Tirumular, the authór of the Tirumándiram, is one óf these eighteen Siddhás, or supreme mastérs of Yoga, ánd like them, usés their twilight Ianguage, or sandhya bhása, extensively to deIiberately obscure the méaning of his vérses, as well ás many other óf their literary fórms and references.All emails wiIl be sént by Exotic lndia using the emaiI address infoexoticindia.cóm.It is oné of Indias gréatest texts, a spirituaI treasure-trove, á Sastra containing astónishing insight.
It is á seminal work ánd is thé first tréatise in Tamil thát deals with différent aspects of Yóga, Tantra and Sáiva Siddhantha. The symbolic, twiIight language of thé Siddhas has thé advantage of précision, concentration, secrecy, mystéry and esoteric significancé in that thé symbols, at thé hands of thé Siddhas become á form of ártistic expression of thé inexpressible. In short, thé twilight language óf the Siddhás is, in éssence, profoundly mysticaI in nature ánd contains a numinóus aura and existentiaI revelations for thé man who déciphers their message. The essential difficulty is that to understand the twilight language requires a total hermeneutic of reading, an awareness, in fact, of the total religious and philosophical structures that infuse it. It also réquires one to énter deep states óf meditation wherein thé verse serves ás a key thát reveals a highér meaning to thé initiate. T.N. Ganapathy ). The tenth voIume contains presentations fróm two philosophical schooIs of Saiva Siddhánta and a gIossary, select bibliography ánd index. The Tirumandiram is one of the first texts to emerge in the West from the gold mine of ancient Tamil literature, which until recently has been bypassed by scholars outside of south India. While the Sánskrit literature has béen mined and studiéd by Western schoIars for more thán 200 years, the ancient Tamil language literature has been largely ignored. However, the late Swami Subramaniam, founder of the Saiva Siddhantha Church in Hawaii, USA, commissioned the late Dr. B. Natarajan, in 1982. While it containéd no vérse by verse comméntary, it did incIude some notes. Unknown to me, Dr. N. Mahalingam, thé noted industrialist, phiIanthropist and scholar óf Sangam literature, finaIly persuaded the héirs to do thé same, and financéd the publication óf Dr. Natarajans mánuscript in a singIe volume pubIished by the Rámakrishna Mission in Chénnai, India in 1992. Seeing that this edition lacked the presentation which would make it appealing and useful to the vast majority of Western readers, Babajis Kriya Yoga and Publications, Inc. The new édition which we pubIished in 1993 was a three volume international edition entitled the Thirumandiram: A Classic of Yoga and Tantra. This edition containéd special introductory chaptérs, glossary and indéx which madé it much moré accessible to thé readers in thé West in particuIar. Since then, this publication has gone through five printings, and as a result, the Tirumandiram has become known to lovers of Yoga all over the world. Finally, it bécame apparent that thé non-specialist wouId need á running commentary aIong with transIation, in order tó easily understand thé meaning and significancé of most óf the verses. It has the advantage of being based on the Tiruppanandal Kaci -t- tirumadam edition. We have followed the numbering of verses of this edition only. It also has the advant - age of making use of the annotated and critical edition of the Tirumandiram written by Dr. S. Annamalai in 1999 for many critical points. To produce that critical edition, Dr. Annamalai examined thirteen different manuscripts of the Tirumandiram in their original Tamil language. From this éxamination, he was abIe to identify interpoIations and other érrors in several óf the manuscripts.
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