Bogar, twilight language

I took these photos yesterday. Hard getting the right angle and lighting with a sunny background, particularly for a profile pic where you look away with arm extended.

I have been reading The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar' but I lose interest often as it is obscure, technical and repetitive. However as it was written by a Siddha it has another advantage. I feel often lots of energy in my body regardless of intellectual comprehension. Last evening I went through several verses, first in Tamil transliterated, then translated word for word, then a literal translation of the whole verse, a summary and finally a commentary. So obviously not like reading nice poetry. But afterwards I felt such an enrgy surge in my body that I was tired enough to take a nap. I woke at quarter to nine, turned on the TV in the middle of the film I had wanted to see and it was obviously emotionally relevant. So basically I saw there spiritual guidance in a current personal problem. So intellectual understanding is not crtical to deeper understanding, rather absorption. This is true generally in life and we call it intuition. 

Verse 130 translation

Being united with the three paths in the three empty spaces,

With concentration you join the three and be delighted; 

Seek and experience the four comprised within; 

In goodness open space will be perceived fit for salvation;

Experience the letters in the petals of the flower;

Ascend and pass through three empty spaces;

Praise in the body the mother Manonmani;

She will bestow with the delightful nectar.

Three paths = ida, pingali, susumna

Three empty spaces = A, U, M

Join the three and be delighted , ' the three' = Muppal (3 eternal spaces)from verse 124 =#1 =five elements(earth, air, fire, water,ether); # 2 = attainment of siddhis by kundalini arousal through chakras and attainment of rainbow body or 'siddhi deha'; #3 = acheivement of pranava-tanu (pranava is aum) body becomes aum form, one is a jivan mukti, liberated in this life.

The four refers to the 4th state of consciousness, namely 'turiya' after consciousness, dream state and dreamless sleep. Again the 3 empty spaces, i.e. A, U, M are referenced. These take you up through the chakras (50 letters of the petals of the flower). The mother Manonmani, goddess is experienced through the chakras, upon reaching sahasrara one enjoys the blissful nectar of liberation.

I paraphrased the author's explanations here. As one sees it is rather technical and the authors of the original texts were careful to conceal their meaning from the uninitiated by using so-called 'twilight language'. This was typical throughout history. Anyone familiar with astrology for example knows the odd symbols for the planets, constellations, which were secret, used to protect practitioners from inquisition.

Many take up yoga as sport nowadays. Others start down the path of meditaton. Some go further, becoming initiates into kundalini yoga techniques through various schools. Generally important here is a respected lineage, i.e. an unbroken guru lineage going back, often hundreds or thousands of years purportedly, back to shiva himself supposedly, with oftentimes the claim of immortal sat-gurus in the himalayas who watch over us as 'guardian angels' in the background. One must be aware that even in India itself this is controversial. Siddhas were sen as iconoclasts, even atheists. Normal ritual like our church services and holy texts sufficed as always for the broad masses of the population. Actually experiencing the nectar of sahasrara(crown chakra) and having other such direct spiritual contact was seen as circumventing authority. Many nowadays speculate that Jesus was initiated, perhaps in Egypt, and had such powers from this source of initiation into the chakras. However the Roman curch under emperor Constantine and the bishops repressed any initiatory religion in that sense, killing off access to direct spirituality. I recall reading a biography of Theresa of Avila, who was also acquainted with St. John of the Cross(''dark night of the soul' ) and in Spain before the reformation and the inquisition became prominent as a counterreaction it was common for people to go into trance pondering god or the virgin Mary. In that book they describe how Thersa's everyman brother did this. The counterreformation killed that off, similar to Constantine over a 1000 years before. I recall the falun gong movement and its brutal repression as a political threat recently in China and the consrvative jihadist attacks on sufi congregations in Egypt, Pakistan. So this reaction against direct spirituality is fairly universal as is the use of 'twilight language' to disguise it.