Most of us most of the time turn to Erai only when times are tough and rough, when we are pronounced ill with a terminal disease, when we want to pass an examination or get the desired job or want other favours. Prior to these events Erai does not exist or is kept in the closet. We take the trouble to walk up to his residence during these trying times and use our touch and go card to gain access to the door that is shut and ask for his sympathy and grace. Once the barrier is lifted and we get to walk past the hurdles we throw away the very card that gave us access to him and forget about him until we are faced with the next round of trouble.
Why is it then that we don't keep him as a life long companion which would make sure that he is always around us to fall back, to seek counsel, or to lay our tired torso on his lap? Why is it we don't have him as a companion through thick and thin, a divine companion who sees our troubles ahead of us and advises accordingly?
What then do we need to do to gain his companionship? To gain his companionship one has to prove his worth. He needs to acknowledge His existence first. Then be grateful for his own existence. Then serve Him well in all capacities; first as a creation of His, then as His servant, a son, companion, lover and finally see Him as his own child and care for Him. This bond that is built will never perish in time and space.
Let us bond with him by starting to pray to him, thank him, serve him, talk to him, share both our sorrows and joy with him, listen to him, heed his advise, drop our own likes and dislikes, and finally drop our desires for his desire. All things will work out well then. Bharathi spells this out in his "Ninnai saran adainthen kannama."
நின்செயல் செய்து நிறைவு பெறும்வண்ணம்
நின்னை சரணடைந்தேன், கண்ணம்மா
நின்னை சரணடைந்தேன்
Before we can get connected with Erai, we need his ID. We need to identify him. Although he is all omnipresent and the prapanjam, for our purpose he takes on numerous forms. Pick a form that goes well with you. Then purchase a password or a sacred mantra from someone who has been there or treading the path. This mantra will get you connected either through the slower dial-up mode or get you connected instantaneously through fibre optic, depending on your past merits. Dial-up daily just as you check your Whatsapp messages every five minutes. He shall eventually turn his glance on you. Once his glance falls on you, be assured that you would be sky-rocketed to another level much closer to him. You have bypassed the long winding public queue to arrive at the express lane. It is just a matter of time before you are called in for an audience with him. While waiting, use this time wisely. You could engage in either of these activities and reap the benefits that come with it.
What is the significance of providing food to the masses? Why does Ramalinga Adigal expound the greatness of feeding and showed us the way, through the daily feeding at his Satya Dharma Salai in Vadalur? Why did the natives of Punjab serve food to their devotees very much earlier than Ramalinga did, way back in the 1600's? Why did Tavayogi introduce me to carry out annadhanam at his Sri Agathiyar Sri Thava Murugar Gnana Peedham in Kallar? Why did Supramania Swami wish to carry out this noble deed, a wish that I and Jnanajhoti Amma finally fulfilled with Devendran after Swami's samadhi? Why does Tavathiru Rengaraja Desigar advocate only this tool to all his devotees, asking to carry out this noble feat on a regular basis Ongkarakudil in Turaiyur respectively? There must be something to it?
I came across a beautiful explanation, at http://www.indusladies.com/forums/queries-on-religion-and-spirituality/129675-importance-of-annadhanam.html where Lord Krishna says:
"The World, both animate and inanimate, is sustained by food. The giver of food is the giver of life and indeed of everything else. Therefore, one who is desirous of well-being in this world and beyond, should make special endeavors to give food. Also, food should be offered with venerable hospitality to the old, the child, and the tired traveller."
Agathiyar today tells us that it is only in the act of feeding that one does not need any prior knowledge or study of the scriptures and sacred texts. The guru or these texts are needed to show or describe the means to conduct a Yagna, Japa or performing the Tapas. Feeding helps sustain the world and keep away famine and drought. The day our hearts turn cold towards other beings, creature or man, is the day Mother Nature and the world turns a cold shoulder towards us. The day we fail to feed the hungry is the day famine and drought shall fall on the face of this earth. "Decimation" takes place. The act of doing charity and feeding by a handful sustains the earth. Let us join this handful.
Ram Dass of "Love Serve Remember Foundation" shares a beautiful statement from his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, that summarizes the need to feed people - "When I asked my guru to raise my kundalini, he said, "feed people."
2.Japa
You are blessed if you come by a genuine living guru who initiates you into a mantra of the divine. This mantra gets you connected to the personal form of God, usually the same form the guru worships to and in rare occasions another form of Erai more suited to your temperament. This is the bridge to Erai's kingdom, the vessel that takes you to his shore, or the path that leads you to the gates of his kingdom. This method though needs discipline and perseverance on our part to progress steadily and speedily.
3.Yagna
If the Guru desires he might introduce us to participate/ perform Yagnas or its smaller version of Homa. Tavayogi asked me to start performing a Homa at my home, following in the footsteps of his Kallar ashram where the Sarva Dosa Nivarana Maha Yagam is conducted annually. He told me he was doing it to subdue the wrath of Mother Nature that was lashing her blows all across the world. I did as told without question. Agathiyar fills me in on the reason for me to carry on doing it, through his Aasi Nadi reading. He tells me that we need to do it for the good of the Prapanjam. Professor Anil Kumar and Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya, too mention that the Yagna is never personal and is for the collective good of mankind.
We slowly moved on to perform Yagnas at temples too, with the approval of the divine and the temple committees.
Professor Anil Kumar provides a detailed account of the science of Yagna at www.saiwisdom.com. He explains clearly that there are three aspects to every spiritual activity that is: the ritual aspect of it or Karma; its inner significance or Jnana; and the third, devotion or Bhakti which forms the link between the two. The Professor says men who conduct the Yagna and the offerings form the Karma Kaandam, or the ritual aspect. He says one needs to have the element of devotion or Bhakti in him to conduct these rituals ‘with sincerity, with steadfastness, with determination, with all its purity and with all the austerities that must go into it’. The path of Bhakti then paves the way for Jnana, that in the words of the Professor renders ‘wisdom in all humility, in all its reverence because Jnana requires humility, reverence, receptivity, and sensitivity.’
Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya in his ‘FORM AND SPIRIT OF VEDIC RITUAL WORSHIP - PROCEDURE OF YAGNA’ reveals that Prajapati or Parameswara created man in his own likeness through a Yagna and ordained that both man and the Yagna had to contribute to the growth of each other, which all the more stresses the necessity of each individual conducting it.
4.Yogam & Gnanam
Having covered the ground on Sariyai and Kriyai we then step into Yoga that comes involuntarily by the grace of the Divine. Through a process of clearing the household or our body off the residues of karma accumulated in the causal body through several births and toxins accumulated in the physical body in this birth, we beget a perfected body to receive the divine. It is only a matter of time that the divine descends on us and begins to work his marvellous play or leelas and display of miracles, healing and uplifting both our souls and that of those around us.
Finally, he brings us to sit in silence when the silent one or Mauna Guru reveals all that is to be known through those moments of silence.