The Indian cinema has helped much in bringing complex teachings and doctrines to the reaches of its cinema-goers and patrons through the medium of celluloid over the years. Besides the stories based on the lives and times of saints, there were movies with storylines that touched on the need to uphold noble values too. There were many instances of teachings and songs of saints inserted and carried through this medium into the hearts of cinema-goers. One of my favorites was this song by R.Balasaraswathi and her mesmerizing voice. Only recently my wife pointed out that Ramalinga Adigal is mentioned in the lyrics. The young mother believes that Vallal (Ramalinga Adigal) hearing her plea for a child has come as a child to her.
Gowri Arumugam too has penned a song for her Raagawave Production's album "Agathiyar Geetham" seeking Agathiyar to come as a child to those yearning for one.
A song of Ramalinga Adigal appears in the movie "Chandrahaaram."
Isaikavi Ramanan has written and sung numerous songs regarding the guru. Here is a compilation that I did from several of his talks.
The latest entry captured my heart with the lyrics by Pa. Vijay that we can relate to pretty well. It's a song from the movie "Mookutti Amman."
A devotee friend sent me another song clip that was equally enlightening questioning the need for middlemen when God resides within.
Fearing that the lyricists has included gurus too in his list of middlemen, she wrote back "Aiya, I think the lyrics referring to the middle man like josiyar, kuri solbavar and not gurus." I replied, "(The contents were) Wonderful and true too. But they do not know the joy in having a guru just as we are happy having our parents family and friends around. It's good that they have come to the realization that they do not need a guru. But how do you achieve the state of God then? Just by thinking or holding the thought that I am God? What after that?"
Recently we have come and can attest to the need for a guru who shows the way and the means and stands back without interfering in the process and progress of the student's transformation. The guru's work is to lead him to the lake and teach him to swim. The student needs to learn to stay afloat and swim to the other bank. In the event, he struggles only then the guru comes to his aid. The student has to grow and find his own identity. He is never to imitate the guru. He should not fall into the shoes of the guru. Each teacher, master, and guru is unique. So are the students. We do not want to mass produce students who resemble him. We do not want to clone the gurus.
Agathiyar shared a secret that initially he asked to keep under wraps until he brought it out to the open. He summoned Bhogar and Tirumular to a ritual. He told us that although the Siddhas and he were one for certain purposes they had to assume various names and forms. Although they are one, he summons each Siddha for a specific purpose. When my daughter was laid in the hospital, Agathiyar told us he came with Tirumular and raised her blood count to help her recover from her bout of extreme exhaustion due to the dengue fever. He tells us that Ramalinga Adigal always follows him wherever he goes. Krishnaveni Amma of Kalyana Theertham is always visited by Agathiyar and accompanied by Shirdi Sai Baba.
Before coming to their path life might go on as usual for many looking after family and their career, with an occasional visit to the temples. Once we step onto their path, the need is there to work on these souls. Just as criminals are rehabilitated, and just as the field is weeded and prepared to be sowed with good seeds, man needs to be prepared for the spiritually uplifting journey and a higher purpose in life. This task is given to the Siddhas or Vignanakalar. The Siddhas are forever willing to guide man back to Erai's abode. That was the wish they put forward to Erai. From Velayutham Karthikeyan Aiya's posting in his blog Siththan Arul at http://siththanarul.blogspot.com we understand the compassion of the Siddhas towards humanity. Karthiyen Aiya’s blog entry brings us back to time immemorial where the Siddhas, being compassionate and kind, put forward to the Almighty, who they prefer to call Erai, their wish to guide and save humanity. The Siddhas had wished that whoever seeks them out for solutions to their problems and surrenders to them, he shall be pardoned for his past deeds, however bad and evil they may be. The Siddhas asked that man shall not be put through the trial and tribulations and made to face the consequences of his actions but instead will be saved. Erai granted the Siddhas their wish. Simply said coming to the worship of Siddhas helps to break the chain of karma. The Gnana Thiravukol or key is provided by the Siddhas. After the audience with Erai, the next instant the Siddhas wrote down; the reasons for each individual’s sufferings; listed out solutions and remedies; wrote down ways and means to overcome or end the seeker's problems, sins, diseases, illnesses, and sufferings. They wrote them in Tamil prose on dried palm leaves. These writings came to be known as the Nadi. Hence the Nadi came to be written for every individual.
Below is a translation of Karthikeyan Aiya's post,
“The Siddhas are those who knew the past, present, and the future. They were gnosis. The Siddhas were similar to a company’s secretary. The Siddhas were God’s messengers. The Nadi has been written by Siddhas for us to know about our past, the present, and the future. Many have corrected their lifestyle after listening to the explanations, heeding the instructions, and carrying out atonement. Many more had regained their health and peace of mind. When those who had prayed to God and had yet to receive God’s blessings, approached the Siddhas instead, they immediately received God’s blessings.”
Though the Siddhas are waiting to help mankind, Karthikeyan Aiya adds that one has to seek out the Siddhas to solve his problems.
