhi.
All human beings are already blessed with this Njaanam and only by avoiding becoming slaves to scriptures and sastras and by practicing hermeneutics that illuminates the mind one can ascend the Cakras by virtue of the metaphysical illuminations attained. One can enjoy Samadhi and with it also an excellent body of youthful vitality.