Just as we understood that as we move up the spiritual ladder our karma is lessened in many ways revealed at the appropriate time at each stage of our progress, the divine too shows its form according to our spiritual maturity.
Asked to come to the path through the Nadi reading in 2002, I was given a painting of Agathiyar to worship. He came in this form.
Coming to meet Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal of Kallar Ashram in 2005, he pointed us to a 6 feet tall fiber statue of Agathiyar as his form and initiated us telling us that Agathiyar who resides in all of us is God, "அருள் ஞான ஜோதியே அகத்தின் ஜோதி தனி பெரும் கடவுளே அகத்தீசர் ஆவார்."
If Tavayogi had depicted God as Agathiyar standing 6 foot tall in the space where rituals were done at Kallar and the inner space in all of us, moving into the inner chambers of the Dhyana room or meditation room we are confronted by a Aaru Aadhara Peedham or 6 tiered granite structure with an oil lamp placed on the highest tier. This was an abstract form of the divine we came to understand.
During my second initiation at Kallar in 2005, he tells me that the breath was God.
In 2010 Agathiyar comes into our home in the form of a bronze statue commissioned and made in Swamimalai to specifications outlined by Agathiyar in the Nadi. He was a replica of the granite statue at Agasthiyampalli in Tamilnadu.
In 2013 he surprised us by opening his eyes in this statue just as he did in his original at Agasthiyampalli in 2005.
Prior to this miracle, he had opened his eyes in his painting in the home of 9 female devotees a day after we gathered to perform his puja at their home.
Returning from Nattadreswar temple in Erode with Tavayogi in 2013, he told us that Siva was Agathiyar.
Then we were slowly trained to see him in the faces of man and animals. We started doing charity and feeding.
When Tavayogi used to tell me that Agathiyar came to him I asked how did he come? Like a light, I was told. So to a Gnani he took his luminous form to appear. Hence we understand why we are asked to light a lamp. Recently I saw a documentary where we get to see the colors of the sun that is a fireball in the sky representing that of the flame of an oil lamp.
The phenomena below that appeared in the distant hills surrounding Kallar Ashram was taken during the Yagam several years ago.
Many devotees have seen images of deities taking shape in the ever-changing shapes of the burning fire of the Yagam we are told.
We could see that we were slowly being brought to see God first with form, later in others, and then moved to the formless. Lately, Agathiyar asked us to see him in all of nature and asked to get connected with it. Recently Agathiyar answered a question from a couple who were staunched devotees of his, having worshipped him in all forms, beginning with a form as in statues and paintings, serving him at their home and his temples; then as sound as in mantras; then as light as in the lamps; and expanded their vision of God to all of his creation, serving both man and animals, birds and fishes. She now stood before him asking to know his true form after having seen him in all these forms. Agathiyar asked her what and how she felt and experienced while doing all these? She replied a vibration. "I am that" he replied. He revealed yet another form that day. Names (sound), and forms (light) were secondary and came later we understood. He is constantly and continously vibrating in us, and in the universe or prapanjam of which we are a part.
Now we tend to understand Mataji's experience when she was at AVM with Tavayogi in 2016 where we lit a Homa. As she recited the Siddha names followed by all gathered, she had felt the ground vibrate below her. When I saw her the next day she shared the experience with me and later with another devotee who came by. Both of us did not experience it. As she read the Jeeva Nadi the following day to an AVM family member, Agathiyar pointed out her experience in the Nadi and told Mataji that she was the sole witness to that phenomena or miracle where all the Siddhas had arrived to participate in our puja. The earth shook as they laid their feet on the ground.
Agathiyar explained that his energy and vibration was spread out in all things. He mentioned he was in the lines of the verses of the songs in his album "Agathiyar Geetham" too. In our walks through the jungle and to the numerous abodes of the Siddhas, Tavayogi used to point to me the presence of these Siddhas. He would point to the sky and tell me that they were showering flower petals on us ushering us to their abodes. He used to point out a certain aroma, scent, and smell that arrives with the breeze and lingers for a moment or two. Agathiyar has told me that he showed himself as a twinkle or spark of light for a split second or so in these places.
To a question from my wife as to why he asked us to have his statue made and worshipped at home, especially the particular form or "version" as seen at Agasthiyampalli, he asked her another question just like Tavayogi always replied a question with another question. "Why do you go to the temple?" "To receive the vibration and energy" she replied. "Exactly," he said and told her that she was blessed as "When others traveled to these temples to receive it, the temple has come to you with its energy."
As to why he stipulated the particular form or "version" as seen at Agasthiyampalli, we learned from Agathiyar who revealed the history of his temple at Agasthiyampalli to Siddha practitioner Dr. VN Jayapalan in his meditation that it was the very first temple built for him by Kubera, king of the Asuras, in the very beginning of Kali Yuga. Hence Agathiyar had brought a replica of his original form from his very first temple into our homes.
The following day as we traveled in the car, she had another doubt, and almost immediately it was answered. She asked me "If he had asked us to abstain from doing all forms of rituals and go within, why has he asked us to ensure that we conduct his Annual Vizha or celebrations that was around the corner? Immediately it dawned on her that he had brought together and tutored all his children in learning and doing sariyai and kriyai at AVM and after some 7 years decided to break and dismantle the group and have them lose their dependency on one another, a specific venue to gather, society, and organization and names and labels. As he brought them to worship the Siddhas in their own homes, now he wanted them to come back to AVM to be recharged once a year.
Today we are proud to see AVM Agathiyar adorn billboards, book covers, CD covers, leaflets, and even on vans.
