The Africans Who Mapped the Universe: Bogar by Ajarn Shaman Shu
By Ajarn Shaman Shu (Robert S. Shumake) · Buddha University Press · On Google Play and Apple Books
What if the Tao began with a Siddhar from the South?
That is the question at the center of The Africans Who Mapped the Universe: Bogar, a volume of the series by Ajarn Shaman Shu, who also publishes as Robert S. Shumake. The book is a study of Bogar, also known as Bhogar or Boganathar, one of the 18 Siddhars of Tamil tradition.
Who Bogar is in Siddha tradition
Bogar is remembered as an alchemist, a healer and a master of Kaya Kalpa. Tradition credits him with the sacred Navapashanam idol of Lord Murugan at Palani. Tamil tradition also holds that Bogar journeyed to China and carried the Siddha sciences with him, and some accounts identify him with the founder of Taoism. In this book, Ajarn Shaman Shu, with Shri Surya Nuranyana Swamikal, follows that transmission back to what the book presents as its African roots.
What the book explores
- Who Bogar was in Siddha lineage, legend and literature, including the Bogar 7000
- The journey east: how Siddha knowledge is said to have reached China and shaped the Taoist tradition
- Bogar and the Tao: the case for a shared source behind Siddha and Taoist inner science
- Alchemy as a spiritual science: the transformation of metals, body and consciousness
- Kaya Kalpa: the Siddha art of rejuvenation, longevity and the immortal body
- The Navapashanam of Palani and the medicine of the Siddhars
- The book's argument for an African thread running from the earliest inner sciences through the Siddhars to the Tao.
Who it is for
The book is part history, part spiritual teaching and part reclamation. It is written for readers of Siddha and Tamil mysticism, students of Taoism, qigong, alchemy and the internal arts, practitioners of yoga and meditation, and anyone curious about the book's argument for African origins in world spirituality.
Get the book
- Google Play Books: Bogar
- Apple Books: Bogar
- The Africans Who Mapped the Universe: Bogar: He Fathered the Tao, Alchemy, Kaya Kalpa and the Taoist Transmission on robertshumake.co
robertshumake.co · Shiva University, Bogar
About the author
Robert S. Shumake, publishing as Ajarn Shaman Shu, has lived two lives in one: the builder and the priest. In business, he rose from a Ford factory floor to become founding president and CEO of Inheritance Capital Group, a Black Enterprise-ranked private equity firm. He served as honorary consul for Botswana and Tanzania. In spirit, he received the name Ajarn Shaman Shu from the traditions that initiated him, including the Tamil Siddha line.
This page describes a book and the traditional accounts it draws on. Reading about a lineage is study, not initiation. The links to China and Taoism are traditional accounts and the author's interpretation, presented as the book presents them.