Siddhars

I recently came across an interesting little book called "Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Masters" by Marshall Govindan. Anyhow, it has brought Siddhars to my attention again. These are Masters who were (are) prevalent in the Tamil Nadu area of India (south east). One of the most renowned is Agastya who in many circles is held to be an Avatar. Here is the wikipedia on Siddhars.

Siddhars are saints in India, mostly of the Saivaite denomination in Tamil Nadu, who professed and practised an unorthodox type of Sadhana, or spiritual practice, to attain liberation. Yogic powers called Siddhis are acquired by constant practice of certain yogic disciplines. Those who acquire these Siddhis are called Siddhas.[1] Siddhars are people who are believed to control and transcend the barriers of time and space by meditation (Yoga), after the use of substances called Rasayanas that transform the body to make it potentially deathless, and a particular breathing-practice, a type of Pranayama. Through their practices they are believed to have reached stages of insight which enabled them to tune into the powers hidden in various material substances and practices, useful for suffering and ignorant mankind. Typically Siddhars were saints, doctors, alchemists and mysticists all at once. They wrote their findings, in the form of poems in Tamil language, on palm leaf which are collected and stored in what are known today as Palm leaf manuscript, today still owned by private families in Tamil Nadu and handed down through the generations, as well as public institutions such as Universities the world over (India, Germany, Great Britain, U.S.A.).
In this way Siddhars developed, among other branches of a vast knowledge-system, what is now known as Siddha medicine, practised mainly in Tamil Nadu as Traditional native medicine. A rustic form of healing that is similar to Siddha medicine has since been practised by experienced elderly in the villages of Tamil Nadu, and is popularly known as Paatti Vaitthiyam, Naattu marunthu and Mooligai marutthuvam They are also founders of Varmam - a martial art for self-defence and medical treatment at the same time. Varmams are specific points located in the human body which when pressed in different ways can give various results, such as disabling an attacker in self-defence, or balancing a physical condition as an easy first-aid medical treatment.
Siddhars have also written many religious poems. It is believed that most of them have lived for ages, in a mystic mountain called Sathuragiri, near Thanipparai village in Tamil Nadu
One of the best-known Siddhars was Agasthyar or Agasthya, who is believed to be the founding father of Siddha culture.
Abithana Chintamani states Siddhars are either of the 9 or 18 persons enlisted, but sage Agastyar states that there are many who precede these and follow 9 or 18 persons. Many of the great Siddhars are regarded to have powers magical and spiritual.

I get excited even reading the wikipedia about these Masters. One thing that certainly wasn't stressed in the wikipedia is the physical immortality of some of these Siddhas (course I am not aware of personally meeting any of them, so I can't attest). I do however feel this is so and that immortality is a possibility for every human being. There is nothing that says our cells have to age and die, there is nothing that says they have to lose their functioning. It is our thoughts that kill us (self judgment, fight or flight off the charts, useless unproductive self defeating thinking). Anyhow an interesting book on that subject is entitles the Immortal Cell and a wonderful book (that personally opened me up to the notion that the path of Expanding Consciousness could be filled with Love) to read about different Saints, Masters, and Yogis is Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi. That is it for this post!