Siddha Vedam Book
Evelyn Normington
His name at birth was Raman Nambiar. He was born in a vegetarian Kshatriya family in the sacred city Vatakara in Kerala. Since childhood, he was a very goal-oriented kid, so he took up a job as a policeman as he grew up. After he got married, his wife strangely wrote him a letter requesting him to take leave from work and come home. Once he came, she washed his feet, took him inside, and had him sit on a seat. She then laid her head in his lap and left her mortal coil.
This event shocked and surprised Sri Raman Nambiar. With the intent of finding the cause of this incident, he left his job and home. He did Giri Pradakshina (walking around the mountain) of the Subrahmanya temple in Palani. As he was going to take bath in river Vartiar, two Siddha yogis did the upadesha of Siddha Vidya in his ear and disappeared. Being the first verified one to know Siddha Vidya, the guru parampara of Sri Shivananda Paramahamsar started from him.
Later, Shri Shivananda Paramahamsar travelled the entirety of Bharat and also to Singapur, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and other place. He initiated around 6 lakhs people into Siddha Vidya. He established Siddha Samaj at Vatakara or Badagara as his main center and centers in Kayanna, Iyyuru, Mannurkara, Ammampalayam (Tamilnadu) as branches.
There are two kinds of pranayama. Brahmari pranayama is making the sound like a bumblebee. 18 siddha purushas perform it 18 different ways with different body poses. This is performed in the ashram established by Shri Shivananda Paramhamsa and cannot be performed anywhere else. Only the students of Siddha Vidya following strict disciplines are eligible to perform.
Bhujagikarana pranayama has nothing to do with vocal cords. It sounds like a cobra hissing. Anyone can perform this pranayama. All Gurus in the tradition of Brahma Vidya teach this.
Sri Shivananda preached that life stories may be varied, but the same life is in everybody. However, this life history (Jiva Charitra) is important. To be kind to the life is to connect the life force (jiva shakti) that is uniform in every being into oneself with the help of Siddha Vidya.
Sri Sivananda once touched a 33 kV electric line, which would kill any normal body. However, to the contrary, all the fuses were burnt with great electric power and Swamiji was unharmed. People in Chennai can testify to this. When Shri Shivananda Paramhamsa was residing in the home of his disciple Govinda Swami, who was physically very strong, he sat on a swing and asked Govinda Swami to swing him. He tried his best, but could not move the swing even an inch. Then Shri Shivananda called a small boy and made him swing the swing with ease. He proved to people that the power of yoga is greater than physical power, even greater than an atomic bomb. Sri Ramananda Paramhamsa, our Swamiji, compiled some miracles of Sri Sivananda that he heard in a small book.