As we celebrate Bhogar's Jayanthi today, 13 June 2015, Barani Natchathiram in the Tamil month of Vaikasi, it brings great joy recalling my visits to Palani and Bhogar's samadhi. I have always considered Palani as "Twilight Zone" for its many mysteries.
On this day, let us recount the many amazing accounts of Bhogar coming to the aid of his devotees as revealed to the late Jeeva Nadi Guru of Chennai, posted by Sri Velayudham Karthikeyan on his blog Siththan Arul.
Once Agathiyar delivered a private message for the Nadi Guru forewarning him of an incident that was to take place later in the evening. Agathiyar revealed, “A man shall approach you this evening at 6 pm. Although he looks like a vagabond, he is rich and a great devotee of Shiva too. However, he does not have peace of mind. As a reason he left his family. Certain miracles are about to take place in his life after he returns from here.”
Just as Agathiyar had forewarned in the Jeeva Nadi, a man appeared at his home at the said time. The man could hardly walk straight. The man enquired if he was the Jeeva Nadi reader. The vagabond then held out a small bottle. The Nadi Guru took a glanced at the label on the bottle and was taken aback. It was a pesticide and was only half-full. He looked at the man and realized his mouth was frothing. The Nadi Guru enquired what had happened to him. The man replied that he had consumed the poison. The Nadi Guru felt a chill go down his back. To the question as to why he came there, the vagabond replied that he wanted to see the Nadi.
“What? In this situation?” questioned the Nadi Guru.
“Why not? Would not Agathiyar answer?” was his reply.
When the Nadi Guru asked that he seek medical treatment first, the vagabond adamantly stood fixed and insisted the Nadi be read. No amount of coaxing would make him leave the place to seek medical aid.
When the Nadi Guru refused to read the Nadi for him, he said that he only wanted him to find out from Agathiyar if he would survive or not?
“Just ask Agathiyar this question and I shall be on my way,” he said.
The Nadi Guru who was greatly disturbed made him sit down and rushed to have his bath and prayer before returning with the Jeeva Nadi. Agathiyar revealed a secret to the Nadi Guru.
“This man is a devotee of Shiva. He came up the hard way in life and made his riches in a very short time. He is married but does not have a child. The relatives used this issue to separate the couple. He left his home some time back without anyone’s knowledge. The families, thinking he had died, are in the midst of dividing his wealth amongst them. He had travelled to north India and now has sought me.”
Agathiyar added that he would live. The Nadi Guru told the man that he should survive. The man replied that he did not believe it and to the Nadi Guru's horror consumed the remaining portion of the pesticide. “I have consumed the remaining poison, now how can I survive?” he argued.
He was out to prove Agathiyar wrong. Not knowing what to do, the Nadi Guru rushed to his prayer room and returned with some Palani Navabasana Murugan Vibhuti Prasad and Sandhana Kappu Prasad that he had. He gave it to the man, asking him to consume the Prasad. Surprisingly the man did as asked and left the place.
When the Nadi Guru reminded him to head for the hospital he replied, “Why should I? Agathiyar has said that I shall survive.”
The Nadi Guru could not sleep the whole night long, thinking about what had transpired that evening. He sat for prayers at 3 am and asked to know if the man was still alive. Agathiyar in the Nadi replied that he was hale and alive. He also mentioned that the man was cured of his stomach ailment, which he had had for the past twenty years.
“Moving about as a vagabond eating all kinds of things, subjected him to a stomach ailment. He had sought medical attention but was not cured. He seeked out some Siddhas in Kollimalai to relieve him. After taking these herbs, he was better but not fully cured. Finally, he came to me. He had strong faith on me. As he was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva, I decided to cure him but he resorted to drinking the poison when he could not bear the stomach pains. The Navabasana Vibhuti Prasad and Sandhana Prasad that you gave him cured him completely. The Navabasana countered the poison and acted as an antidote for his stomach ailment. Otherwise it would have led to cancer.”
Just as Agathiyar ended his revelation in the Nadi, a group of people gate crashed into the Nadi Guru's home with weapons. They looked like hit men.
“Where is the vagabond who was here last night?” they questioned the Nadi Guru.
The Nadi Guru tried to calm them down. He invited one of them who seemed to be their leader to take a sit. He questioned him as to why he was looking for the vagabond. The leader refused to divulge but kept asking about the vagabond’s whereabouts. He questioned the Nadi Guru on the vagabond’s purpose and reason to come to him. The Nadi Guru narrated what took place the night before.
