With the coming of Agathiyar, and in calling us to his path, he added on the worship of him and the rests of the Siddhas to our existing worship and prayers to the whole pantheon of Hindu Gods that was introduced by our parents and ancestors. With the coming of the guru both in the physical and subtle form we were introduced to Kriyai and its associated rituals, bringing us to actively participate in them rather than being passive watchers as in Sariyai and temple worship. We came to understand that we were brought to evolve to the next stage that of Kriyai from Sariyai that was a base and foundation and stepping stone on this wonderful initially religious and later a spiritual journey. In bringing this worship to our doorsteps, Agathiyar engaged the whole family, relatives, and friends to come together, with occasional strangers dropping by out of curiosity.
If Agathiyar and Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal respectively initiated me to carry out the Abhisegam or libation of his statue and light the Homam in my house, Tavayogi on his visit to Malaysia later fine-tuned these rituals. We observed and learned. Agathiyar besides teaching us and having us put into practice the numerous rituals through his Nadi readings and our guru in physical form, on occasions had the Gods perform them too, having us watch in awe and learn further. In one such instance, Goddess Ma came to perform libation for Agathiyar bringing us to follow her too. If the rituals were slow-paced earlier and took hours until then, we learned from her to speed things up. When Bhogar performed the abhisegam last night in conjunction with Sivarathri, we learned further. Agathiyar in lamenting to us that we have lost the knowledge of living the Siddha way or சித்தர் நெறி வாழ்க்கை முறை, and hence lost touch of it, for instance, spelled out the Siddha way to take a bath some time back. We adopted that in life and also in bathing him and his form in the statue. Bhogar came to instruct us on the simple means to attain the Siddha state if not fully at least travel half the journey given the current circumstances in society and time that is not conducive to achieve the state. Expelling and purging the body of toxins; Taking lots of greens and fruits in addition to wholesome food in our diet; Learning the art of breathing; Bathing the right way, and finally, loving nature shall pave the way to at least cover some distance on this journey of transformation. He added that the Siddhas took care of their body well, never ignoring them. He indicated that we needed to put our feet down at times and resolve to bring the much-needed change in ourselves and those around us and never submit to the ways of the masses if we wanted to see any progress on this path. He added that life itself was a battle of odds and the Siddhas are known fighters, who fought to bring change in those in the society who opted to listen.
The Siddhas never settled for us to remain and lead a normal life but endlessly work on us to raise us from the mundane and rigid routine of daily life. They slog to free us from the chain that shackled us that we had brought upon ourselves. They brought excitement to an otherwise boring life. For instance, Agathiyar brought us to bring changes in the nature and approach of our worship and rituals. After having put much learning, time, and effort into them, he brought us to relearn, experiment, and make the necessary changes. He dared us to make the move, moving away from the orthodox and traditional. He welcomed rebel thoughts and ways. He comes later to give us a pat on our backs seeing the change and our achievements. Bhogar attests to this telling us to rise up to the occasion too.
Lately, Agathiyar has brought us to stop all forms of rituals and move into the next stage of Yogam and Gnanam, moving on to an entirely new platform, pasture, and frontier, to a journey of going within and becoming aware of the Self as opposed to that of observing the world around us and learning from it as earlier.
If in the beginning, we stood before our Gods invoking their mantra, asking for favors, in traveling the path of the Siddhas and taking them as our gurus, the gurus and Siddhas begin to invoke the Gods to come down and grant our wishes. They bring our troubles and problems to the attention of the Gods. They bring us the solutions too. They pave the way with flower petals removing the thorns along the way. I remember Tavayogi mention in his travels roaming the whole of India, he would go hungry many a time. The divine couple Lord Siva and Ma would bring him food that was steaming hot and ask him to eat. I see his divine hand when friends and neighbors pass me sattvic food cooked with love and delivered to my doorstep in these days of isolation and Covid. How can I repay their kindness?
If we had picked up singing the Thevaram in classes in the past and sang them like a speeding train, Agathiyar and Lord Murugan came to ask us to pull the brakes and move slowly along the track, reading each sentence with an awareness of the message conveyed and bringing the saints and authors of these divine works to our mind, and imagining how they would have written down these experiences of theirs. We are told to look at these songs that we have heard or sang for ages with a new perspective that of not a listener but to fit into the shoes of its authors. This brings the joy and bliss endeavored by them within us too. Agathiyar told us that we had praised them enough through these songs and now engage in singing the songs of transformation that the saints went through. He highlighted two such works, that of Manikavasagar and Ramalinga Adigal. When I fetched Tavayogi and as we were traveling to a temple, he commented on listening to the audio of Ramalinga Adigal's divine work the "Thiruarutpa", that one who listens to these songs shall attain Gnanam or divine wisdom. Agathiyar and Lord Murugan tell us the same that Gnanam shall dawn on its listeners.
"The Self" comes as a teacher these days, tapping into the vast resources in the Divine realm. Messages and new understanding come by but one needs to quickly take notes less it flows by never to return the same way again as in the waterways.