The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar (Vol. 1)

by T.N. Ganapathy

The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar" by T.N. Ganapathy, Ph. D., is the first in a series of publications produced by the Yoga Siddha Research Project sponsored by Babaji`s Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas and Yoga Research and Education Center. Boganathar was the Siddha guru of Kriya Babaji Nagaraj, the famed Himalayan master, of whom much has been written. Boganathar lived an extremely long life through the use of alchemical rejuvenation formulae and special breathing techniques. He traveled all over the world, chronicled the lives of Siddhas much older than himself, and provided his disciples an illumined path to Self-realization and integral transformation of human nature into divinity. His astounding life provides a shining example of our human potential. The present work provides a biography of Boganathar, as we can glean it from his writings alone, as well as introductory chapters on the Siddha tradition and Kundalini Yoga.

The present work also provides a translation and commentary of about seventy-five selected poems, which serious students of all traditions of Kundalini Yoga and Tantra will find illuminating. By meditating upon the verses, the reader will be able to draw much inspiration. The present work provides a word-by-word translation, with alternative meanings, as well as a literal translation, and finally an interpretative translation, to balance the need for precision and understanding and to facilitate a deeper meditative approach to the various layers of meaning of each verse. "The Yoga traditions of India have been frequently neglected. This book, the first in a new series, seeks to remedy this situation. Dr Ganapathy and his team have labored hard to launch this series, and they do so with one of the most illustrious masters of Siddha Yoga - Bogar. This volume is a great starting point for exploring the Tantric Yoga of the Siddhas." - Georg Feuerstein, Ph. D., author of "The Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga.

Contents:

• Foreword
• Preface
• Notes on Translation
• Guide to Pronunciation in Tamil
• Chapters:
  1. Introduction: The Basic Difficulties
  2. The Kundalini-Yoga
  3. The Life of bogar and his Teachings
  4. Translation of Selected Poem of Bogar with Commentary
• Jnanacuttiram-1
• Civayoga Jnanam-12
• Samadi Diksai-10
• Tirumandira Jnanam-12
• Jnana Pujavidi-13
• Astanga Yogam-24
• Meyjnana Bodam-2
• Notes
• Appendices:
  1. Places of Birth of the Siddhas
  2. Longevity of the Siddhas
  3. Month and Birth Star of the Siddhas
  4. Caste and Generation of the Siddhas
  5. Picture of the Eighteen Siddhas
  6. The Six Adharas as Understood by the Siddhas
  7. Cakras and Anatomical Identifications
  8. The Sixty-Four Arts and Sciences
  9. Sri Cakra
  10. The Pulippani Tradition
  11. Copper Plate Decree
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index

About the Author:

Professor T.N. Ganapathy born in the village of Tandankurai in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, in the year 1932. He acquiring his doctorate degree from the Nagpur University in the year 1972. Prof. T.N. Ganapathy retired as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai, after thirty nine years of distinguished service as a teacher of Philosophy. He has studied the works of the Siddhas since 1975. He was awarded the Senior Fellowship by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi, for three years, 1985-1988. His work for this project on The Philosophy of the Tamil Siddhas was published in the year 1993.

Acknowledged as a specialist in Siddha philosophy, he is at present the Director of the Yoga Siddha Research Project at Chennai, India, co-sponsored by the Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas, Inc., Canada and the Yoga Research and Education Center, in California, USA. He was the Founder-Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Philosophical Society and was also the Joint Secretary for three years and Treasurer for three years of the Indian Philosophical Congress from 1979 to 1985. He has attended several seminars in India and one at USA. He has got more than 30 research papers published in the leading journals in India and Germany and is acknowledged as a specialist in Immanuel Kant. He is the author of: An Invitation to Logic (1972); Perspectives of Theism and Absolutism in Indian Philosophy (Ed. 1978); Mahavakyas (1982); Bertrand Russell's Philosophy of Sense-data (1984); The Philosophy of the Tamil Siddhas (1993); The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar, Vol. I (2003); Vol. II (2004); A Pocket Guide to Thesis Writing(2003); Tamil-c-cittar Marabu (Tamil) (2004); The Yoga of the 18 Siddhas: An Anthology (Ed. 2004); The Yoga of Siddha Avvai (Ed. 2004). For this project he is translating the Yoga works of Bogar into English, and under his directorship an anthology of Siddha poems is in progress to be released in December 2003.