The Spectacular Natadreeswarar Temple in Cauvery
“The most significant aspect of the culture of this land is that human survival and prosperity were only a consequence, not the goal of life. The goal of life was always the blossoming of the human being.”
—Sadhguru
Sadhguru: The Natadreeswarar temple is a very wonderful temple located at the midpoint of Cauvery river. It is located on an island in Cauvery exactly halfway along the river’s course from Talacauvery to the ocean. So it is seen as the navel of Cauvery.
It is said that the linga at the temple was consecrated by Agastya Muni over 6000 years ago. Agastya Muni lived an extraordinary life. It is believed he also lived an extraordinary span of life. The legend says that he lived for 4000 years. We do not know whether it was 4000 or 400 because being Indians, we take a little bit of liberty with zeros. It is after all, our invention!
So we do not know exactly how many years he lived, but looking at the amount of travel he did by foot, he definitely lived an extraordinary span of life. If you go to the southern part of India anywhere south of the Vindhyachal mountains, in almost every village, people will say, “Agastya Muni meditated here, Agastya Muni lived in this cave, Agastya Muni planted this tree.” There are an endless number of stories like this because he touched every human habitation south of the Himalayas with a spiritual process, not as a teaching, religion or some kind of philosophy, but as a part of life. As your mother taught you how to get up in the morning and brush your teeth, like that, the spiritual process was taught. The remnants of that live even today in the culture especially in the southern part of the country.
The linga that he consecrated at Natadreeswarar is made of sand mixed with some traditional compound of those days. This sand linga is still physically intact, and in terms of the energy, it is explosive! Though it is 6000 years old, it feels like it was just done yesterday.
It is generally believed that Agastya muni left his energies and his subtle body in this space. It is said that he left his mental body or manomayakosha at Chaturagiri Hills near Madurai, and with the help of Karthikeya, he is said to have taken his physical body to Kailash where Shiva was and left it there. That is a spectacular way of doing things.
In some way he is looking at Cauvery as a living body and he established the navel center at Natadreeswarar in such a way that the upward and downward movement of energy happens in a proper way. With all this behind it, it becomes all the more important that we make Cauvery flow again as it has for thousands of years. This is not just for survival or agriculture but for something much more.
The most significant aspect of the culture of this land is that human survival and prosperity were only a consequence, not the goal of life. The goal of life was always the blossoming of the human being. Many great beings invested energies in certain ways to support human growth and the blossoming of individual human beings. They created the necessary energy systems and tried to make everything into a possibility towards that – even a river!
Editor’s Note: Confused about the subtle body? Click here to read Sadhguru explaining about the subtle body and its relevance to Yoga.
