There is a hive of activity going on all around us both in this visible plane and in the invisible plane of Erai, the many worlds we are told. This is the dance of Lord Siva. It all shall end when Siva stops his dance.
When asked to come to the path of the siddhas, Agathiyar opened up many doors one after the other, just as we have seen shown in the devotional movies. He had Nadi Nool Aasan Sentilkumar conduct a puja for the siddhas and their nool, the nadi. I picked up the rendition of the names of the siddhas from here, my first introduction to the siddhas by name. I took back this simple prayer and began chanting their names in my home during prayer, having purchased a picture of Agathiyar at the same time from Sivabalan. Soon I purchased all the books I could on the siddhas to better understand each of the name listed in the Siddhar Potri Thoguppu or compilation of siddha names.
When I came to this path, there were hardly any guides to the worship of the siddhas except for those materials printed and distributed by the Agathiyar Sanmarga Sangam based in Ongarakudil. These served as a guideline showing me how to pray to the siddhas. Armed with the knowledge of witnessing a simple siddha puja conducted by Sentilkumar earlier and Agathiyar's picture I began closely followed the numerous publications and talks of Thavathiru Rengaraja Desigar. This devotion to his works brought me to seek and meet up with him during my maiden journey to India the following year.
Agathiyar then introduced me to Supramania Swami of Tiruvannamalai at the end of my pilgrimage. I got involved in building a temple in this holy town through Supramania Swami that was mysteriously and abruptly stopped by the siddhas for reasons known only to them. Another venture to build a temple continued when I was introduced to my second guru Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal of Kallar. This ashram/temple saw its completion in 2016.
Learning by watching Tavayogi go about the rituals of performing the Yagam and siddha worship, I followed them back at home, but in a smaller scale. Agathiyar sent a number of aspirants on the path to join me in prayer.
Soon I began to experiment with various approaches to these rituals. Searching for more materials and songs on the siddhas, and extracting appropriate songs that I could include in my prayers, brought me to compile a compendium "The Book of Praise to the Siddhas." These songs were adopted and sang during our puja that would last some two hours, which included a homam, and abhisegam. As time went by the need to reduce the hours spent on rituals and begin to just sit in silence was felt within. Soon Lord Muruga, Agathiyar, Ma and Aiya told the same too and showed us to do things differently. Today we have managed to reduce the time spent on rituals to 40 mins on festive days and just a mere 15 minutes for nitya or daily puja.
Today I understand that devotion has to go through several phases too. I understand now why Tavayogi questioned us "How long are you going to be stuck here?" He asked us to move on to gnana from bakti. When he autographed his book "Andamum Pindamum" for me he wrote the following words, "Aandavan Uraigindra Edam Thangal Ullam, Athuve Payanathin Thodakkamum, Mudivum" when translated meant, "Erai lives in your heart, from where the journey starts and ends too."
When the time is right for us to awake, Erai residing in our hearts, taps it and awakens us from our long sleep of ignorance and indifference to Erai, and his creation. When we take notice of him, the first veil is removed. We then begin to take notice of all of his creation. We become amazed at it and begin to appreciate life that is given to us. When we become grateful and appreciate his world, the second veil is removed. From there on he comes to remove all the subsequent veils, bringing us closer to his kingdom.
If we have evolved slowly in all ways, including the methodology of worship and rituals, we have also begun to understand that the approach towards Erai too has evolved, that from a servant, to a son, and to that of a companion as spoken in the various sacred text. The guru who led us, walking briskly ahead of us, calling out to us to hurry and catch up with him, is walking alongside us these days, whispering the sacred into our ears. Bringing us to do rituals and simple tapas, he made us carry out our social responsibilities besides fulfilling the family duties too.
He brought fresh ideas to an otherwise age old practices. He shot down impractical procedures. He gave us the courage to break out of the norm and explore the infinite. Just as Tavayogi told me that the spirit cannot be caged, and that it has to be set free, we at ATM do not conform to any idea or code of practice but look towards ways to implement fresh ideas and ways to execute the task given and on hand. There is never a boring moment instead each prayer session goes with the flow, ready to accept any changes at any moment. Similarly our charity programs and the means to carry them out too change with time and experience.
Rather then dictate to us the sacred texts, Tavayogi and Agathiyar brought us to the ground to experience for ourselves first hand. As they stood aside and observed we went about the given task diligently. As is said experience is the greatest teacher, we soon learnt things and brought appropriate changes, removing the knots and tangles for a smooth journey. We began to explore new frontiers. It has been an exciting and interesting journey, of exploration and understanding. This journey shall continue.