Our learning starts with our parents teaching us and then progresses as we attend school. The learning continues as we take up a job and are placed in an entirely different environment. Experience begins to become our teacher now. If previously we were sheltered and spoon-fed, now we encounter and face all sorts of experiences as we begin our lives as young adults. We then begin to shoulder responsibilities becoming a husband or a wife and becoming parents. The need to share our lives with extended families emerges as the caring within the family grows. Our once self-centered life is now centered around the family and society. Soon one retires and takes up a social activity to keep his time occupied. This is a typical life that we live. But in all these the learning never stops.
Betty J Eadie in revealing the secrets and mysteries of life in her book "Embraced by the Light", understood the earth to be a place where we schooled. She adds that whatever we become of here is meaningless unless it has brought benefit to others. In serving others we grow spiritually. If Betty says that we are here to school, Neale Donald Walsch in his "Conversation with God" to "Awaken the Species" says that we are already well equipped with sufficient knowledge and have only to apply it here, giving life a purpose and making it holy.
If in the early days we read about religion and became well equipped to answer doubts and questions, it was always superficial in nature without the element of the experience. These days the Siddhas create the scenario, the events, and the happenings, giving us the much-needed experience.
The most distinct test of my obedience to Agathiyar came by way of a series of events that he laid on my path the moment I left the Nadi reader having read my Nadi. Throughout the Nadi reading, Agathiyar lectured me on anger management. I knew that my mother had reached him first. She was a smart lady. She knew who to approach. Since she knew I loved him a lot, my mother used to pray to Agathiyar earnestly asking him that I should drop my anger. Agathiyar heeding the plea from my mother for help in having me drop my anger addressed me that day for one solid hour. I had no choice but to sit and listen to him. The divine shall come to the call or prayer of a mother.
The moment I came out from the Nadi reading with my wife and daughter accompanying me, Agathiyar put me to test immediately to see if I could uphold what he had just told me. It was a Sunday and as there were ample parking lots available, please tell me why should someone choose to double park his car beside mine? The doors were locked. Looking inside I saw the handbrake drawn up. How was I to push the car then? It was an extremely hot afternoon and I was very hungry. The heat from the sun and the heat from the furnace in my tummy aggravated my anger in seeing the dilemma I faced with. No one came for his car as I kept honking. My family was having a field day at my expense looking towards the sky and asking if the Siddhas had installed closed-circuit cameras. They were watching the fun together with the Siddhas. Nudging the car continuously, I managed to move it sufficiently enough for me to drive off.
We drove further up the street to have our lunch at a reputable restaurant, but as service was extremely slow we decided to leave. Now driving into another street to park, we walked to another restaurant along the main street. That is when I saw a popular radio host walk towards us. I smiled at him. He stopped and walked up to me. He held my shoulders and backed me up against the wall of the shophouses. He pointed to both my wife and daughter and inferred that my children should follow like their mother in keeping a large kumkum or bindi rather than a minute one. Hunger makes a man angry, right? Top it up with an hour of detention class with the grandmaster, an annoying driver who had no brains, and a restaurant that delayed the food, my anger escalated further and hit the top charts on that Sunday afternoon. I told the radio host that it was their choice and that if he was so concerned about upholding the culture and tradition he should come in vesti first rather than in pants. He fled upon seeing my outburst. I had lost the challenge that Agathiyar put me through. He had pieced together the whole scene upon the stage that he set up almost instantaneously after giving me a detailed SOP and guideline, and sat back to watch how I handled it. I had failed terribly in my test on anger management that day.
Betty J Eadie in writing on her near-death experience, says she watched the world from the heavens. She saw beacons of light shoot up into the sky. These were supposedly the prayers emitting from individuals. Some were broad and large while others were akin to penlights and mere sparks. She saw angels rushing to answer these prayers, responding to the brighter lights or prayers first. Insincere prayers were not heard while those in dire straits and immediate need of help are responded to immediately. She was also told that there is no greater prayer than that of a mother for her children. These were the purest of prayers with no self-interest in them. The mother gives herself to the children, hence her prayers are intense. The mother's prayer is always heard.
