As I drove my daughter from the eye clinic yesterday, I told her that we have had sufficient stories of miracles performed by Agathiyar and the Siddhas that we could write "The Book of Amazing Stories". She being an ardent reader too, together we have read many books on amazing stories in the past. We talked over that it was time we compiled one on the Siddhas.
Several days back as she was tightening the screws to the frames of her spectacles she mentioned that she saw a curtain partially hide the vision on her right eye. I looked through the net to search for eye clinics in our vicinity. We picked one just a short distance from our home and decided to call them the next day. Surprisingly we were given an appointment the same afternoon. After several tests, we were told by the Ophthalmologist that she had a detached retina in her right eye and was immediately referred to a government hospital. As it was a weekend we waited to see the doctors first thing on Monday. On our arrival, and driving around for a while we managed to find a parking spot that I came to find out on my subsequent visits was difficult to come by at the hospital complex. Was the spot waiting for us?
As my daughter and I stood in line to be allowed entry to the eye clinic where we were told to register our first visit, a doctor looked at the referral letter from the private eye clinic and tested her eyesight while we were waiting and directed her to a particular numbered room. He left the place shortly after we made our way to the room. Was he waiting for us? After numerous tests were done on her eyes we were asked to wait as the specialist was in the operation theatre. The specialist on seeing us told us that her good eye was also showing signs of detachment and suggested that they strengthen this eye through the procedure of laser the same day. As for the other eye, she made a couple of suggestions laying out the procedure that she had planned for her but quickly added that it shall all be decided once they see her in the operating theatre on the day of operation. When informed by her assistant that the earliest slot was on 27 April, she moved the chess pieces and slotted her for 6 April.
On our second visit yesterday, for the second session of laser on the good eye, we saw the Anesthesiologist too. After dropping my daughter off at the clinic I like many others was driving in circles trying to find a free parking spot but to no avail. The security guards who guided the traffic could not help either. But the last one I stopped to asked pointed me to a mall across the street. As I arrived at the parking bays, my daughter messaged me asking if I had parked. I stopped the car to reply. Just then an elderly couple of Chinese origin was about to drive away. She asked me if I wanted to park at their spot and walked over to me with a parking ticket that she had previously etched out and that was still valid. It was for an hour from 10.30am on. But it was only 9.30am then. As the parking came under the jurisdiction of a different council and I had no tickets on me, she returned shortly with another ticket covering the duration from 9.30am till 10.30am. I was close to tears in seeing the unseen divine hand of Agathiyar at play. As I parked and alighted from the car I saw a signage "Parking Tickets Sold Here" The only and sole restaurant operating at the Mall sold parking tickets. I purchased a book of tickets and etched out more tickets sufficient for the day in anticipation of a long wait and left them on my dashboard before walking across to meet my daughter.
We now see the postponement of my daughter's trip to South Korea to study in an university as a blessing in disguise. She was supposed to leave latest by 12 February 2021 so that she could be quarantined for two weeks before her classes started in March. We do not know what she would have done if she had realized the problem in her eye then in a foreign land. As a friend told me no one is spared, I fully understood Tavayogi's words of solace in the face of life's test that the obstacles will never go away but with faith, the divine shall lessen our troubles, and help shoulder the load and pain. The divine shall show a way around the obstacles, sent samaritans and good souls to hasten the process including the healing. Many sadly have belief but not enough faith.
We have seen his divine hand in many of the events that have taken place after Agathiyar came into our lives. My many past posts on this blog will attest to this. Then Agathiyar tells us that he was there all along, in all our births and all our lives. Of course, it makes sense that the divine does not appear overnight but has been with us all along. It is just that we had failed to see him all this while. A curtain had veiled our sights all this while. It has now been drawn aside and we have begun to realize his presence 24/7.
On my very first visit to the Nadi reader in 2002, he assisted me in determining my Nadi by skimming through the "pages" of the Nadi and reading out details and personalities of scores of people that was etched out in the treated palm leaves called Nadi or Olai by the Siddhas in the past. I accepted the brief details that pertained to me and rejected those details that did not describe me. Only when I could safely acknowledge that all the details read out to me described me fully and completely could the Nadi reader and I jointly come to terms and accept that the Nadi leaf was written for me. As we were into our third stack of Nadi, there was one that described my name, my parent's name, the number of siblings, my job, my dwelling, and number of children correctly. It came so close to describing me that just as I thought that that palm leaf that particular we had singled out was mine, it was revealed and read out that my wife's name was Manohari. I stopped short of acknowledging that the Nadi was mine. My wife's name was not that. We moved on to look further but never found my leaf. We took a break. My Nadi was only available on another visit some two weeks later. Going through a similar routine of question and answer, we came to arrive at a leaf that accurately described me and we went on to read the Nadi in full. The question raised then as to who was this Shanmugam Avadaiyappa that fitted my description in all other aspects but was living with another lady named Manohari? Are there parallel worlds and is this one of many? On a similar note, it is said that we are made in seven similar images. Many have told me that they have seen me when in actuality I wasn't anywhere near them. Then there was an instant where as I waited for the signals to turn green a pedestrian crossed in front of me. I was taken aback to see one of my seven clones walk by. I then began to believe the others who had mentioned seeing me.
Before I even laid eyes on my gurus Supramania Swami and Tavayogi, I was at Ongakarakudil waiting for Tavathiru Rengaraja Desigar's blessing. After several attempts to ask for his blessings, he told me that stepping into Ongkarakudil in Trichy was itself a blessing. I felt offended then not understanding the truth behind what he said. I took it that I was not supposed to be there. Today I understand that his place had the potential to shower blessings on all who arrived without him having to raise his hand in blessing. I saw the divine hand of Agathiyar at play. The Siddhas had stood in the way. But it was a blessing of another sort for I met Supramania Swami who was to become my guru the next day at Tiruvannamalai. If I had been blessed by Rengaraja Desigar or initiated for that matter my journey would have stopped there. He must have foreseen that my destiny lay with Supramania Swami and Tavayogi later. He let me go. I understood later that I had a bond and a previous engagement, and a dept to settle having owed Supramania Swami in the past birth, that had to see the light of the day and needed to be fulfilled.