After listening to what had transpired the night before, the leader seemed interested in the Jeeva Nadi and asks if Agathiyar could reveal everything. He asked the Nadi Guru to find out from Agathiyar if the vagabond was alive. He revealed that he had to deliver the vagabond to someone in return for money. The leader then took a seat and turned to his followers and asked them to take a seat too.
The Nadi Guru took up the Nadi. Agathiyar revealed about the leader instead.
“He sought to search out for the man in return for a huge sum that would aid in his daughter’s eye operation,” said Agathiyar.
The Nadi Guru told the leader what Agathiyar had mentioned in the Nadi. The leader immediately fell at the feet of the Nadi Guru and started to cry. He acknowledged what Agathiyar had mentioned in the Nadi as being true.
The Nadi Guru put forward a proposal to the leader that if Agathiyar could show another way out of his predicament, would the leader give up the idea of looking for the vagabond.
Agathiyar revealed more.
“In the past birth a kid had lost his eyesight due to the leader’s action. As a result, his daughter was losing her eyesight in this birth. Even if he resorted to carrying out what he had come for, his daughter would not regain her eyesight.”
Then Agathiyar stated three conditions if she was to see again. First: the leader was to change over a new leaf. Second: he was to seek out a Siddha in Kollimalai. Third: he was to serve in an orphanage until his life’s end. The leader agreed to do the first two but explained that he could not carry out the third because he was married to three wives and had to support them.
Agathiyar provided the remedy in the Jeeva Nadi, "If the juice of the 'Nethira Thosa Nivarthi Puspam', a flower that bloomed once in three years in Kollimalai, was applied to the eyes and on the head daily, his daughter would regain her eyesight.”
Agathiyar added that a Siddha at Kollimalai should provide for this unique and rare flower.
“Carry out this treatment for ninety days. She will regain her eyesight. She would not need to be operated on. Leave for Kollimalai immediately”, instructed Agathiyar.
Hearing this, his followers objected to him leaving for Kollimalai before finishing their ‘business’ since they had already received payment for it.
The leader motioned one of his followers to come forward to seek the Nadi too. Agathiyar revealed about him too. He too was asked to seek out the Siddha in Kollimalai for a remedy for his wife’s ailment. Hearing this, the follower too began to cry. He acknowledged that what Agathiyar had revealed in the Jeeva Nadi was the truth.
Both of them told the Nadi Guru that they were leaving for Kollimalai immediately and left the premises.
Some time later, the Nadi Guru was keen to find out what had happened to the vagabond and those hit men.
Agathiyar answered, “The vagabond who left the family and ventured to the north had made numerous reports to the police regarding his safety. That is how the family came to know that he was still alive. One of the family members engaged these hit men to ‘finish’ him off. Unfortunately the one who sent out the hit men is admitted in the hospital and is in a very bad shape. Now the family had repented and have accepted the vagabond.”
After a few months, one of the hit men arrived at the Nadi Guru's door with his family. They fell at the feet of the Nadi Guru. This man’s wife had recovered fully. The Nadi Guru was told that the other man’s daughter too was cured and he had taken up Siddha medicine, became a practitioner, and took it upon himself to help all those who were in the same predicament.
The hit man narrated what had taken place in Kollimalai. After looking around the Kollimalai hills for the Siddha mentioned by Agathiyar, in vain, the men laid down to rest under a tree. Suddenly an old man tapped one of them and asked him by his name. The hit men were amazed how this stranger knew their names and how he identified them correctly. He asked both of them to follow. The old man then led them to a hut. He told both the men respectively that the wife and daughter should be cured with the medicine that he was giving them. He handed one of them an extract of a plant in a bottle to apply on the eyes of his daughter and assured him that she would begin to see in thirty days. He asked him to come back for more if needed. To the other man, he handed an herbal preparation in a powder form to be taken with honey. His wife’s heart problem will be cured in twenty-seven days, the old man assured him. The men handed him some money, which he refused to accept saying that the money was taken to exterminate someone and that he did not want ‘stained’ money. He went into the hut and did not come out for a long time. The men peeked into the hut but there was no one. They waited awhile longer but since he did not turn up, they eventually returned home.
The Nadi Guru enquired if they went back to the Siddha again. He replied that they went to Kollimalai again but there was no hut at that spot and they did not meet the Siddha. When they enquired those who frequented Kollimalai, about the Siddha and his hut, to their surprise, were told that they had not come across any hut or Siddha there.
The men were ready to fulfil Agathiyar’s remaining directives. Agathiyar directed them to recite the Surya mantra on Sundays for six weeks and assured them that on the sixth week they should both land a job. They will be required to part with a portion of their wages each month, which was to be given to an orphanage to feed its children. They left the Nadi Guru, thanking him, Agathiyar and the Jeeva Nadi.
