Who is Ramalinga Swami?

Saturday, 30 October 2010

Who is Ramalinga Swami?

Ramalinga Swami of Tamil Nadu, South India, also known as Ramalingaswami, Ramalingaswamigal, Ramalinga Adigal, or simply 'Vallalar' was, or is, in many ways a unique saint in the world's history of spirituality. Not only did he seek 'Enlightenment', or 'Self-Realisation' as a form of 'Supreme Understanding' through total transformation of the psyche, but also, quite literally he sought 'En-Lightenment' as a total transformation of all aspects of one's existence - including of one's physical body, by opening to the graceful power of the Divine, represented by 'Divine Light'.

It is believed that through his total surrender to the Divine Light of Grace, or 'Supreme Grace-Light' ('Arutperunjyothi', in Tamil) his body gradually lost its 'density' and he took on the vibration of Spirit - the Pure Light of Consciousness - and thus in 1874, he finally 'ascended' or 'expanded' his mind and body infinitely... and entered "all the bodies of His creation".

Ramalinga is considered to be a recent example of a Self-Realised Siddha, the likes of which have appeared in the region of Tamil Nadu over the centuries, and even over thousands of years, as related in the life-stories and teachings of the '18 Tamil Siddhas'.

For more information on the Tamil Siddhas, including material that is being translated and published in English for the first time, see the books of 'Babaji's Kriya Yoga Publications', such as:
- 'The Yoga of Siddha Avvai'
- 'The Yoga of the 18 Siddhas: An Anthology'
- 'The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar' - volumes 1 and 2
- 'The Yoga of Tirumular - Essays on the Tirumandiram'
- 'Thirumandiram - A Classic of Yoga and Tantra'
- 'Nine Tandirams on the Tirumandiram'
- 'The Poets of the Powers'
and the following book has a chapter dedicated to Ramalinga Swami:
- 'Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition', by M.G. Satchidananda (Marshall Govindan)

The following site gives some details of Ramalinga's life - his teachings on Union with Divine Love and Divine Intelligence and Divine Light through compassion and service to all beings, his miracles and his total merging with the Source:
http://www.arutperumjothi.com/

3 comments:

Peter Littlejohn Cook24 February 2011 at 23:35
Thanks for bringing up Kriya Yoga...

Kriya Yoga was not exactly 're-introduced' by Yoganandaji as he was representing a lineage of teachers and was passing on a set of practices that had already been 'introduced' by them.

Being probably the most well-known Yogi in the West, it could be said that he introduced Kriya Yoga to the West.
Yogananda also made some adaptations to some of the Kriyas for Westerners as he felt that there was a difficulty for them to practice the original forms.

It would perhaps be more correct to say that Babaji reintroduced a specific set of Kriya Yoga practices through Lahiri Mahasaya (who was Yogananda's teacher's teacher).

Since then, there have been many Kriya teachers and schools that have come down from this lineage that began with Lahiri Mahasaya.

Paramahamsa Yogananda is perhaps still the most well-known representative of the Kriya teachings, due to his best-selling book 'Autobiography of a Yogi' and the organisation that he founded - the 'Self-Realization Fellowship' (or 'SRF').

Kriya Yoga practices are also taught within other lineages, although these other lineages may not call the practices 'Kriya Yoga'.

For example Sivananda's student Swami Satyananda Saraswati has taught and authored books that explain many Kriya techniques - these being in fact common to many Kundalini-oriented practices.
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Sivamjothi27 October 2011 at 18:04
http://sagakalvi.blogspot.com/2011/10/self-realization.html

திருவடி தீக்ஷை(Self realization)
இந்த வீடியோவை முழுமையாக பாருங்கள். இது அனைவருக்கும் தேவையானது.நாம் நிலையிள்ளத உடம்பு மனதை "நான்" என்று நம்பி இருக்கிறோம். சிவசெல்வராஜ் அய்யாவின் உரையை முழுமையாக கேட்கவும்.

Please follow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y70Kw9Cz8kk (PART-1)

(First 2 mins audio may not be clear... sorry for that)

(PART-2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCAogxgG_G4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOF51gv5uCo (PART-3)

Online Books
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http://www.vallalyaar.com/?p=409 - Tamil
http://www.vallalyaar.com/?p=975 - English
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Sivamjothi5 October 2012 at 18:31
Actual place of Kundalini is not at end of spine... please read this .... Hidden secrets are revealed...

who is guru? how guru helps? in the way of siddhas
http://deathlesseducation.blogspot.in/2012/10/who-is-guru.html

The meaning of the word deekshai is initiation. When a human does become a real
human being? If one gets father and mother is not human being!

Only when he gets guru he is human! With human body, he obtains maturity in the mind, becomes a real human only after getting a gnana guru.
http://deathlesseducation.blogspot.in/2012/10/what-is-thiruvadi-deekshai-how-guru.html

More details
www.vallalyaar.com
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My work is essentially the same as all teachers of Self-Realisation – to gently guide the attention of the enquirer to the ever-present nature of the Self – to 'Pure Being'.

