 They said he lived for 4,000 years. They said this tree was planted by Agastya 6,000 years ago. So this is called a Gurdasam beginning. It's believed that Agastya Muni left his subtle body here with this linger. The first transmission of yoga happened in the banks of Kantisarovar, about six to seven kilometers beyond Kedarnath. It's called Kantisarovar. Kantisarovar means a lake of grace. It was named as the lake of grace because it's on the banks of this lake. The first yoga program happened somewhere between twelve to fifteen thousand years ago. At the Yogi when he appeared in the upper regions of Himalayas, people gathered in thousands because his very persona was such that it attracted people and everybody sat down. But he said nothing. He closed his eyes and sat. People waited. So he simply sat there for months on end unmoving. They realized that if someone has to sit like this, he must be beyond his physical nature. Otherwise he cannot sit like this. Only seven people identified this and they stayed back. These seven people today are referred to as the Saptarishis or the seven celestial sages in India. He gave them a few preparatory steps and said, you prepare, let's see. One day when his attention fell upon them and he noticed they have become like shining receptacles. For one who knows when he sees such a shining receptacle, he can't keep quiet. He saw these people are really ready and then he sat down on the banks of Kantisarovar and started expounding the science of yoga. To assimilate this science, to assimilate this knowing and to integrate that into the human form, they went into long periods of hibernation. The most prominent of them, one who is very, very significant for us, the one who chose to travel south, Agastya or one who is known as Agastya Nani. Went into his sadhana in a subterranean space. The legends say that he stayed there in the subterranean space in a mode of hibernation for thousands of years. And then when he came out of it, having completely integrated the knowledge as a part of himself and his system, not as an intellectual property, but as an evaporating process of his own human system, he decided to fulfill his mission of going south. And of all the seven, he became the most prominent because of the vigor with which he spread this across the southern part of the subcontinent. He set up probably over, from what I have heard of, over 700 ashrams in the country. Many small places that's not counted, proper ashrams where sadhana went on and he established some kind of a guru in the place in so that sadhana could go on. Over 700 ashrams he established around the country to make spirituality a part of everyday life. The depth of understanding and how he went about his work with the energy and the wisdom with which he handled everything is, is quite superhuman in many ways. In many ways, Agastya is, you can say almost, you can call him the father of South Indian mysticism. Yoga came in a particular format to South India, to Agastya. They say he lived for 4,000 years. I don't know whether he lived for 4,000 years, but definitely he lived much longer than what normal human beings live if you look at the volume of activity he performed in his life. It doesn't look like he died in 100 years time. At least 400 years he must have lived, because the volume of activity he's performed is not possible within a certain limitation of time. Today we are jetting around and driving around so, you know, we are able to do so many more things in a short span of time. But the kind of travel Agastya did on foot, it's impossible for a man to have that much activity in a normal span of human life. Definitely he lived very long. Maybe 400 years and maybe 4,000 or people just added one zero because natural zero. But he did incredible things. He was the one who sort of tamed the anger of Kathikeya. Kathikeya was Shiva's son. So he got very angry and he wanted to go away from his father. So he went down south in great anger and he became a warrior. In many ways an unmatched warrior and he went about conquering. Conquering he didn't conquer to rule. Whatever he thought was unjust he went about slaughtering. Because he felt his parents have been unjust to him and he wanted to create justice. When you're angry everything feels unjust, you know. Every small thing you think some great injustice is happening to you when you're angry. So he felt so much injustice in the world so he found a lot of people to slaughter. So he fought battles and battles and then down south-south. It was Agastya who made this anger into a means for enlightenment. Finally he found his rest in Subramanya. So for the last time he washed his sword at Subramanya. Settled on there for some time and then moved out. Kumar Pravat where he attained Mahasamadhi in standing post. So this great art of transforming Kathikeya's anger into a means for his enlightenment was Agastya's work. And all the Siddhars of South India they are very much in the tradition of Agastya. In a way everything that I do is just a small extension to Agastya's work. He built a major, a colossus of a place. We are just adding one extra room to it because this South Indian mysticism has a different flavor. That's because of Agastya. So he took up the maximum territory compared to the other six and went about transforming this in many different ways. He ensured that some element of spirituality is in everybody's life. It may be going away