Lord Murugan Siddhar Bogar in Palani

There is a temple in south India, at Palani that is dedicated to Lord Muruga, the son of Lord Shiva. Bhoganāthar was entrusted by the siddhas to define the rituals for the worship of Lord Muruga. Armed with his deep knowledge of alchemy, Bogar created an indestructible idol of Lord Muruga, to last this Kali Yuga, using nine Poisonous substances or Nava Pashanams to withstand the continuous rituals of bathing (abhishekam). He fashioned it out of nine secret herbal and chemical ingredients, which made it harder than granite. The idol is still intact today and has defied scientists who attempted to analyse its contents. Even the strongest granite would not have withstood the test of time over these years with such continuous rituals.
Bogar being an adept of kayakalpa made the idol in such a way that when bathed with many substances, including milk, pancha­amirtam consisting of five fruits and honey so that traces of the substance are washed over into the ritual offerings in which it is bathed. When the devotee consumes these offerings he gets a kayakalpa treatment as well as a boost in his/ her spiritual progress.

There is yet another incident where Bogar transformed his physical body. . In his poem Bhogar Jñāna Sutra 8 Bogar describes how he overcame the limitations of his physical body by cosuming a kayakalpa preparation he made and lived for 12 000 years in China. The incident goes like this. Bogar, while in China had transmigrated into the body of a Chinese to facilitate teaching. This Chinese body had many limitations and hence he decided to overcome the limitations of the Chinese body using kaya kalpa herbs and thus extend his life to attain Swarupa Samadhi. He carefully made some kayakalpa tablets using thirty five different herbs. Once done, he took three of his best disciples and his faithful dog on top of a mountain. He first offered the tablet to the dog and the dog immediately fell over and looked dead. He then offered tablets to his disciples who hid it in their garments, except for Yu who immediately consumed it and fell over dead. Bogar also consumed the tablet and died immediately. The disciples stricken with fear and grief went down the mountain to collect firewood for cremation. On returning they couldn’t find the bodies but only a note left by Bogar which read “The kayakalpa tablets worked. After getting out of the trance in which I was, I restored the faithful dog and Yu, but you missed your chance for immortality.” This transformation allowed Bogar to feed on his Ojas or Sublimated spiritual energy and live for thousands of years. His body developed a lustrous golden colour and according to the words of Bogar, he lived in a world of gold.