"Listen, reflect, and internalize. Understand and assimilate the principles. For a true disciple, even a single word is enough provided they listen with attention and awareness" says Amma. "All they need is to contemplate on that single word." In order to assimilate anything, you have to give it some time. Patience and perseverance bring results. "Do not run all over the place in search of God" says Amma. "Do not run around wasting your energy. When we keep running around we don't get fixed anywhere." Be patient tells Amma. "Just as our roots begin to grow, we start thinking I am not gaining anything here. If I go over there I might get more. What we really need is patience." Do not be in a rush to achieve, or attain it. Patience and surrender are what we need to cultivate.
Persevere says Sadguru. Here is a beautiful reminder for us, "I don't want you to travel on the path of Yoga. Whatever path you are traveling on, take yoga with you." He goes on to share his experience with yoga. "Within a short time, this yoga became so much a part of me, throughout the next 12, 13 years without a single day break, this simple yoga happened and which led to a much deeper experience later. Till it led me to That experience, I had no idea that I was doing a spiritual process."
As I was struggling to figure out and understand the facts of life from the perspective of the Siddhas as posted in this blog, it is refreshing to note that readers have understood the messages. Mahindren shared his understanding with me.
I had received a good morning message that attracted my attention as it was pertinent to what the Siddhas had been telling us too. I shared the message with Mahin.
Mahin wrote: Appa (Agathiyar) asked us to take it as a lesson. When we take everything as a lesson then we will never complain but we shall gain knowledge and that knowledge would help us to turn ourselves into someone greater Anna.
And he continued: Acceptance is what everyone needs; to take everything as a lesson Anna.
I then posed a question that was bugging me to him: Is it good or bad then to strive for change; to work to raise our living standards?
I added: Still not sure of what the true meaning is about acceptance. If we are to accept our karma why does Agathiyar give remedies?
Mahin gives me a wonderful explanation: Maybe for those investing in material life, the meaning of acceptance is different. - Accept that you can do anything to change your surroundings and work on it. For those living for Gnanam, acceptance becomes different - Accept everything around you as the norm, don’t complain. - See everything as a lesson, that gives you Gnanam. - Only with acceptance will the mind be kept silent, and that silence will lead to deeper meditation.
As for karma and its remedies, he answers: Karma is what holds us back in our journey towards Gnanam. Those who accept material life will continue doing karma because they do not care about it. Those who seek Gnanam have to clear the previous karma. By doing remedies Appa reminds us to stop creating new karma. Once we stop creating new karma, and clear our past karma through performing remedies, we become neutral. Now the soul will get a clear vision about the path that it has to travel to reach Erai. With acceptance and together with our effort based on all the Siddha teachings, we can become like the Siddhas, that is their wish too, Anna.
Another reader wrote: Since last Sunday I'm trying my best to not react to anything that disturbs me. As Gowri master told. This MCO (Lockdown) period becomes a great platform for me to know my self better, to learn things better include my body, mind and etc.
We had sought the advice of Acharya Gurudasan or Master Gowri as we lovingly address him, on how to hold our attention in meditation.
Me: Master I am envious and jealous of you. How is it you could meditate with the trains passing by every minute? We are struggling here.
Master: I'll be aware of the train passing by, the sound. Just choose not to let that disturb me.
Me: Wonderfully said, master. Understood. We should not react to it, right?
Master: We just ignore it. Choosing not to react is also a reaction. We just need to ignore it. It's not the disturbances that disturb us, but our own reaction to it.
Me: Will try. Then what about the mosquitoes? They already bit me. I had to stay in the ward for 4 days some years back.
Master suggests using mosquito repellants or lighting benzoin resin (sambrani pugai).
Mahin throws in a question: How to control our reaction Master? When you get a sound mind automatically divert immediately.
Master: It's realizing that we have a choice for any event. Train passing is an event. Not something we can control. When we accept that it's out of our control, that acceptance will lead us to accept the disturbance it causes as well. Then we will no longer choose to get annoyed. We get disturbed only when we resist. When we accept, it's no longer a disturbance.
Another reader wrote: I remember a sentence in your recent post. Different meanings to three different levels of people at three different periods in life.
It is true. We seek to justify what we think is right. A scientist forms a hypothesis and goes on to perform tests to prove his theory right.
A key function in the scientific method is deriving predictions from the hypotheses about the results of future experiments and then performing those experiments to see whether they support the predictions.
We need to prepare ourselves to accept a thing now and be equally prepared to drop that later when we become enlightened by new discoveries or findings or experiences. This is how we grow. Culture, tradition, religious and spiritual beliefs all undergo a change in our understanding of it as the society and individuals evolve with times. Change is something that we can never deny. By accepting change, life will be bliss. Adapting to change, life will be bliss. We are trying to understand and comprehend God with a logical mind, which will never happen since God has to be experienced. We are trying to define God through logic and our senses as in dollars and cents. But he is beyond them. He is to be experienced. No words are enough to describe him. He is beyond form, name, and expression.