When a devotee called to ask to pray for his mother who was hospitalized, Agathiyar came to reveal the nuance in the process of medical procedures, our prayers, in connecting with the Prapanjam, and all about healing. He told him that what the doctors deliver is two-thirds of the process and the remaining third depends on prayers to their individual Gods and Goddesses and reaching out to the Prapanjam to heal. He told him to do it rather than reaching out to others to pray for her. He reminded him that He was in him too as He was in all. He told him to acknowledge the fact that He was in him and reach out to the Prapanjam to heal her.
Earlier another devotee called up asking to pray for her parents too. I told her to first thank God for keeping her parents alive all this while. She wanted them to be around till she visits them, which was uncertain due to the lockdown. Granted. The choice of words and the preciseness in prayer are important in putting forward a prayer. Agathiyar had often told us to be careful in what we are praying for. It shall be granted. Although it might have hurt her I asked her suppose Agathiyar extended their lifespan and only to fall ill again or they mess it up again and fall ill, what next? Are we going to seek another extension? I told her to place a prayer so that the parents recover well. Leave it at that. Do not dictate the terms to God. Do not dictate how long they should live. I had to remind her that her parents should have the fighting spirit too. Their soul should desire to stay too. If it chose otherwise our prayers would interfere with their transmigration to another birth that was in waiting.
When a family came to Agathiyar to save their newborn baby's life, Agathiyar granted their wish solely because one member of the family was his devotee. The child survived. Then they had other worries come to the fore as to whether the child would be healthy. The fear set in whether the child shall be fine as doctors had told them earlier there was a slim chance of survival and that if the child did survive would have to live with certain birth defects. Sadly too the family forgot to thank him for saving their child's life and have yet to bring the child to him as he had asked to see him. Agathiyar told us that saving the soul was his priority, everything else was secondary and could be corrected later. But by his grace, the child is hale and healthy.
Man keeps on adding to his list of wishes. This is how we add to our prayers. We want them to be saved, then we want them to be perfectly healthy. We want sight, then we want a perfect 20/20 vision. We want them to survive so that we can carry out all their wishes. Again when misfortune strikes, they ask that they be alive for there is yet much to do for them. We keep adding to our neverending list of wishes refusing to acknowledge that there would be no end to our wishes. It reminds me of a story told by Dharmalinga Swami of Kollimalai. A Siddha wanted to redeem his student of many past births who was trapped again in the lure of the world. When called to follow him he replied that the mother wished to see him married. The Siddha left. After some time he came and made the calling again. The man replied that the mother wanted to see him have children. The Siddha left and arrived again at his doorstep. The man replied that he would like to see his daughter married off. The Siddha left. But the next time he stood before the man and the man told him that he wanted to see his grandchildren, the Siddha determined to bring him to his fold asked him for coconut water to quench his thirst. As the man climbed the tree and held on to the leaves, the Siddha cried out from below, "Stop! Are you holding on to the leaves or are they holding on to you?" The man came down and followed the Siddha gaining enlightenment at that very instant. Indeed it is we who grab on to things and give thousands of reasons to hold on to them.
Agathiyar came to clear our doubt whether the Mahabharatha war did take place as only a day earlier as I was reading before my family, portions from Agathiyar's "Agathiyar Gnanam" that made me asks questions if these Epics, Puranas, etc were myth or actually took place back in time. Agathiyar related an episode where Lord Krishna giving a discourse to Arjuna that came to be known as the Bhagavadgita, on the battlefield moments before the Kurukshetra war begins. Agathiyar told us that he could see the event right before his eyes at that very moment as he explained the meaning of the divine revelation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna. Agathiyar chocked and quivered as he spoke of Arjuna's dilemma in seeing his kith and kin arrayed before him. In a phrase, Agathiyar tells us that the karma that results from the action that is prompted by his God and carried out by his bhaktas or devotee who carry Him in his heart is shouldered by Him hence clearing another doubt that if God takes on all our karma man will go on a rampage in the name of God, blaming God as the one who drove him to do it. Agathiyar said it applied to souls like Arjuna and not the common man. This made me want to know more about Arjuna who could garner the love and respect of Lord Krishna and where the Lord dictates what he should do and relieves him of the fear that the sin of his actions shall be borne by the Lord himself.
