"I wake up and rush to get to work. While at work I am pressured to deliver. There are datelines set and my rice bowl is dependent on whether I deliver. Returning home late, I can only watch my child having gone to sleep after asking her mum numerous times when is daddy coming home." This is the standard lamentation from a family man these days. The routine starts again the next day for him. He laments that there is never time to be with the family or be with friends or just sit around and enjoy the moment.
Knowing that man would work till his last breath, there is a time when he is compulsorily retired or laid off. But yet he takes on another job giving reasons that he is bored or needs the money. I opted to retire early three years back, otherwise I would be retiring this September as I enter my sixtieth year. I did not want to die while at the desk. Agathiyar too gave me his blessings to devout more time to him. But I am always confronted with people who asked me what work am I doing even after telling them that I had retired. Do they really understand the meaning of retirement, I wonder? Old age is a reminder to wind up and take things easy. This is the time for us to do whatever we had wanted and cherished before but were never able to do or found the time for it. This is the time to take up that hobby you had always wanted to engage in. This is the time for you to step out on those tours you had eyed on but never could go on.
Finding more time with my family and Agathiyar now, he sends people around to my home. They are then drawn to share their problems with us. We have seen a multitude of people with all sorts of problems arrive at our doorstep. Agathiyar brings them here. The idea in sharing their stories here is not to belittle or ridicule them but to learn from their experience what to do and what not to do. Among them are those who lived beyond their means and end up in debt. They come to the siddhas expecting their financial problems to be solved overnight; expecting all their problems to go away immediately; and expecting their debts to be cleared by Erai. Erai does not settled your debts! Erai does not undo what you have knowingly done!
Knowing that man would work till his last breath, there is a time when he is compulsorily retired or laid off. But yet he takes on another job giving reasons that he is bored or needs the money. I opted to retire early three years back, otherwise I would be retiring this September as I enter my sixtieth year. I did not want to die while at the desk. Agathiyar too gave me his blessings to devout more time to him. But I am always confronted with people who asked me what work am I doing even after telling them that I had retired. Do they really understand the meaning of retirement, I wonder? Old age is a reminder to wind up and take things easy. This is the time for us to do whatever we had wanted and cherished before but were never able to do or found the time for it. This is the time to take up that hobby you had always wanted to engage in. This is the time for you to step out on those tours you had eyed on but never could go on.
Finding more time with my family and Agathiyar now, he sends people around to my home. They are then drawn to share their problems with us. We have seen a multitude of people with all sorts of problems arrive at our doorstep. Agathiyar brings them here. The idea in sharing their stories here is not to belittle or ridicule them but to learn from their experience what to do and what not to do. Among them are those who lived beyond their means and end up in debt. They come to the siddhas expecting their financial problems to be solved overnight; expecting all their problems to go away immediately; and expecting their debts to be cleared by Erai. Erai does not settled your debts! Erai does not undo what you have knowingly done!
Tavayogi was always of the opinion that we should not participate in another's problems. Their problems are self made and they have to go through it. Tavayogi never touches on other's karma. His mantra was always: Realize that your sufferings are the result of your own doings or vinai or karma, and his solution was only one: He would point them to the worship of siddhas, never personally showing a way to reduce or come out of it. Neither does he get involved with them personally. Just as the doctor sees a patient; diagnoses him and prescribes a relief for him; without getting personal, so do we need to be professional in whatever we do.
Tavayogi reprimanded me once for taking on the problems of others. I told him that I took a beating from someone for advising her husband who had poured his problems to us. She accused me that the Arutperunjhoti mantra audio CD I gave him thinking it would bring some solace and peace to him, had triggered something in him that made him act weirdly and like a lunatic. On consulting Tavayogi to know where I went wrong, he told me to send all those with problems to Agathiyar, rather then listen to them and think of a solution for them. He stopped us from giving solutions to their problems. It was a bitter pill to swallow but we learnt a lesson; that in event we decide to listen, we have to have both parties present to get a true picture. At times they tend to hide some portions of the story giving only a vague picture. We draw up a solution based on what is told. Then it would not apply when they open up a little more. Then there are others who go on and on with their problems even after we ask them to drop them and move on. These are the times I wonder how could Tavayogi sit so patiently and listen to them.
When a staunch devotee of Agathiyar introduced others for a nadi reading he sat in as an interpreter too. He would then volunteer to bring them to carry out their parikaram or remedies, both in Malaysia and India too. There were times when he would go out of the way and scout and look for things of a rare nature to fulfill the remedy mentioned in their nadi. He would run the search and wear himself out and his finance too from doing so. He continued to help others despite facing numerous problems in his life. Then Agathiyar revealed the reason for his troubles and problems. He had gone overboard in helping others in relieving their karma. As a result he had taken on their karma to a certain extent. Agathiyar makes us understand that the reason remedies are given is that they want the affected party to put in the effort to nullify their karma. By putting the effort in searching and seeking the said items by themselves and executing what is told for them, they will tend to exhaust or burn out a significant portion of their said karma in the process. If someone else does them a favour by providing everything and laying them before them, it does not bring the desired results to the affected party concerned and in fact can harm the one who is executing it all for them.