Agathiyar confirms that his job is to identify and prepare the candidate and bring him to Lord Shiva eventually. Pon Govindasamy reveals to us the Divine's plan in his book "Vallalaarum Brahma Gnana Sangamum", Bharath Book Bureau, Chennai. He states that it is the mission of the Divine to save the souls that are riddled, locked, and chained by Aanavam, Kanmam, and Maayai and bring them back to his state of purity.
Pon Govindasamy explains the different states of the souls. To the souls who were still tied down to the three Malam namely Aanavam, Kanmam, and Maayai, God comes in the human form to guide them to achieve the state of a Jeevanmukta called Sakalar. In dropping Maayai, they evolve into Rishis and are known as Piralayaakalar. The Maha Rishis who had defeated Maayai and Kanmam but are restrained by Aanavam are called Vignanakalar. God comes as Shiva to the Piralayaakalar who then turn to educate the Sakalar. To the Maha Rishis God comes within to teach. With the descent of God the Maha Rishis became one with God.
Pon Govindasamy reveals further. In each Kalpa, the seven landmasses under seven Manus appear and disappear one after the other. When the third land mass Kumari Kandam appeared, God sent Agathiyar, one of the seven Rishis, as its protector. Agathiyar then a Rishi and a Piralayaakalar, learned the sciences from God who came as Lord Murugan and imparted the true knowledge at Pothigai. Agathiyar mastered the five aspects of God that are creation, sustenance, destruction, veiling, and blessing, and also achieved all eight siddhis. He then stood as a Vignanakalar, appearing as true knowledge or an epitome of Gnanam. He stood as Lord Dhakshanamurthi.
Gordon Matthews in his translation of Meykanda Devar’s "Shivagnana Botham" where Meykandar differentiates the state of these disciples according to the impurities in them, explains clearly these distinctions.
- To Sakalar, souls immersed in all three impurities, God comes as a Guru of the human form; he imparts it concealing himself as a Guru.
- To Pralayakalar, souls affected only by Anava and Kanma, he comes as a Guru in Shiva’s form; he himself standing before them as Guru imparts true knowledge.
- To Vijnanakalar, souls involved only in Anava, he comes as the inner principle of the soul’s consciousness; he himself appears, as true knowledge.
Veeraswamy Krishnaraj in his comprehension of Arulnandi Shivachariyar’s "Shivagnana Siddhiyar" enlightens us further.
- Lord Shiva appears to Sakalar with Anava, Kanma and Mayai Malams in human as a Satguru.
- To Pralayakalar with Anava and Kanma Malams, Lord Shiva appears as a divine God.
- Those souls that are rising, Vijnanakalar - the highest class of souls among the three mentioned in "Shivagnana Siddhiyar" with only one impurity known as Anava Malam, do not need an external Guru to instruct them. Lord Shiva by remaining inside them as the inner guide rids them of the Anava Malam, bringing the merits and demerits to a resolution and conferring spiritual knowledge or divine grace known as Saktinipata, the descent of Sakti into the soul. Vijnanakalar receives Gnana from Lord Shiva himself as the incorporeal inner guide.
To the common man or Sakalar who is seen to have the potential to receive their teachings and evolve into a Jeevanmukta, God comes as a guru with a human form and name. God as guru comes when he is ready to accept His teachings. God as guru prepares him to undertake the mystical journey. The candidate gets exposure to the path and is shown the means and ways, given practices and methods. The lineage of gurus before one's personal guru come to guide him too accordingly. Upagurus come by to lead him further. Having complied with the basic requirements they take joy in having prepared him. He is then given the freedom to venture on his own. He finds his true self, nature, and center. He lives in society unattached and as a Jeevanmukta. He makes quick progress by remaining indifferent to all that happens around him and becomes a Rishi and a saint called Piralayaakalar. Finally, he takes the big step to becoming a Maha Rishi who is known as Vignanakalar. Henceforth God comes within to teach him.
Gordon Matthews explains this concept in his translation of Meykanda Devar’s "Shivagnana Botham".
By reason of the soul’s virtue in previous births, God, who has been immanent in the soul, making it known, now vouchsafing to take the form of a Guru, initiates the soul in the Saiva mysteries. The primal one himself teaches these souls as a Guru: for in the form of consciousness, he is in union (with him). When because of the soul’s meritorious practices the primal one enlightens the soul as a Guru… When God comes as a Guru and teaches the soul, the soul is made to see that the world of experience, evolved from Maya, is non-real. It ceases then to identify itself with the non-real and to depend upon it; and in so doing it discovers its oneness with God.
A shift then takes place here, from the unreal to the real.
The sacrifice of a guru is akin to a father carrying his daughter on his back to and fro from her school each day. The guru like this father as depicted in the following clip never gives up on his children. He teaches us to battle our foes and fears alike. He carries us through the puddles, swamp, and rapids to safer grounds. He is there for us through rain and shines 24/7. The sacrifice of a guru is also akin to the mother who looks after the child, sees to his/her needs so that he/she shall excel in all his/her undertakings. Both gurus and parents rejoice in finally getting to sit back and watch their son/daughter graduate with distinction making them and their lineage and ancestry proud.