Sattaimuni

Siddhar Charithiram

VENKATAPATHY AND SOORYANARAYAN

This is an ongo­ing series on the Sid­dhar Param­abarai of India. Sid­dha refers to per­fect­ed mas­ters who have achieved a high degree of phys­i­cal as well as spir­i­tu­al per­fec­tion or enlight­en­ment. We look at var­i­ous Sid­dhas who have graced upon this earth with their Pres­ence — their life and the wis­dom they shared in the form of poems, cou­plets that are referred to as Sid­dhar Padal­gal. To begin with, we are look­ing at Sid­dhas from the tra­di­tion of “Pathi­nen Sid­dhar­gal”. In the pre­vi­ous issues, we saw about Kud­ham­bai Sid­dhar, Pam­bat­ti Sid­dhar, and Idaikkaat­tu Sid­dhar. We also saw how the Sid­dhar­gal poet­ry is pre­sent­ed in Sand­hya Bhasha. In this arti­cle, we will see the glo­ry of Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar.

Sattaimuni Siddhar

Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar is said to have born in Sri­lan­ka and to have lived in the Tamil speak­ing regions. His par­ents were farm work­ers and Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar in his young ages had been a men­di­cant out­side a tem­ple. For a lit­tle while, he was involved in fam­i­ly life. But he was not for it. One day he encoun­tered a glow­ing san­nyasin and was enchant­ed by the glow. He left his fam­i­ly life and set afoot a seek­er. He was a wan­der­ing saint and had cov­ered vast stretch­es, intense­ly learn­ing all his way. The mas­ter came to answer the intense seek­er’s call­ing. The great Sid­dhar Peru­man Bog­ar (one among the revered Pathi­nen Sid­dhar­gal) accept­ed Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar as his dis­ci­ple. While liv­ing with Sid­dhar Peru­man Bog­ar as a dis­ci­ple, Sat­taimuni­nathar also con­nect­ed with Sid­dhar­gal Karu­vu­rar and Kon­ga­nar (also two among the revered Pathi­nen Sid­dhar­gal). It is also men­tioned that Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar received ini­ti­a­tion from Sid­dhar Peru­man Agastya­mu­ni (one among the revered Pathi­nen Sid­dhar­gal).

Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar’s work in anthro­pol­o­gy is held very high and vital among the Sid­dhar­gal works. As explained in our pre­vi­ous edi­tions, Sid­dhas nor­mal­ly write in Sand­hya Bhasha in order for the knowl­edge to reach the right recip­i­ents. Sid­dhar Sat­taimu­ni was well known for not adopt­ing this style. He wrote in a direct lan­guage which any­one could eas­i­ly under­stand. The great Sid­dhar Thiru­mu­lar felt that such direct access was not appro­pri­ate and tore up some works of Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar. The great­ness of Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar is such that he saw that too as the act of Shi­va Peru­man and accept­ed it grace­ful­ly.

The Sid­dhar was an ardent and pious devo­tee of Shi­va Peru­man and used to pil­grim­age to Kailayam (Sacred Kailash Mount). It is said that he was pre­sent­ed a woolen shirt - “kam­bali sat­tai” by Shi­va him­self. Since then, he was called “kailaaya kam­bali sat­taimu­ni” and also as Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar.

There are also extra­or­di­nary accounts of Sat­timu­ni Siddhar’s bhak­thi towards Lord Narayana. It so once hap­pened that Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar once reached Tiru­varangam or Sri­rangam. The Sid­dhar wished to have dar­shan of Lord Aranganathar, the pre­sid­ing deity of the Tiru­varangam Tem­ple. But the tem­ple was closed before he could reach the premis­es. But once Sat­timu­ni Sid­dhar reached the entrance of the tem­ple, he was over­come by a trance and chant­ed thrice the name of the Lord as “Aranga! Aranga! Aranga!”. Mirac­u­lous­ly the bells chimed, drums roared and the tem­ple gates open to receive Sat­timu­ni Sid­dhar.

When peo­ple flocked, they wit­nessed the Sid­dhar stand­ing near­by the deity wear­ing the jew­els that usu­al­ly adorn the mulavar. The priests were shocked, removed the jew­els at once and with sus­pi­cion they pro­duced the Sid­dhar in the court of the king. The king demand­ed an expla­na­tion and he could not believe when the Sid­dhar said it was all but the act of God. When the king absolute­ly refused to believe the great Sid­dhar, Sat­taimuni­nathar invit­ed the king to come along with and see for him­self.

Once they reached the tem­ple premis­es, the same events occurred. Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar was over­come by a trance and chant­ed thrice the name of the Lord as “Aranga! Aranga! Aranga!”. The bells chimed, the drums rolled and the jew­els that adorned the deity mirac­u­lous­ly fell on Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar and adorned him. And that is when every­body real­ized the immense great­ness of Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar. It is also account­ed that Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar just merged into Lord Aranganatha and behold Sri­rangam tem­ple deity as the samad­hi stha­la of Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar.

Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar is also the guru of Pam­bat­ti Sid­dhar (about whom we dis­cussed in our pre­vi­ous arti­cle #2 in Parni­ka Issue #3) and Sun­daranathar. Sat­taimu­ni Siddhar’s lit­er­ary con­tri­bu­tions span anthro­pol­o­gy, med­i­cine, alche­my and direct instruc­tions. His pop­u­lar works include Sat­taimu­ni Nigan­du 1200, Sat­taimu­ni Vaatha Kaaviyam 1000, Sat­taimu­ni Sarakku Vaip­pu 500, Sat­taimu­ni Navarathi­na Vaip­pu 500, Sat­taimu­ni Vagadam 200, Sat­taimu­ni Munpin Gnanam 200, Sat­taimu­ni Karp­pam 100 and Sat­taimu­ni Unmai Vilakkam 51. Here we present to you a few from Sat­taimu­ni Siddhar’s divine words.

Sattaimuni’s work on Sid­dha med­i­cine espe­cial­ly focus­ing on reju­ve­na­tion process is well known and his work “Sat­taimu­ni Karpam ‑100” is fol­lowed by many even now. Also, his works on – Mup­pu and kaya Karpam (uni­ver­sal salt and main­tain­ing youth­ful­ness) is of major impor­tance. As an accom­plished Sid­dha his under­stand as well as mas­tery over life were extra­or­di­nary. For exam­ple, the fol­low­ing the­o­ry of Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar is held to be of high impor­tance in the spheres of Sid­dha Med­i­cine Sys­tem even now.

அண்டத்தில்உள்ளதேபிண்டம், பிண்டத்தில்உள்ளதேஅண்டம்

அண்டமும்,பிண்டமும்ஒன்றேஅறிந்துதான்பார்க்கும்போதMicro­cosm reflects the Macro­cosm; And Macro­cosm reflects the Micro­cosm.

To the One who real­izes, Macro­cosm and Micro­cosm are one and the same.

Based on this under­stand­ing, Saataimu­ni offered us many impor­tant works on Sid­dha med­i­cine which includes famous work such as sat­taimu­ni karp­pam 100, sat­taimu­ni vagadam 200, etc.,

How­ev­er, as a true Sid­dha he nev­er fails to instruct a spir­i­tu­al seek­er on the impor­tance of work towards Mok­sha (Ulti­mate Lib­er­a­tion).

மூலமதி லாறுதலங் கீழே தள்ளி

முதிர்ந்துநின்ற மேலாறு மெடுத்து நோக்கிக்

கோலமுட னுன்மனையைத் தாண்டி யேறிக்

கொடியதொரு ஞானசக்திக் குள்ளேமைந்தா!

பாலமென்ற கேசரியாம் மவுனத் தூன்றிப்

பராபரமாம் மந்திரத்தில் ஞானம் முற்றிக்

காலமொடு பிறப்பிறப்புங் கடந்து போகுங்

கைவிட்ட சூத்திரம்போல் சடமு மோங்கே!!Over­com­ing the Six Chakras below Moolad­hara

And by Slow­ly Ascend­ing the Six oth­er above it,

With Silence as sup­port

And with the Mantra of the Beyond as the Essence;

Like a thread out of hand,

You too will cross Time, Birth and Death

Though he wrote it the poem straight for­ward, with­out any Sand­hya Basha- we still find it dif­fi­cult to grasp the mean­ing of his songs. In the above song, he men­tions Six more chakras below Moolad­hara that we should over­come. As an expert Sid­dha as well as an enlight­ened Yogi. Saataimu­ni tells us the result of a pro­longed Yoga and med­i­ta­tion.

காலமே அல்லாற் கவனங் கொடுப்போம்

ஆலயத் துள்ளே அம்பலங் காணலாம்

வாலையைப் போல வளர்ந்திடுங் தேகம்

ஓலமிட் டாடி வறுபடுங் காயமே Time becomes naught; wor­ry ceas­es.

One can see the hall in the tem­ple

The body shall grow youth­ful

And beau­ti­ful, shout­ing and danc­ing

Like the pre­vi­ous work of the Sid­dhas that we pre­sent­ed in this series Sattaimuni’s work, though straight for­ward in its words, is equal­ly mys­ti­cal in its mean­ing and call us for a deep and pro­found study. We would like to con­clude with a poem in which he explains in mys­ti­cal terms the Leela or the game of this cre­ation of this phe­nom­e­non called Life.

வகுந்திடவே ஒருத்தனுட மகிமை கேளு

மகத்தான பூரணமாம் அதீதக் கொம்பில்

புகுந்துநாற் சரீரமுதல் ஞான மெட்டும்

பாங்கான சங்கிலியை அதிலே பூட்டி

மகிழ்ந்துதெய்வ சதாசிவனே பலகை யாக

மகத்தாம்நால் வேதம்நாற் காலாய்ப் பூட்டித்

தொகுத்ததின்மேல் மனோன்மணித்தா யிருந்த யூசல்

சுற்றினால் ஜெகசாலஞ் சுத்தி னாளே. To divide, lis­ten to the great­ness of the One!

To the branch to the extreme of the macro-whole

Are tied the chains made of four bod­ies

And the eight vari­eties of knowl­edge.

Here SadaShi­va him­self is the joy­ful plank

The plank is raised on the Veda floor

On this well-made seat is seat­ed moth­er Manon­mani

As she swings, the world revolves

In this edi­tion, we have pre­sent­ed a few gems from the works of Sat­taimu­ni Sid­dhar. We invite you to con­tem­plate more on these lines and share with us your insights. We also invite you to share with us lines from Sid­dhar Padal­gal that have deeply touched you. You could write to us at anaadifoundation@gmail.com.

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