When someone was told that she would have the gift to heal others by Agathiyar, he immediately added that she should have to remind herself continuously that she was only acting as a tool and medium and not give in to her ego thinking that she was healing. If ego sets in the karma of those she heals shall befall on her, warned Agathiyar. Similarly masters who heal others were told the same, to bring the divine down to heal and not think that they are healing their patients. They are also asked to charge an amount for their treatment so that it satisfies the conditions of taking on another's karma. Doctors especially are asked to light a lamp at the temples to discharge themselves of any karma that lurks as a result of they attending to their patients.
When he was knocked down from his bike by a bus while on the way to Methupalaiyam, it took Tavayogi a couple of months to recover fully. I was angry with Agathiyar for not preventing the accident. But Tavayogi consoled me and very humbly told me that it was his karma and added that he had to pay the price of adorning the role of a guru. He hinted that he had to take on the karma of the devotees who submitted and surrendered to him their problems as they fell at his feet touching it.
When Agathiyar came to our shores he told devotees to light a lamp and place their worries at his feet. Initially we made the earth lamps or agal vilakku, ghee and wick available to them to light it. Based on the above encounters now, we realized that it defeats the purpose if we were to supply all the goods and the devotees just lighted it. We now expect them to bring these along if they intended to light a lamp at ATM, which would be purposeful and meaningful. Similarly if someone is asked to conduct a puja for the siddhas at ATM today, we do not prepare the stage for them where they just attend to participate, as we previously did, but instead get them involved from the very start, right from purchasing the items for the Homam, Abhisegam and Alangaram to coming early to prepare, arrange and execute the entire puja with the only contribution from us that is giving guidance in telling them what to do.
Looking back at all the above incidents, today I understand pretty well why Tavayogi cautioned us then. I tend to realize the extend that one's karma and how it affects others too.
When I met Tavayogi for the very first time in Malaysia, he decided to initiate me. He called over a devotee and staff at the local chapter of his peedham in Batu Caves and told him his desire and asked to make the necessary arrangements. The aid assured him that everything would be taken care off and said that I need only be present. That evening Tavayogi initiated my wife and me and six others. I did not spend even a single dime nor did I gift Tavayogi with the dakshinai (any donation, fees or honorarium given to a cause, monastery, temple, spiritual guide or after a ritual), that one needed to give a guru. I was so naive then neither having any earlier experience with any gurus and in these matters, nor did those around me highlight these things.
Since Agathiyar had told me to come back for a reading at 45, I informed Tavayogi that I was to seek the nadi as I had turned 45 then. He referred me to Nadi Nool Aasan T.Ramesh. In that reading Agathiyar told me to receive an initiation from Tavayogi that night itself. I was surprised and so was Tavayogi when I related the matter to him. He had just initiated me earlier. So I asked him to wait a while at the local peedham while I rushed to buy all the required items to offer to a guru before an initiation as listed by Agathiyar in the nadi. It was quite late at night and the shops were closing. I had to rush into several shops before they closed to gather the various items. Then I had to drive to Batu Caves. Tavayogi who waited for me, initiated me again although he was equally puzzled. Today I understand the reason to go back to him for the initiation. I needed to purchase the items that are a gift of appreciation or gurudakshina, from my pocket, which I failed to present to him earlier.
Although I happened to drop in on my first guru Supramania Swami unexpectedly and quite by chance, I wanted very much to meet Thavathiru Rengaraja Desigar, But in both occasions I walked in with bare hands, carrying no gifts, as I did not know of the protocols involved in meeting gurus. Neither did their aid advice me accordingly. And so it was that I walked in for an initiation from Tavayogi without any preparation or contribution on my part too.
When I made my way to Ongarakudil and walked in on Thavathiru Rengaraja Desigar, after asking for his blessings several times, and as there was no response from him, his aid told me to speak loudly which I did. Finally he turned to me and told me coming there itself was a blessing! What did he mean? How am I to understand his reply? I came back troubled that he did not bless me. This incident was bugging me for years since I had very much wanted to meet him as his publications and videos were my very first guide, when there was hardly any material on the worship of siddhas back then. Agathiyar answered my questions and worry after several years: if I was an unwanted guest; if I had strayed in without prior invitation; if I was not invited at all; and if I was not supposed to be there in the first place? Agathiyar told me I had made my way to him without knowing his full potential and his status then. I had been disrespectful by not knowing the protocol. Agathiyar asked me to go again and that I would be accepted. But I never made that journey to Turaiyur again, since I told Agathiyar I already had him (Agathiyar) for a guru. There will not be another guru in my life from now on except Agathiyar.
Agathiyar reveals and explains in a Jeeva Nadi reading by Sri Ganeshan of Tanjavur, the auspiciousness of hills, why the temples are located on them and how the karma of devotees are lessened by visiting these places. The hills are generally known for the extensive range of herbs and medicinal plants. A plant on the lowlands would possess 100 times its potential in the highlands. The reason for erecting temples and places of worship in the hills was solely to cater for the health and well being of devotees. Climbing the hills once a day itself is an Abhyasam or good practice. The hike up a hill will benefit man's 22,000 nerves. This is the physical benefit one gains in climbing hills. Speaking about the subtle aspect of this practice, Agathiyar says certain forms of karma is reduced with continuous worship and meditation at these places of worship. The level of the hardship one goes through in scaling these hills and mountains, is proportionate to the extent and reduction of one's karma. These places of worship are where one's past sins and wrongdoings, the forefathers wrongdoings, and sabam or curse is reduced speedily.