Ramalinga Swamigal

Ramalinga Swamigal (also: Ramalinga Swamy , Iramalinka Atikal ; born October 5, 1823 in Maratur , Chidambaram , Tamil Nadu ; disappeared January 30, 1874 ) was a Tamil Shivait , poet, author, preacher and ultimately saint. He spent the whole of his life preaching and spreading his teachings, especially the samarasa suddha sanmarga sathiya sangam , the equality and unity of all living beings, with which he also turned directly against the caste system.

Life

Even as a child, great deeds were foretold by a yogi. After having read up on Tamil works on Shaivism at an early age , he is reluctant to receive classical training from his older brother, who brings him up after the death of his father. Therefore he spends a lot of time in the nearby temple and in his room, where he meditates in front of a mirror. Here he has his first spiritual meditative experiences as well as his first visions.

Career

In 1858, at the age of 35, he left Chennai and went to Karunkuli , where he immediately began writing his first literary works and preaching his teachings, which helped him to get his first students. He is also said to have had the first miracles here; he is said to have converted an unbeliever and healed a blind man. Furthermore, his teachings of Jivakarunyam , which prescribes love and compassion towards all living beings and thus also prohibits eating meat or religious offerings, and the sanmarga (right path), which the way to a glorious life without death and thus becoming one with Shiva points out. In 1865 he finally fulfilled his vision of equality and unity between all people and founded the Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Sathiya Sangam , a group of like-minded followers of Ramalinga that is open to everyone. The four basic rules were:

• Learning, keeping and preaching the Jivakarunyam
• the killing of living beings, ritual offerings and the cremating of the dead were forbidden, and absolute vegetarianism was the rule
• Equality and unity of all ( oneness of all ), Ramalinga turns against the caste system and the discrimination that goes with it
• The aim of all members is to achieve eternal life without death ( sanmarga )

With this, Ramalinga was also strongly committed to social tasks, so in addition to his commitment against the caste system, he had a house for the poor (the Sathya Dharma Salai ) built in Parvatipuram in 1867 . Some of his students also published his first book, Tiruvarupta , a collection of 7000 of his poems. In 1871 he built in Vadalur the temple Satya Gnana Sabai however ( "Hall of true wisdom") for the Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga, this was the year after already close again. He then withdrew further and further from public life until, from November 1873, he only left his room sporadically.

Disappeared January 30, 1874

After his retreat, he gave his last speech to his students on October 22nd, 1873, in which he asked them to believe in the supernatural and to meditate by the lamp he placed in front of his room. On January 30, 1874, he instructed his students to lock him in his room and not to open it again. Even if they did, nothing would be found. As rumors of his disappearance began to spread, the Indian government ordered the door to be forcibly opened in May 1875. When the room was entered, however, there was nothing in it, there were no traces of a corpse or an escape from the room.

Today there are various theories about its disappearance. While critics, among them especially Orthodox Shivaites, argue that he could no longer maintain his hypocritical lying image as a miracle-maker and therefore had to go into hiding, also disappointed in the behavior of his students, in the opinion of his former students he is one according to his teachings become with Shiva. So he reached the highest level of sanmarga and thus rose in the light to reach the same level as Lord Shiva. In addition, shortly before he was locked in, he said that he would come back one day when he had preached to the people in other countries.

Alleged physical transformation

In the course of his life, Ramalinga is said to have achieved three transformations of his body. First of all from a normal human body to the "perfect" or "pure" body ( perfect or pure body ), which is invulnerable to all external influences and thus immortality. Next, he transformed the "delicate" or "golden" body ( grace or golden body ), which he untouchable while ruler of all Siddhi was. In the end he succeeded in attaining the "blessed" or "Om" body ( bliss or Om body ), which makes him omnipresent, but invisible and untouchable at the same time. It is said that several attempts were made to photograph him, but each time it failed because he was simply not to be seen in the photos. By entering into the light, he reached a state that is comparable to the body of Shiva, and thus places him on a new, outstanding level with Shiva.

Ramalinga as Siddha

Ramalinga referred to himself as Siddha in several of his poems, i.e. someone who, through perfect training, had succeeded in acquiring superhuman abilities, so-called Siddhis . Therefore, he is said to have been able to resuscitate the dead, to be immortal himself, to produce gold and to heal people, among other things. He is also credited with an enormous auto-didactism and the ability to predict the future.

Aftermath

After his disappearance, Ramalinga Swamigal and his teachings served a group of Tamil scholars, among them above all JM Nallaswami Pillai and his former student Maraimalai Atikal , as the leader in founding the Saiva Siddhanta Samaj , a group with the aim of creating a new, radical Shivaism ( Shaiva Siddhanta ) as a Tamil religion. Here Ramalinga acted as supreme saint and his doctrine of "equality and unity of all living beings" as a formal principle, which was, however, generously disregarded in the later course, since people of lower castes and other religions were denied membership. This movement later led to a strongly nationalist pro-Tamil movement ( Pure Tamil Movement ), which eventually culminated in the founding of the Justice Party .

Works

• Thiruvarupta , collection of 7000 of his poems
• Manumurai Kanda Vaasagam , the narrative of the life of Manu Needhi Cholan

literature

• Michael Bergunder : Saiva Siddhanta as a universal religion , in: Bergunder, Michael; Frese, Heiko; Schröder, Ulrike (ed.) Ritual, Caste and Religion in Colonial South India , Halle: Verlag der Francke Foundations, pp. 30–88. 2010.
• FRANCIS, Dayanandan T. (2006) Tamil Saivism and the transcending message of Ramalinga Swamy , Chennai: Institute of Asian Studies
• NEHRING, Andreas (2010) Performing the revival: Performance and performativity in a colonial discourse in South India , in: Bergunder, Michael; Frese, Heiko; Schröder, Ulrike (ed.) Ritual, Caste and Religion in Colonial South India , Halle: Verlag der Francke Foundations, pp. 12–29
• RAMAN, Srilata (2002) Departure and Prophecy: the disappearance of Iramalinka Atikal in the early narratives of his life (Indologica Taurinensia, 28) pp. 179-203
• VAITHEESPARA, Ravi (2012) Re-Inscribing Religion as Nation: Naveenar-Caivar (Modern Saivites) and the Dravidian Movement (South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 35,4) pp. 767-768