The Yoga of Siddha Tirumular

by T.N. Ganapathy and K.R. Arumugam

This book fulfills a longtime need for a comprehensive introduction and commentary in the English language for one of Yoga's greatest source works: the Tirumandiram or "Holy Garland of Mantras," described by Dr. Georg Feuerstein Ph.D "as important as the Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali, the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga-Vashistha combined."

Tirumandiram is considered to be the greatest and earliest seminal work of the Siddhas, the greatest adepts of Yoga, and an encyclopedia of philosophical and spiritual wisdom rendered inverse form. It is a book of Yoga, tantra, alchemy, mysticism, mantra, yantra and philosophy. But without a commentary, it has been difficult for most English readers, unfamiliar with much of its underlying philosophical concepts, to clearly understand.

This new book explains clearly the most important themes and philosophical concepts which are woven throughout the Tirumandiram. These include: Saivism; the nature of Siva and the relationship which the soul or jiva has with the Lord; the philosophical school of Saiva Siddhantha; the concepts of God, the soul, the world, liberation, the paths to liberation; the bonds or impurities which keep the soul in bondage; the concept of Grace; Love; meditation; jnana; the Yoga of Tirumandiram: Astanga-Yoga, Khecari-yoga, Pariyana-Yoga (tantric yoga), Chandra-Yoga (literally "moon" yoga), Kundalini-Yoga; mysticism, the concept of the human body and its transformation into a divine body; the concept of the guru; the social concerns of the Tirumular.

With an understanding of the basic ideas, the reader will then be stimulated to make a detailed study of the Tirumandiram itself. It is the sixth publication in a series produced by scholars of the Yoga Siddha Research Center, in Chennai, South India, sponsored by Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas and the Yoga Research and Education Center. The present work benefits from the great familiarity which the authors have developed over many years of full time study of much of the massive body of palm leaf manuscripts written by the Siddhas.

Foreword/ Suba. Annamalai

Preface/ T.N. Ganapathy

Guide to Pronunciation in Tamil

1. Introduction/ K.R. Arumugam
2. The Philosophy of the Tirumandiram/ K.R. Arumugam
3. Saivism As Conceived In the Tirumandiram/ K.R. Arumugam
4. The Yoga of the Tirumandiram/ T.R. Ganapathy
5. The Mysticism of the Tirumandmam/ T.N. Ganapathy
6. The Twilight Language of the Tirumandiram/ T.N. Ganapathy
7. The Concept of the Human Body in the Tirumandiram/ T.N. Ganapathy 8. The Concept of Guru in the Tirumandiram/ T.N. Ganapathy
9. The Social Concern of the Tirumandiram/ K.R. Arumugam
10. Conclusion/ T. N. Ganapathy

Appendices

A. The Works That Unduly Claim the Authorship of Tirumular
B. The Categories of Souls
C. The Symbolism of the Dance of Diva
D. A Brief Discussion of the Five 'M’ s: Panca-Makara
E. The Pariyanga-Yoga
F. The Thirty-Six Tattvas
G. The Twilight Terms That Occur In The Tirumandiram

Bibliography
Index

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 Absolut¬ism 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.