Betty has several pieces of advice for us too. She reminds us that in praying for someone at his deathbed one should ask for God's will to be done, rather than insist on our desire, otherwise we could end up frustrating and or delaying the transition that the person was undertaking. Avoid a conflict from arising at these times. It would help to just let the soul go. She adds that God who is fully able to see the past and future knows best. The outcome is always perfect although we see it otherwise.
Then she says that there was no need to repeat a prayer or requests. With a single prayer said, then comes faith and lots of patience. Pray for whatever you desire and let go. Let God do his will. If and when his will becomes ours too, we see the prayer answered.
Finally, she reminds us not to forget to thank him when he has granted our wishes. Betty says it beautifully, "In humility, we must ask and in gratitude, we must receive." Prayers bring God to us. With constant prayers, we will come to know that he lives among us.
A teenager who grew up in the home of his uncle took to translating the Nadi readings for non-Tamilians who came before the Nadi readers from India stationed in his uncle's home. Many years later together with his wife, they brought many seekers of the Nadi to the temples both in Malaysia and India to help them carry out remedies. When his wife's relative took ill and was bedridden for five years, this couple never gave up on him and his family. They would refer to the Nadi on their behalf and go do the remedies too. But sadly the relative passed away. All the other relatives came down hard on this couple venting their anger and frustration on them and Agathiyar for not saving the man. They saw all the efforts of this couple as a waste of time, money, and energy. There is never a Nadi reading for a dead man. But Agathiyar made an exception in this case. He called the couple in for a reading after the man died. Agathiyar asked the couple, "What am I supposed to do? I had repeatedly told you to remind him (the man) to lift his spirits high and fight and never give up. You too did as told and carried out all the remedies I gave. But that soul asked me to take him back as he could not bring himself to see his family continue to suffer further in taking care of him. You are asking me to keep him alive while he has given up on life and decided that he wanted to leave. Tell me now to whom shall I listen to?" The couple understood the deep message that Agathiyar put forth for their understanding, bringing clarity to the whole episode. The relatives though were only seeing the physical and material Agathiyar saw the soul.
Ram Dass in "Paths to God", Harmony Books, 2004, tells us another similar story. A woman whose son was bitten by a cobra begged Shirdi Sai to give some sacred ash to save him. Sai did not. When a devotee begged him on her behalf, Sai replied "Don't get involved in this. Her son's soul has already entered another body in which he can do especially good work, work that he could not do in this one. If I draw him back into this body the new one he has entered will have to die in order for this one to live. I might do it for your sake but have you considered the consequences. Have you any idea of the responsibility and are you prepared to assume it." The devotee was only seeing the mother's grief. Sai saw a bigger picture.
Ruzbeh N. Bharucha in his blog and writings at https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/the-master-s-grace reveals,
Yes, the laws of karma are rigid and the cards are dealt without emotion. What one has sowed, one shall reap. The experience shall be gone through. There is no escaping this fact. And yet throughout the ages, through time, Sages, mystics, Sufis, the Holy Scriptures, all proclaim that The Master is Merciful. On one hand we have the unyielding laws of cause and effect. On the other hand we have the mercy and tenderness of The Master.
When a devotee stood before Bhogar enquiring about her sibling, Bhogar came on sternly telling her that he shall not lift even a finger in bringing him out of his sufferings. He has to go through it. Bhogar though assured her that he shall be safe. On the other hand, Agathiyar manipulated the fate of a newborn fated to take another birth elsewhere just for the sake of his devotee. Even as Goddess Ma came to remind Agathiyar of the consequences of their action and reconfirm his instruction, Agathiyar told her to go ahead. The child was saved.
Ruzbeh Bharucha in channeling Baba Sai's energy says, "Give your divine best to each moment and then leave the rest joyously to one’s Goddess, God, Guru. But most importantly He wants each one of us to give each moment our very best and then leave the rest to one’s karmic blueprint and the grace and wisdom of one’s Master.