Agathiyar went on to remind us of Bharathi who understood this and sang that during the times when he set out to do his thing it only ended in failure, but the moment he chose to do God's work it all fell into place.
தன்செய லெண்ணித் தவிப்பது தீர்ந்திங்குநின்செயல் செய்து நிறைவு பெறும்வண்ணம்
நின்னை சரணடைந்தேன், கண்ணம்மா
நின்னை சரணடைந்தேன்
When I came to this path I went looking up towards the many movements that were splinter groups from one main center. Since the core business of these establishments was the worship of the Siddhas I imagined wouldn't it be nice if they all merged and came together in a single movement? But I never saw it happen. Agathiyar answered my question as to why all the movements run under his name cannot be merged under one umbrella? He did the same to Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM) so that each shall carry the seed into their individual homes and have many more Agathiyar Vanam mushroom. That was his dream and that of Tavayogi too. Agathiyar who called me to his path asked that I spend several days in the company of Tavayogi at his Kallar Ashram which I did in 2005. Tavayogi who sowed the seed in us asked us to carry out a Homam in 2010. Soon he came to refine the ritual. Similarly, Agathiyar sent several seekers to watch and learn the puja or worship of the Siddhas carried out at my home in 2013. He wanted them to take back what they learned and practice it in their homes. That was my desire too rather than have them convene each week at my home. When Tavayogi came again to Malaysia in 2016 we brought him to several devotees' homes where they hosted and carried out the Siddha puja to Tavayogi's joy and liking. But Agathiyar, Tavayogi, and I were saddened that it was not taken up regularly and pursued. Agathiyar tells us that he waited seven years for many more to take up the worship of the Siddhas in their respective homes. As it did not happen he could not have me wait for them for my journey would be delayed. Hence he broke the group in September of 2019. We had to move on never looking back unless a need arised to go back to these rituals. The need had arisen now as the pandemic begins to show its ugly face.
A devotee and reader asked me why the many religious and spiritual heads could not come out with a common statement about the impending Covid-19 virus. That would give us some assurance and hope besides gaining some religious or spiritual guidelines on the do's and dont's, apart from the SOP's released by the authorities. We haven't come across any. If there are we are not aware of its existence. What we see is individual gurus and heads of individual establishments, concerned individuals among the public, and the media coming out with statements and visuals to alleviate fear among the public.
Praying for an answer and a means to cope with the danger, Lord Shiva finally spoke to us. He did not have a miracle cure but had us engage in fighting the pandemic with assistance from the Prapanjam. The task given out to each devotee was to be done in his or her own home and with their family members if possible avoiding the need to congregate at any center or a common place of meeting in lieu of the pandemic and the risks in transmission of the virus. Agathiyar too asked us to heed the instructions of the authorities. The few who stood by Agathiyar were roped in to conduct the Homam done in their homes respectively, by Lord Shiva. We have since then adopted what he had asked of us to do. In this short span of several days where concerned devotees began rituals in their homes as directed by Lord Shiva, Agathiyar who seemed pleased with our efforts came to assure us that all shall be well. He told us that the rituals that he had us stop doing since September of 2019, were brought back now as we are seeing the onslaught of the deadly Coronavirus. With a reminder that we shall abandon these rituals once things turn to normal, he reminded us that the rituals come in handy as and when there is an urgency for doing it. We were reminded to discontinue it once all is well. He does not want us to get hooked on them and remain caught at this stage of evolution and never progress further. They want us to remain in Yoga and Gnana. Only now do we realize that they had prepared us the past year and a half by asking us to go within and practice pranayama and yoga asanas, coming often to enquire if we did it and pushing us to do it. They wanted us to be receptors of the pranic energy that is tapped from the Prapanjam, and with the might of Agathiyar's energy within us send it all out again to be dispersed back to our surroundings hence protecting our surroundings and healing the Prapanjam. Let us continue to carry out this dual-task that has been assigned to us diligently. With rituals or Kriyai and Yoga as tools to combat the pandemic and the whole list of do's and dont's as meted out by the authorities let us battle this pandemic so that our children and grandchildren who had been kept within four walls can come out and see the beauty that this world has to offer. We owe them this.