Our Link to a Natha Siddhar

Satguru Bodhinatha recently came back from malaysia, and while he was there he visited the samadhi shrine of Natha siddhar Swami Jaganatha in the town of Tapah, where there is currently a renovation going on. We are connected to Swami in a mystical way, and we wrote about it in Hinduism Today in 1987.

Our slideshow today contains a blogpost from http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2013/07/jeganatha-swamigal-jeganatha-swamigal.html

The short article from Hinduism Today is below:

Swami Jaganatha was born in Puri, India, two years after the American War of 1812-a time when the British were establishing a mercantile beachhead in India. He died 145 years later, in 1959, in the emerald jungles of Tapah, Malaysia-his physical home a small, rude hut far from civilization, his spiritual home the infinite realms of Siva consciousness.

He lived in Tapah some 78 years, originally migrating out of India to Burma when he was 18, performing body-numbing tapas (austerities to accelerate soul unfoldment) and finally crossing into Malaysia in his late 60's. Swami Jaganatha was a siddha par excellence of the Natha Sampradaya (tradition of the Siva masters). He left a legacy of pinnacle spiritual achievement for all Malaysia Hindus and a posthumous prophecy of international scope that bore true. Few knew him personally. He mainly strode the corridors of our dream-world, the realities of the Devaloka surrounding this planet.

Finding him was difficult enough even if he inwardly wanted to see you. And the jungle and Japanese soldiers in occupation kept the fainthearted away. But some came. And if they could stand the tests of their own mind they followed Jaganatha as Sat Guru. One such earnest seeker was K.S. Gurusamy Pillai.
Gurusamy Pillai recounts his first meeting: "Some people commented, 'Why do you want to meet the madman who goes about dressed only in a loin cloth and always mumbling to himself!' The hut was almost completely grown over with vines and creepers. The swami asked me to first thank the man who had called him a madman. I sat on a low table. Then swami locked the door. Soon after, the swami disappeared and a cobra descended from the ceiling hissing loudly and, strangely, the hissing sounded like Aum. I was in great fear. Then the swami appeared, and the snake coiled back up to the roof and out of sight."
Three months later Gurusamy Pillai revisited Jaganatha. The swami asked Pillai to write to a close disciple in Sri Lanka telling him to go see Yogaswami (a renowned Sat Guru of the Natha Sampradaya who died in 1964). Then Jaganatha predicted another "soul" from America called Subramuniya would come. "He would reside in Hawaii. Subramuniya will travel around the world and everyone will receive his darshan. Then I, too, will join him," the swami declared. And indeed Sivaya Subramuniya, born in America, look Yogaswami as his guru, founded Saiva Siddhanta Church (headquarters in Hawaii) and travels annually from the West to the East.

At the age of eighteen, Swami left for Chittagong in Burma. Later at thirty, he tracked down to Malaya through Thailand. He worked as a brakeman in the Malayan Railways. He was based in Tanjong Malim for four years. Later he lived in Baling for eight years. The locals there saw him as a spiritual man and addressed him as Swami.

Then he went on a pilgrimage to Singapore. Enroute he stopped at Taiping, where he was mistaken as a spy by the Burmese security forces loyal to the British in Malaya and put behind bars. Surprisingly he was released the next day without any interrogation.

Satguru poses next to the renovation poster

At Seremban too, people began to take notice of his spiritual nature. He moved on to Teluk Anson where he undertook charity and fed the poor. Finally, he settled in Tapah. He built a hut for himself near a Chinese graveyard and continued his sadhana and tapas or austerity here.

eganatha Swamigal purchased three acres of rubber land in the vicinity and allowed the locals to build their homes on his land. He lived a simple life never making himself and his powers known to others. He lived alone. Often he used to be seen in loincloth and people made fun of him calling him a lunatic. When he went out, he dressed like Ramalinga Adigal. It is said that he never took a bath but there was always a sweet aroma around him.

Swamigal went into samadhi at 4.30 am on 25 January 1959 in Tapah. Jeganathar chose a full moon and a Thaipusam day to go into samadhi. An eyewitness mentions that a flash of light was seen at that moment emerging from his samadhi.

A shivalingam was installed above his samadhi. The locals collected funds to build a Siva Temple. In 1980, N. Arumugam Pillai of Penang built a small hall. Later in 1990, A.V. Pasupathy Pillai of Malacca renovated the Siva temple. Now there is a temple for Lord Siva with a lingam erected above his samadhi.

Jeganathar lived for 145 years. He had three disciples:Chitramuthu Adigalfrom Panaikulam, India, Veemavar from Indonesia, and Sathyananthar of Sudha Samajam, Malaya.

}

];