Author Balakumaran in his "Guru Vazhi", Visa Publications, 2005, mentions an episode that happened in the presence of Yogi Ramsuratkumar. Seeing a man and woman holding a child and waiting in line in the hot sun to have a darshan of the Yogi, Balakumaran pitying them, whispered to the Yogi asking him to see them first. The Yogi ignored him and went on talking with his devotees. Balakumaran asked again. The Yogi ignored him again. After Balakumaran asked repeatedly, finally the Yogi asked him, "Is it disturbing you?" "Ask them to come", he said. Balakumaran invited them in cutting the queue. The couple came up and sat before the Yogi. They asked for something to which the Yogi replied "My father will grant" and went on talking to others. After 15 minutes, Balakumaran motioned them to leave so that others could meet the Yogi too. But the couple refused to move and replied arrogantly, "Let the Yogi say." After a while, Balakumaran again requested them to leave but they told him to mind his business. Sensing the tense situation the Yogi demanded that they leave. They left abruptly, without even showing respect to the Yogi. The Yogi turned to Balakumaran and told him, "This is my place and I know who to let in." Balakumaran only saw the couple's discomfort. The Yogi saw a bigger picture. We can never foresee what is to take place. Our judgment often fails us. The divine knows best.
So too did Bhogar teach me a few lessons when he orchestrated a drama or lila to have me learn lessons from it. While he treated a couple's two-year-old child he told the mother of the child to go for Kerala treatment that would ease her bodily discomfort. He also told them that I knew the center. It reached my mind then that he was referring to the Ayurvedic treatment that a fellow devotee had taken for his pain in his shoulder after having a fall. Taking the cue and since the treatment came highly recommended from a Siddha, I booked an appointment to have my wife see the physician for her frozen shoulder. As I dropped her off to find a parking space, the devotee to whom Bhogar addressed and who had tailed us to make an appointment pointed out to another center along the same street that carried the same treatment. I went in to verify with whom I had made the appointment. The lady at the counter acknowledged that the appointment was with them and that I needed to bring my wife over as they were waiting to treat her. Walking over to the other center, I found my wife engaged in consultation with the in-house physician. Seeing me enter the ladies at the counter surprisingly invited me to join my wife. I stopped to tell them that I had made an appointment with the other, they answered that it was all right to see the physician here. As we were about to sign up for a 7-day scheduled treatment I received a call from the center telling me that they were waiting for us. I told them that I was already in consultation with their physician. But the lady behind the phone insisted that I turn up at the other center. Dazed I told the physician that we need to sort this matter out and enquired if both the centers came under the same umbrella and management. They replied telling me that it was an annexed building as the main center could not cope with the crowd. I told them that I shall see what the other side has to say as they were very persistent that I came over.
Going over to the main center, the lady at the counter invited my wife in for her treatment. I asked her what treatment she was going to give when the report from the physician had not arrived in her hands. The physician had told us that as they had to prepare the ingredients for her treatment it will take some time for them to reach back to us with the schedule for her treatment. The lady kept asking us to come in for the treatment. Finally, she told me to drop the earlier diagnosis and see her physician. Since I could not make head nor tail about the whole episode I chose to go with the flow. The physician we saw suggested yet another approach and treatment differing from the earlier and told us that they shall get back to us regarding the schedule for the suggested 7-day treatment. I understood that there was not to be any form of treatment that day but only consultation from both the physicians. As we came out the lady at the counter who we came to know later, was a masseuse too, insisted that my wife walk in for the treatment! After an hour and a half of jostling around between the centers and another hour and a half of treatment that surprised us as both physicians told us that the treatment was not to start until sometime in the first week of April, my wife walked out refreshed and smiling. As for the devotee who was shown the center by Bhogar she signed up for the 7-day treatment and had to wait for the center to schedule the start of her treatment.
Receiving our schedule by Whatsapp later we did not make any changes to the timings as they had tried to accommodate the times we had asked for. But as it came to our attention that my daughter had to see the eye specialist and undergo several procedures I called the center up to postpone the treatment until we settled our daughter's case. Since another devotee who took up the cue from Bhogar too, was told that the slots for women were taken up I proposed to the center that they switch my wife slots with the devotee's mother. But there was hesitation on their part and they were giving reasons that it cannot be done. The one on the phone identified himself as a physician when I told him not to complicate matters and to refer to the physician. In fact, I was assisting them in bringing a client. But there obviously was a stumbling block there. Then I told him the reason we came over was that Bhogar had recommended us to them. He seemed ignorant of the Siddha. He knew Dhanvantri though. When I asked him if he knew Agathiyar, he told me that, "That is Siddha practice and we are different." I told him that since he viewed them as different I shall not go ahead with the treatment for my wife.
The devotee who was shown to the place and signed for the 7-day program stopped going after the sixth session as she felt no improvement in her condition. As we sat together to go through the series of unfortunate events and wondering why Bhogar had shown us there in the first place, and whether it was the right place that we went to, as all things turned topsy-turvy and did not make any sense in the end, Agathiyar in the midst of our discussion arrived and invited Bhogar to explain and to clarify to us. Bhogar told us the following. In addressing my doubt, he said,
"Man has 5 bodies or sheaths. The place you went to was right. Our "subordinates" did the treatment. Your wife was to receive the treatment only once. (Hence the reason we stopped going further). In Siddha there are variations. That is how the practitioners view it and see it. I sent you there so that you could come to see that these differences existed among the practitioners. You have learned well. You have been enlightened (on this matter)."
Then he turned to the devotee,
"I sent you over because of issues in your body. The (hot) water that was used (for treatment) carried medicinal properties. It shall penetrate your physical body and go within and cleansed all the associated bodies too. You shall not see immediate results in this treatment that we (their subordinates) carried out. Please be patient. I shall come and deliver unto you what is required from time to time. You shall be relieved of your pain. Trust us."
Bhogar then gave us all a general reminder.
"Each time you approach a treatment you need to have faith in it that it shall heal you. Otherwise, the treatment would not be effective nor shall you see the desired results. Even your slightest suspicion shall reverse the results. Do not be confused."
மனிதனுக்கு 5 உடல் உண்டு. சென்ற இடம் சரி. உங்களுக்குச் சிகிச்சை அளிக்கும்பொழுது எங்களின் நவ கன்னிகள் மட்டுமே வந்து செய்தார்கள். ஷண்முகனை நான் அங்கு அனுப்பியது ஒருமுறைக்கு மட்டுமே. ஆம் சித்தத்திலும் வேற்றுமை உண்டு. அதை அவர்கள் காண்பதுண்டு. அதை நீ அறிவதற்காகவே யாம் உன்னை அங்கு அனுப்பினோம். அதையும் நீ சரிவரக் கற்றுக்கொண்டாய். உனக்குத் தெளிவு கூடியது.
மகளே உன்னை உன் உடல் பொருத்து உன்னை அனுப்பிவைத்தோம். அந்நீரில் மூலிகைகள் கலந்து உள்ளன. அது உன் உடலைத் துளைத்து கொண்டு உட்சேன்று உன் தேகங்களை சுத்தம் செய்யும். எங்களது சிகிச்சைகுறித்த காலத்தில் உமக்கு எதுவும் பலன் அளிக்காது. பொறுத்து கோல். தக்க சமயம் யாம் வந்து உமக்குச் செய்ய வேண்டியதை செய்து கொண்டு இருப்போம். உனது வலி போகும். எங்களை மட்டும் நம்பு.
எப்பொழுதும் ஒரு சிகிச்சையை அணுகும்பொழுது மனதில் உறுதி வேண்டும். அவை நமக்குக் குணம் அடையும் என்று. இல்லாவிடில் அவை பலன் அளிக்காது. உனது சிறிய சந்தேகம் கூட அப்பலனை தடுத்து விடும். குழப்பம் வேண்டாம்.
Bhogar brought clarity to the whole episode and put our doubts and questions to rest. As we stood at the threshold of the Siddha path sometime back Goddess Ma came to tell us that the Siddha path is one of learning from experience. How true her words have come to be.