Siddham or the Siddha medicine is not purely a medical system for curing the physical body, its a way of life formulated by Siddhars through their vision and realisation for getting peace for the mind, health for the physical body and purity for the Soul. Siddhars through their Great powers like Attamasiddhikal and through immense prayers realised the fact that Soul is ultimately a part of the Supreme which is like a drop of water from sea.
This is explained in the Tamil versus that “Siddharkal entral Sivalokam inge darsithor”
According to Siddhars or Saiva Siddhantham, Lord Sivam is the Supreme Reality which is eternal, changeless, formless, independent, omnipresent, omniscient, one without a second, omnipotent, taintless, causeless, self-existent, beginningless, ever free, ever pure, of course perfect. They realised the fact that Sivam is the Supreme Guru who liberates the souls from the web of bondages or births. These great knowledge they passed it to generations in the form of manuscripts. According to Siddhars, the creator or the supreme creates a physical body for a soul to attain the salvation. But it not possible for a soul to attain the parammukti or Salvation by one birth. So, a soul must take cycle of births to realise this facts. While getting birth, the soul is binded with the Mumalams or the Anavam, Kanmam and Mayai which are the impurities just like the Trithodam of the physical body. This is well explained in Saiva Siddhantham as the Pati, Pasu and Pasam. Pati is the Sivam or Eternal Energy and Pasu is the Soul and Pasam the Bondages. Anavam is the impurity which pervades in the soul which produces incorrect perception. Kanmam is the other impurity binded in the soul which does the good and bad acts. Mayai is the experiance or the material cause wich the soul aquires a little of Knowledge and realisation. For these Siddhars formuted certain rules and disciplines or Tapas to clean the three impurities present in the Soul so that one can percieve the spiritual illuminance or the Siva lokam within. It is just like as the Kayakarpam to protect the physical body.
Siddhars realised that to attain the Salvation physical is also protected from the ageing process like the Narai, Thirai, Pini, Moopu and Sakkadu ie, Narai means Ageing, Thirai means wrinkling, Pini means disease and Sakkadu means death. And the mind should be kept peaceful through prayers and meditation.
Conclusion :
This reveals that the Siddha medical system is a part of a way of life of a great civilization ie Dravidian civilization which emphasizes the importance of Spirituality for soul, Peace for the mind and Health for the physical body. From this, it is very clear that the way of life formulated by siddhars is the only answer for the treatment of mentally handicapped people as well as spiritual leaders. Siddha medicines can respond to the diseases that affects the yogis also. So, more re-search is needed to find the Traditional practices followed by the practitioners in the field of Traditional Siddha Vaidyam to light the darkness.