Walking through 60 years of my life here, and seeing and understanding many things from a new and different perspective after I came to the Siddha path, I gathered that the reason we keep coming back is that we have not done a good and clean job of our tasks given earlier.
For instance, I took a colleague seeking a traditional and alternative treatment for his medical problem that bordered on the degeneration of his nerves having similar systems as Parkinson's disease although the doctors could not confirm that. We came to know that the man was gifted with the art of healing others through a dream. He himself was living with acute stomach pain for years when a master of Islamic faith appeared in his dream and told him that he would cure his pain. The only condition he laid was that he had to live and preach the Islamic way. The man of Christian faith agreed and was cured. He was gifted the power to heal others without the facilities and tools of modern medical science. Just having a curtain screen for a private moment with each of his patients, he would go about his duty diligently in his humble home. He would bring down the spirits to assist and help him taking instructions from them. What surprised me was that I was told that medical doctors who had since passed away would be on hand to do certain procedures in the spirit form. The reason they were there was that they had not done a dedicated job while alive. Hence they had to come again in the spirit form to make could and gain credit to move on into other realms. This was something new to me.
For instance, I took a colleague seeking a traditional and alternative treatment for his medical problem that bordered on the degeneration of his nerves having similar systems as Parkinson's disease although the doctors could not confirm that. We came to know that the man was gifted with the art of healing others through a dream. He himself was living with acute stomach pain for years when a master of Islamic faith appeared in his dream and told him that he would cure his pain. The only condition he laid was that he had to live and preach the Islamic way. The man of Christian faith agreed and was cured. He was gifted the power to heal others without the facilities and tools of modern medical science. Just having a curtain screen for a private moment with each of his patients, he would go about his duty diligently in his humble home. He would bring down the spirits to assist and help him taking instructions from them. What surprised me was that I was told that medical doctors who had since passed away would be on hand to do certain procedures in the spirit form. The reason they were there was that they had not done a dedicated job while alive. Hence they had to come again in the spirit form to make could and gain credit to move on into other realms. This was something new to me.
Coming to the Siddha path in 2002, I was given numerous tasks, rituals, and practices that fell under Sariyai, and Kriyai. I did them until in 2013 several youths were sent over to participate in the puja and carry out his work in serving the unfortunate. I guess that we had diligently and successfully carried them out with devotion since Agathiyar told us that we could drop them now. He has asked us to move on to Yogam and Gnanam. I understood that doing the job well the very first time does not then require us to come back to redo it and enhance it. The reason we come back, again and again, is that we fail to do it well the very first time around as we are distracted by other things that appeal to us more.
When Lord Muruga asks me to build a temple for him and I asked myself why he needed another amidst the hundreds of temples dedicated to him. He replied immediately on reading my thoughts that we would show him in a different light. I was wondering if I was going to show him in a different form or the temple structure might be different from the norm. But now I understand that what he meant was our approach to worship and the way we do things. It has earned us his respect and that of Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal too. The rituals we did cater to the target group accordingly. If there were many senior citizens or children around we would shorten the rituals and wind up the prayers within a short time for we understand that the seniors and children alike cannot sit for long periods. The divine too on its part came along and directed us to serve food first before beginning our puja, something very unlikely to happen elsewhere. We followed as directed. But we earned the erk of a temple priest who told us that it was wrong to serve before the puja is done to the deity as we handed out food parcels to devotees at a temple. The reason he gave me was that the deity would know who did the charity if we waited till puja was over for her. I was dumbfounded but held my tongue as it was their ground and their rules. As they say, when in Rome do what the Romans do, we needed to respect their rules. But deep down I was saddened by the false ideologies pushed down the throats of devotees. My goodness, I told myself. What does the divine work 9 to 5? Doesn't she see us the rest of the time? Doesn't she know what we do beyond those hours? Sensing that we were not happy, Agathiyar brought us to priests and temple committees who gave us leeway in carrying out the rituals the way we did them. The priests and committees of the Mayuranathar temple in Dengkil, Jeganathar temple in Tapah, the Amman temple in Carey Island, and the Tanneermalai temple in Taiping gave us full freedom and full cooperation to carry out the rituals that included libation of the deities and lighting the sacrificial fire or Yagam at their venues. We thank them for their confidence and trust in us.
As for the act of doing charity, rather than drive up to the flats where we identified the poor and wait for them to turn up, what we did was we carried the groceries and food and began knocking on their doors, delivering them right at their doorsteps. We asked if they had taken food and ask about their other needs too. At times we have to take the steps of these 18 storey apartments when the lifts fail us. The effort and pain we went through in delivering these aids did not matter much to us but rather we had complete satisfaction in having carried out Agathiyar's dictates. Then Agathiyar tells us that the difficulty we face be it in climbing the hill to the Lord's abode atop these hills or going through pain or difficulty is another means to rid us of our karma too. Agathiyar through a story told to Dr. VN Jayapalan of Bangalore tells us that the receiver of the food we distribute shall see their karma lessen. The charitable act we did by physically carrying them out rather than settle for and be satisfied by just giving money, earned us merits. Hence there were numerous reminders for us to involve directly in handing out these aids. We were pushed to do dharma towards the end of last year by Agathiyar who sent several reminders or as in the airline industry its the last call for boarding the plane before the gate closes. He called out almost everyone in the AVM and AS group to personally go down to the ground and dish out the food and groceries to the poor, hungry, and unfortunate. It was akin to calling out all to board Noah's Arc before the floodwaters came rushing in. Then the gates closed in December of 2019. To those who made the swift move to board the vessel, he brought them to Yogam. With the same urgency, he is bidding us to take the practices seriously and gain some ground for we don't know what is going to take place soon.
It has been a very fulfilling journey, something that we never anticipated or planned. We understand now that it was all Agathiyar's work. We were only mediums who stood as facilitators. We shall cherish all these wonderful memories since all these too have been brought to a halt as we are pushed and moved to step into Yoga and Gnana. He has been with us at each moment of our venture. We are very grateful to Agathiyar and our gurus for showing the way and showing so much concern over these undeserving children of his.