I do not claim to be a Master, a Guru or an 'expert'... I do not claim to hold the authority of any spiritual lineage or academic institution.

My work is simply to encourage a dissolution of the story about the self to reveal thePresence of the Self.

I do not rely on any one specific technique.

No 'technique' or 'mechanism' is required for Self-realisation.

Many spiritual traditions are referred to in my work, but ultimately all ideas and teachings must be dropped in order to embrace the fullness of the Self, unconditionally.

The Self is revealing itsSelf at every moment. The awakening to this truth is Self-Realisation. It is not a stage or state to attain... It is eternally taking place. It is all that ever happens.

This is why zen and radical advaita traditions simply refer us back to the present moment, and to the everyday beauty, the mundane, the 'insignificant'... Because it is All Arising in Consciousness Here Now. Consciousness is the Root of All that Is...

Even the question, “What do I need to do to attain Self-realisation?” is just arising spontaneously in Consciousness... and doesn't require an answer...

The only thing that distinguishes our consciousness from 'Pure Unconditioned Consciousness' is our feeling that something 'else' needs to happen before we can be 'complete'/'saved'/'forgiven'... It is this feeling that weaves a web of identity around the stories that our thoughts provide.

Without this feeling, thoughts just arise and subside...

And the vastness of the Self remains clearly untouched... unstained...

The 'Mystique' and 'Mystification' of Enlightenment and Liberation... Enlightenment in 'No Time'

The mystification of spirituality has left us culturally-conditioned to believe that spirituality is something that requires special and different conditions from the ones that we have here and now.
Enlightenment is not about developing, or improving yourself or attaining some state…
Enlightenment is an idea… that falls away when we drop the search, in peace and acceptance of the fullness of all that Is.

"There is no such thing as 'Enlightenment'... Understanding this is Enlightenment itself."
- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Self-realisation through de-conditioning

"The methods and lifestyles developed by the Indian philosophical and spiritual geniuses over a period of at least five millennia all have one and the same purpose: to help us break through the habit patterns of our ordinary consciousness and to realise our identity (or at least union) with the perennial Reality.

India's great traditions of psychospiritual growth understand themselves as paths of liberation. Their goal is to liberate us from our conventional conditioning and hence also free us from suffering, because suffering is a product of our unconscious conditioning. In other words, they are avenues to God-realization, or Self-realization, which is an utterly blissful condition.

God, in this sense [...] is the transcendental totality of existence, which in the nondualist schools of Hinduism is referred to as brahman, or "Absolute." That Absolute is regarded as the essential nature, the transcendental Self, underlying the human personality. Hence, when the unconscious conditioning by which we experience ourselves as independent, isolated egos is removed, we realise that at the core of our being we are all that same One."

- Greg Fueurstein ('The Yoga Tradition')

Advaita Siddhanta

Advaita Siddhanta: (Sanskrit) "Nondual perfect conclusions." Saivite philosophy codified in the Agamas which has at its core the nondual (advaitic) identity of God, soul and world. This monistic-theistic philosophy, unlike the Shankara, or Smarta view, holds that maya (the principle of manifestation) is not an obstacle to God Realization, but God's own power and presence guiding the soul's evolution to perfection. While Advaita Vedanta stresses Upanishadic philosophy, Advaita Siddhanta adds to this a strong emphasis on internal and external worship, yoga sadhanas and tapas. Advaita Siddhanta is a term used in South India to distinguish Tirumular's school from the pluralistic Siddhanta of Meykandar and Aghorasiva. This unified Vedic-Agamic doctrine is also known as Shuddha Saiva Siddhanta.

Siddha Siddhanta

Siddha Siddhanta: (Sanskrit) Siddha Siddhanta, also called Gorakhnatha Saivism, is generally considered to have come in the lineage of the earlier ascetic orders of India. Its most well-known preceptor was Gorakshanatha (ca 1000) a disciple of Matsyendranatha, patron saint of Nepal, revered by certain esoteric Buddhist schools as well as by Hindus.

The school systematized and developed the practice of hatha yoga to a remarkable degree. Indeed, nearly all of what is today taught about hatha yoga comes from this school. Among its central texts are Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Svatmarama, Gheranda Samhita, Siva Samhita and Jnanamrita. Siddha Siddhanta theology embraces both transcendent Siva (being) and immanent Siva (becoming). Siva is both the efficient and material cause of the universe. Devotion is expressed through temple worship and pilgrimage, with the central focus on internal worship and kundalini yoga, with the goal of realizing Parasamvid, the supreme transcendent state of Siva.

Today there are perhaps 750,000 adherents of Siddha Siddhanta Saivism, who are often understood as Shaktas or advaita tantrics. The school fans out through India, but is most prominent in North India and Nepal. Devotees are called yogis, and stress is placed on world renunciation - even for householders. This sect is also most commonly known as Natha, the Gorakshapantha and Siddha Yogi Sampradaya. Other names include Adinatha Sampradaya, Nathamatha and Siddhamarga.

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Saturday, 30 October 2010

Who is Ramalinga Swami?

3 comments: