He identified the herbs that could conquer death

Those who go to Chaturgiri Mountain can never miss Gorakkar siddha, sitting at the entrance. He is different from the other siddhas as Ramanuja was different from the other Azhwars because of his revolutionary deeds.

There are four pathways leading to the mountain. Three pathways go through the forest. If we go by the south way, we can reach Navasiddha cave near Thoniparai. And, if we cross this cave and proceed northward, we can reach ‘Gunda’ cave, the abode of Gorakka siddha. Even today, this great siddha is helping people sitting inside this cave. He identified the herbs that could conquer death and wrote about them on palm leaves. But the other siddhas who feared that if man conquered death, the earth would get submerged in the ocean due to the overweight of the undying human population, decided to destroy those palm leaves without the knowledge of Gorakkar. And, Gorakkar was wondering how to reform those siddhas who might take away his findings without his knowledge. He decided to win over the other siddhas through a trick. He prepared food for those eight siddhas and added some hypnotic drug to it. He served food to all those siddhas with his own hand. All the eight siddhas enjoyed the tasty delicious food and fell unconscious immediately. Gorakkar who knew that it would take at least two days for the siddhas to recover consciousness, took note of the valid points from his findings and composed them into 4,000 songs and hid them in a secret place.

All the siddhas recovered after two days. Nandidevar who was the guru of Gorakkar was one among them. He asked his student Gorakkar whether he would part with a thing which they wanted. When Gorakka promised to oblige, he asked for the palm leaves that contained details of Kaayakalpa herb that would help humans acquire immortality. Gorakkar handed over all the palm leaves immediately to his guru. Nandidevar left the cave with all the other seven siddhas. Then he created fire at Mount Kailash and threw all the palm leaves into it. Al the siddhas were happy that humans could never know the secret of immortality.

But Gorakkar who had saved all his findings has given us all the secret notes in 4,000 songs. If we pray to Gorakkar, the savior of human race from the clutches of various diseases, all our sufferings and miseries will disappear in no time. Siddhas do not want or wish anything. They are with us only for our sake and to help us during our times of distress. Even today, there are 206 sidhas in the Chaturgiri mountain. And, people do get ‘darshan’ of these siddhas.