WHY IS SHIVA CALLED ADIYOGI?

WHY IS SHIVA CALLED ADIYOGI?

One who is getting connected with Adi is Adi Yogi. Adi
means the origin. Shiva is considered as the Adi Yogi
and the Adi Guru, as He is the foremost among the
yogis and He is the one who initiated the human race
into the practice of Yoga.

It is said that over 15,000 years ago, after intense
penance on the mighty Himalayas for several years,
Shiva came out and began Ananda Nrithya or
“ecstatic dance” after having understood the blissful
“essence of Yoga.” People during that period had the
merits to get a glimpse of Shiva in is His Ecstatic Blissful
state.

 Some people waited for months and then left.
Only seven hardcore seekers waited patiently for several
years to learn Shiva’s teachings of Yoga. These seven
seekers (later known to become Saptarishis) pleaded
and begged to Shiva for sharing the ultimate knowledge

of Yoga, but He continued to be in intense
Sadhana(practice). Finally, after 84 years, he decided
to become a Guru and accepted those seven seekers as
his disciples. It was a full moon day when the Adiyogi
transformed himself into the Adi Guru. The first Guru
was born this day, this day came to be known as Guru
Pournima.

The first part of Shiva's teaching was to Parvati, his
wife. It was taught in a certain intimacy. In great detail,
and in very gentle ways, Shiva expounded the ways of
yoga to Devi. The yoga sutras of Shiva are such that
almost in every sutra, he refers to her as the
resplendent one, the gracious one, the beautiful one. So
this teaching transpired between two people with
utmost intimacy.


After that, only the teachings of yoga was imparted to
the seven disciples. The seven disciples were taken to
Kanti Sarovar to start teaching a systematic exposition
of yoga in a scientific manner.

He began propounding  the whole mechanics of life experientially rather than as
a philosophy. The whole system of creation was
explored and how yoga as a technology can help every
human being to evolve himself beyond his present
limitations and compulsions. The process of
transmission of the knowledge continued for several
years, until the seven seekers became fully enlightened
beings, and celebrated as the Saptarishis.

Adiyogi then sent each one of them to different parts of the
world.
They became the limbs of Shiva, taking the knowledge
and techniques of how a human being can exist here as
the Creator himself, to the world.
One of them went to Central Asia.
Second Rishi went to North Africa and the Middle East, where certain schools
exist even today. Third Rishi went to South America,
people imbibed it in their culture in a deep way and
made something big out of it.

Fourth Rishi went to East Asia.
Fifth Rishi stayed back with Adiyogi.
Sixth Rishi travelled to the lower regions of the Himalayas and
started what is known as Kashmiri Shaivism.
The seventh Rishi is popularly known as Agastya Muni
travelled to the Indian Peninsula.

 Agastya Muni is very  important because he has been the most effective in
terms of bringing the spiritual process into practical life,
not as a teaching, philosophy or practice, but as life
itself. It is the benefit of his deeds that the Indian
people are still enjoying because he produced hundreds
of yogis who were like fireballs and it continued.

It is said that there are 114 chakras residing throughout
our body, of which 112 chakras are within the human
body and the remaining 2 chakras are outside the body.
For human beings, there are only 112 chakras and for
the enlightened being, there are 114 chakras. Shiva
gave human beings a set of “112 yogic techniques”
to liberate the embodied souls from the limitations of
the body and mind and experience eternal blissful state
of being, by means of energising these 112 chakras.
This form of popular texts is known as Vignan
Bhairava Tantra.

 Vignan refers to “higher knowledge”
and vignan bhairav refers to a state of consciousness
where one achieves a state of union or expanded
consciousness.

It is a unique scripture of Kashmiri
Shaivism. These techniques got refined over the
centuries through various masters, who perfected this
art and then taught to their disciples.
Shiva is considered to be formless and with form.

The Shiva described with form is considered to be one of the
gods of the Trinity, representing the transformation
an aspect of the supreme Reality, Brahman. On the other
hand, the Shiva described as formless but omnipresent
and omnipotent is considered as the ultimate truth.
Formless Shiva is worshipped as the Shiva Linga.