ABOUT RAJA DEEKSHITHAR
Raja Deekshithar was born in the community of hereditary priests
of Shri Shiva Nataraja, the Dancing Lord. His family has been
the guardians of the very ancient tradition preserved in the
Shri Shiva Nataraja temple in Chidambaram, South India.
His father was a great master and yogi. It is through him that
knowledge of the Himalaya masters has been passed on to him
from a very young age. His first experience of the Spiritual Light
came to him from a wandering yogi when he was eleven years old.
Soon after that event, his life took a different turn.
He developed a strong desire for formal western education.
To learn English and speak to people from other parts of the world.
Even in those early days the temple attracted Western visitors,
and he wanted to communicate with them and broaden his outlook
on the world. He finished his school education and went to university
to study English Literature. He read Shakespeare and Milton.
After attaining his degree he grew his hair long and followed
in the footsteps of his father. He was initiated into the doctrine
and tradition of the Shri Shiva Nataraja temple, and for over ten years
he served Lord Shiva Nataraja and Mother Tillai Ambal (a form of the Goddess),
and also the devotees, as a ritual performer.
At some point foreign visitors and researchers started coming to him,
to ask him about the temple and the tradition. With some he had long
discussions, and he came to realize the gulf that yawns between contemporary
Western thinking and the way our ancestors approached the world.
The two worldviews are apparently entirely contradictory. But the spiritual
energy of his father and his masters, together with the academic knowledge
from the West granted him the ability to transcend the realm of paradox.
Now the time has come for a new vision to blossom and bear fruit.