but still if you just look at the last innovation even today is very much there. Even a simple present in South India or anywhere beyond Uttar Pradesh. Even down south beyond that you will see even a simple present has some element of spirituality in him. This was Agastya's work. This is an area where Agastya Muni walked, probably he even visited this temple either himself or probably one of his people because the nature of the lingam is such which is in line with Agastya's way of doing things. So either it's himself or somebody like him or in his line of duty who have consecrated this lingam which is pure kriya which is 100% energy work, no other things, no mantras, no tantras, no nothing. It's 100% energy work. That's the way I am, that's the only thing I know. I can just transform life from one dimension to another simply on the basis of energy. I don't know any chantings, I don't know any rituals, I don't know anything without any ritual. Simply you know just switching the energy from one dimension to another. You know what Gupta Kashi means? Gupta means secret. Kashi means you know Varanasi, you heard of Varanasi? Kashi is the holiest of holy cities, one of the most ancient cities of learning. This was a place where hundreds of enlightened beings lived at a time. Every street you walked you had an enlightened being to meet. So Kashi means the holiest of the holy. So that is the main Kashi just after Kedar is Gupta Kashi, the secret Kashi. Nobody is supposed to know about it. There are a whole lot of stories like this about Agastya's journey down south. When he was going down south he met Vindhya Chalbhu. Vindhya is another mountain range in India. A much older mountain range than Himalayas. Himalayas is a geologically variant mountain. So Vindhya Chalbhu is a much older mountain among the oldest in the world. So among the mountains Himalaya was elected as the king of the mountains. So in Agastya was going down south, Vindhya Chalbhu was angry and he stopped Agastya and said, how can you do this? How can you make Himalaya the king? He's just a child compared to me. How could you make him the king? Now Agastya knew when a mountain gets angry it can be bad. When a man gets angry it can be very bad. When a mountain gets angry we don't know what she will do. Now when Agastya sat down, because Vindhya Chalbhu was very devote, he bowed down to Agastya. So Agastya said, just stay there, stay there. I'll go down south and come back. Then we'll look at your issue. So Vindhya Chalbhu remained bowed down waiting for Agastya to come back. Agastya never came back. Next time when he came north he went the other way through Jagannath Puri just to avoid Vindhya Chalbhu so that he remains subdued, that he doesn't erupt as a volcano or something. So Vindhya Chalbhu remained very, he is small because he's bowed down. Himalaya is tall because he's standing up and still growing. Anywhere in the Deccan Plateau if you travel almost everywhere you will see in some village somebody will say, hey this is a cave where Agastya meditated. This is a place where Agastya did this. Of all the places in Bihar Hills it's called Billy Gillilangana Beta in Karnataka near Inchamaratnagar district. So in Bihar Hills there is a place where there is a, what's the Sampagi tree? What's it called in English? Okay it's a very fragrant flower. This tree this air was planted by Agastya Med. It's definitely incredibly old this plant, this tree is. It's become all not adopted. It looks much older than any tree of its kind. They said this tree was planted by Agastya six thousand years ago. So this is called as Dutta Sampagi because Dutta Sampagi means big Sampagi. It's so large and Agastya planted this tree and he stayed there for some time. In the Cauvery it is the midpoint. So they identified the exact midpoint and Agastya Med consecrated a linga which is originally actually made of sand next to some compound of those days, traditional compound. So it's a sand linga which is still intact, not only physically intact in every way intact. This is seen as the naval of Cauvery because it's a midpoint and whatever he did I wish I had more time to spend here but it's just blowing away as if it was done yesterday. It's incredible. This is our ancestry. It's believed that Agastya Med left his subtle body here with this linga and left his mental body Mano Mayakosa in Chedura, what? Somewhere near Madurai or Virudh Nagar there is another place where he left his intellectual or mental body but he took the help of Kartikeya and took his physical body, took a Lash where Shiva was and left it there. That's a spectacular way of doing things in the end. A Lash is like a tremendous spiritual library for me. When they say this was the abode of Shiva, this is the abode of Shiva. It doesn't mean he's still dancing on the snow. It means that everything that he was is invested in that place, not just him, everybody else who came. For me, the most significant thing was Agastya money. We know invested his energies in Kailash. So Agastya invested everything that he was in the southern face of Kailash. That's incredible. It's incredible means. In terms of natural beauty, there are no words for it but in terms of its power and energy, it's absolutely incredible. So Agastya is the source of everything that is Sathranastasia. He is the very source of everything that I am. You can say I'm just a fingernail of his. It's crashing your life right now.