The third lingam

There are two places in Thiru where I felt special peace, and one of them is Arulmigu Aranuchaleshwar temple. The other place is the Ashram of Sri Seshadri Swamigal, which spot he reached mahāsamādhi (passed away). Whenever I felt like having some śamatha, always returned to one of these places. He was the saint of the city, though there are no residents alive who could have met him anymore, but their decendants still remember him. During his 40 years in the city many surprising, funny and wonderous stories were born.

A short bio

There is an excellent book edited by S. Ramakrishnan (translated by S. A. Subramanian), so I just give short intro about this incredibly exceptional yogi. He was born in 1870. in Hasthe village close to Kanchipuram as member of the renowned Kamakoti family. His mother, MaragathaDevi was a popular singer, thus Seshádri has sang beautiful songs, ashtakams and stotrams already by the age of 4. He would perform pūjā, sit in meditation and go off into spontaneous trances. He was neither interested in games nor displayed negative characteristics. Due to his extraordinary musical and focusing talent everyone regarded himas a Divine child.

people say there are only three lingams: Ramana Maharshi, Sesadri Swamigal and Arunachal.

An other anecdote sais Ramana replied this smilingly: that there were three mad men in Arunachala. One was Seshadri, the second was Arunachaleswarar and the third was himself. Sri Ramana said of Swamji, 'Sri Seshadri does not allow people to come near him. Here all are coming'. (source)

He got the name Thanga Kai, Golden Hand also at these years. One day he went with his mother to a Vaisakhi festival dedicated to Varadarája Perumal, when traders arrived to the town. The little boy spat out a beautiful Navaníta Krishna made of bronze among the sold goods. He placed his hands on the statues and asked his mother to buy it so he could perform Krishna pūjā. The trader being impressed by the consiouschild, whoresembled to the Krishna image, gave the idol and refused payment. The next day when he saw the boy and his mother again, he proclaimed the boy to be most lucky as the whole consignment of 1,000 statues had been sold in one day (because of the young boy's touch). (Similar story from Tiru - later he lined up a whole textile shop completely on the street, but the owner of the shopleft it all peacefully. Within a year, he had made huge profits.)

Seshadri Swamigal had a very sorrowful childhood, loosing family member one after the other, and had a long difficult time where he had to more and more exclude himself from the worldly activities. By 1889 he was already at Tiruvannamali ready to renounce worldly attachments. He never left the city and the sorrounding area any more.

He was considered among the people as sañcara-dakṣinamūrti, the tantric form of Siva. The word sancara has many meanings: 'moving, passage, passage, ongoing, path, transit, wanderer'. Daksinamurthi is literally 'facing south', which is also one of the victim fires. He never identified himself with the flesh as the appearance of Siva on the earth, but instead lived in complete identity with the transitions that he saw everywhere and in everything.

His behaviour was quite eccentric and unpredictable.. He acted a bit crazy sometimes as people were overwhelming for him. To the earnest seekers he was extremely gentle and considerate. He was blessing people and with just one touch healed diseases.

I will share some of his siddhis (wonderful abilities) here, but to aim these is useless - these can easily become the obstacles of practice. So he was capable of taking other forms, and also appeared to 5-6 followers at a time - who were in different places at the time. He was able to show the heaven and devas. He called upon the powers of rain. With one touch, he realized the innermost self in his followers.

A mysterious yogi

First, my teacher showed me a picture of the holy man who appeared daily in the courtyard of the Sesádri asram. Once after finishing my lunch in Seshadri canteen, going out there was a big crowd. I was fortunate enough to see him live - a strange figure sitting on the floor eating. He was focusing on quick eating gazing downwards. It was such an interesting experience seeing a person without any interest in the common world. I was wondering how similar he was to Sesádri. He looked up exactly at that point - otherwise he hadn't spoken to anyone in years, he was in complete renunciation. Since then, he is allegedly gone, reached mahāsamādhi.

/After Sri Lanka, I have only been back for a few days to talk to an astrologer. He told me unimaginable things, but some clichés too.. I wonder how much will ever come through./