Edai Kaatu Siddhar:

Edai Kaadar (as he was well known) is one of the 18 renowned siddhars of Tamil Nadu. He is from the region of Thondai Nadu, the olden name of the Agni Sthalam (the place where God is being in the form of fire) Tiruvannamalai – Tiru Annamalai.

One of the biggest contribution of Edai Kaadar is the invention of Kayakalpa techniques. Kayakalpa is an legendary system of total body rejuvenation. Kayakalpa purifies, nurtures and revitalizes the constituent elements of the body, mind and psyche with a series of customized therapy sessions, herbo-mineral preparations, vital breathing practices, dietary guidelines, and daily living recommendations.

His exact era of living is not known precisely yet. But it seems he was born on some time back in 2nd – 3rd century BC and he lived for around 600 years.

Also, he seems to be from Yadhava (One of the oldest Indian community from which Lord Krishna was born) community by seeing his profession and most of his songs. His songs are frequently mentioning the word 'Thandava Kone', in which the word 'Kone' is a Tamil Nadu based regional name for Yadhavas.

With out any surprise, Edai Kaadar's life reflects the essence of Lord Krishna’s Bagavat Geetha. “Do your duty, don’t expect the out come!”

Edai Kaadar attained his maha nirvana or salvation in the agni sthalam - Tiruvannamalai and it is also believed that, the karpa graham or the main lingam of Tiruvannamalai is built on top of his jeeve samadhi itself. Some other people claim that, his jeeve samadhi is being behind the main lingam on the second orbit of the Lord Arunachaleswarar temple.

Edai kaadar was a good hearted, calm and humble shepherd. He used to the daily life of taking his cattle to some nice grass land in the morning, feed them well and bring then back to the open air shed in the evening. On one of the fine day morning a respected saint came to his hut.

Edai kaadar stood up, saluted him, gave him a grass mat and cup of fresh goat milk. The saint has stayed few days with Edai Kaadar and thought him the holy lessons and told him that, "Dear son, hearing and learning are the easy things and also showing the power of what ever learnt to the materialistic world and self praising have become quite common in these days.

So, you too should not become one of the goats in the herd. On the other hand, live uniquely and lead the world in right way."

Edai Kaadar's heart and mind filled with full of the lessons (techniques) thought by the saint. As the thought and the practices got deeper and deeper, things on his eyes got blurred out slowly and his inner eyes started seeing the bound less time frame of past, present and future.

As the days goes on, his futuristic vision shown him the darkest ever future the world has seen due to a terrific draught. After seeing such a bad times ahead, his heart prayed Lord Krishna and his mind came up with the idea. As per the idea, he trained his cattle to eat the 'Erukku' (a milky plant in the draught land) and also he mixed up the 'Samai and Varagu' (South Indian grains) with the wet soil and coated them on the walls.

The time wheel came to run on the path of the worst draught era the mankind have even seen. Water sources drained, no grass or trees remained. People, cattle, birds, plants, all the weaker living beings have been started wiping out from this world. On the other hand, Edai Kaadar's cattle are happily eating the draught land plant - Erukku, which the others not used to.

Eating Erukku triggered itching sense on the cattle. So they went to scratch their body in the walls which is covered with the mixture of gains and soil some time back. As the scratches grow, the grains in the wall fell down from the wall. Edai Kaadar has collected them and ate with goats’ milk.

As draught continued from days to years, most of the living beings have been wiped out. But, Edai Kaadar and his cattle are stronger day by day. By seeing this, the Nava gragas (9 planets) got surprised and came to Idfai Kaadar to know the secret. He saluted all of them, gave them grass mat and goat milk with grains. All the planets ate them and had a nap for a while.

As soon as he saw the planets were in sleep mode, he arranged the planets in right order which could benefit the world. The moment the planets came to right order, the sky started pouring again. All the water bodies are filled. Once again the green blanket covered our mother land’s skin. Plants started flourish again. People are happy on receiving their wealth back.

By knowing the power of Edai Kaadar, people from the whole region started flooding to his hut and praised him equal to God. Edai Kaadar said,

“Om nama shivaaya! Oh, my children! Don’t praise me for anything small I did. It’s all because of the power of Lord Shiva and Krishna. So, praising them would make you all flawless souls. Don't praise the pitty humens. Where ever the festivals conducted for them, there will be the end less joy and happiness. Worshiping them will liberate you all from your burdens and sorrows. When ever you have tough times, believe in God, devote your whole heart and mind at the problem you are facing and the solution for it, don’t worry about the out come, do your best. You will win the battle for sure. Om nama shivaaya!”

The words of one who won the time boundaries will be the ever best words to be followed on any point in our life.