The Yoga of Siddha Avvai

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The Yoga of Siddha Avvai

Avvai is considered to be one of the most influential sages among the Tamil speaking  people of south India. Her poems and literary works, dating from the first millennium of  the modern era are recited by millions of Tamil speaking school children in south Asia to  this day. A huge statue of her stands along Marina Beach Drive, in Chennai, along the  shore of the Indian Ocean. The values and wisdom which her poems convey, however,  has a source. It is this source which the present volume, The Yoga of Siddha Avvai, sheds  much new light upon with the inclusion of her text Vinayakar Akaval. The author takes us on a literary, historical and spiritual tour of ancient Indian culture, and in so doing, helps us to understand her origins and greatness.

Like her illustrious forebearer, the Siddha Tiruvalluvar, whose influence on Tamil culture  and values, through his classic Tirukkural, is universally acknowledged, Avvai was also a  Siddha Yogi. While Tiruvalluvar was a disciple of Agastyar, and brother disciple of Babaii  Nagaraj, the originator of Kriya Yoga, Avvai claims that her Guru was the sound of Aum,  the Pranava itself, personified in the form of Ganesa, who taught her Kundalini-Yoga. Her poetry invokes the presence of the Guru, and then ignites within the reader the flame of  spiritual consciousness.

It also points to the esoteric practice of Kundalini-Yoga as the path that leads to  enlightenment and God realization. Her’s is a wonderful example of arrupadai, the  Siddhals ideal of showing the path to others. If the purpose of human knowledge is to  alleviate human suffering, then that knowledge or wisdom which eliminates suffering  completely is the most valuable. Like all of the Siddhas, she shared her wisdom with this  purpose. Their teachings are universal, non-sectarian, and very much needed in today’s  suffering world.

Students of Kriya-Yoga, Kundalini-Yoga, Jnana, and Tantra as well as devotees of Ganesa  (Vinayakar) and students of Tamil literature and culture will all find much insight and  greater understanding of their path as a result of studying this volume. Readers familiar  with Avvails moral sayings may be surprised to learn of the origins of her wisdom, and be inspired to apply themselves to Yogic sadhana.