The Nadi Guru approached Agathiyar to find out who the Siddha was.
“That was my disciple Bhogar. He carried out my wishes and had dispensed the medicine to both of them personally”, came the reply in the Nadi.
Agathiyar added, “Bhogar still lives and moves around in Kollimalai. If one prays to Bhogar for assistance, he shall take the form of a Siddha practitioner and treat them, cure their illnesses and save them. The other Siddhas in Kollimalai are his disciples and their treatment is effective too.”
To another question from the Nadi Guru, “How can one identify Bhogar?” Agathiyar explains, “Bhogar shall have a twinkle in his eyes. He shall emit the aroma of tulasi herb or jawathu essence vibhuti.”
Many months later, the vagabond, who left his family and ventured into north India, and later challenged Agathiyar by drinking poison, and eventually returned to his family, stood in front of the Nadi Guru with his family. He had survived the encounter with the poison. He was reunited with his family who had repented for their misdeeds towards him. He had willingly donated a third of his property to an orphanage.
I saw a similar sparkle in Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal's eyes as we left Lord Muruga's sannadhi and Bhogar's samadhi at Palani. He turned around towards me and enquired, "Yenna Magane?", after seeing me in bliss. I just walked up to him, and laid my head on his chest, thanking him silently for bringing me over to "Twilight Zone".
In another episode, Bhogar reveals a cure for aids. Agathiyar most graciously delivers Bhogar's remedy for Aids to an individual who seeked out Agathiyar's Jeeva Nadi. Agathiyar explains the human body is susceptible to 4128 diseases of which Aids was listed as 3798th.
Agathiyar instructs him to carry out atonement for each member of his family to remove their past karma and only then to undertake a journey to Sathuragiri or Pothigai where certain herbs were available for preparing the Siddha medication prescribed by Bhogar. The individual took his family to Sathuragiri as instructed by Agathiyar hoping someone will deliver the cure. But no one was of any help to them. After 45 days someone delivers a note to the late Jeeva Nadi Guru of Chennai from that individual mentioning that he had run out of cash and food and nearing death, but he and his family are adamant to stay on until the family was cured.
After 25 days the Jeeva Nadi Guru is told of a miracle that took place at Sathuragiri.
The family had decided to end their life as no one could help them with identifying and preparing the herbal portion as per Agathiyar's directive. That is when someone resembling Agathiyar and another person like Bhogar appeared to the family of four and directed them to follow them into the deep jungles of Sathuragiri where they prepared the medicine for them and had them consume it. The medicine put them to sleep. Upon awakening the family realized they were in Sundaramahalingam Temple at Sathuragiri!
After 3 months, the family appeared before the Jeeva Nadi Guru, hale and healthy and cured of Aids and alive to tell their tale.
Sri Velayudham Karthikeyan, administrator of Siththan Arul, once narrated his personal experience with Bhogar at Palani, to me. Here is a translation of his amazing encounter.
Bhogar's Jenma Natchatththiram is on 27.5.14. My relative and I had been there last year (in Palani for the event). Before leaving, we prayed that Bhogar should give us his darshan. He came!
I did not realized initially. As I looked up while answering a question from my relative, someone walked pass me, his eyes fixed on me. There was a sparkle in his eyes. I wished him. He gave a smile and nodded and continued walking past me. We were sitted on a bench at that moment.
Realizing that I did not realize who he was, he walked some distance and stood there as if doing something. Since there was a large crowd, I did not heed him then.
When we moved to another spot, again he passed us looking at us as he walked by. He disappeared around a corner behind us. Only then did my relative and I realize the significance of the moment. We gave chase. But he was no where to be seen. I became disappointed since I had missed a good opportunity.
Then I thought to myself. I had asked for a darshan. He had given me what I had asked for. I should not be asking for more nor should I regret. That was the compassionate Bhogar.
Karthikeyan concluded with a description of how Bhogar appeared to him, "Aanaal nalla uyaram. Thejasaana sareeram. Aazhntha paarvai", that is, "But he was tall, a body of Thejas, and a deep penetrating look."
குரு போகர் uploaded a mantra of Bhogar, if chanted, will enable one to get Bhogar's darshan and blessing. This mantra is from BHOGAR JANANA SAAGARAM.
Hari Aum Narayana Shanmugava Thandapani Vasi Va
போகர் ஜெனன சாகரம் எனும் நூலில் போகர் பெருமான் நானென்ற தரிசனமே வேண்டுமென்றால் என்று கூறி தன்னுடைய தரிசனம் கிடைக்க ஒரு மந்திரம் கூறி உள்ளார்.
அரி ஒம் நாராயண ஷன்முகவா தண்டபாணி வசி வா.