If in the past we received the news of a death every once in a while, we are currently in the midst of witnessing many deaths take place around us as a result of the pandemic. We pray for those who call in to place a prayer, that the victim should recover. If that was not to be, accept the fact. Accept the reality of life. Pray then that they should not suffer further. Let them go. If the person cannot be saved even after all the best medical care is given our prayer should then be to ask that they should not suffer further and that their soul when it departs is placed in a high place or order. But that does not come easy for most of us. We panic, cry, become stressed out, become frustrated that there is no improvement and change, become depressed, and start the blame game blaming others including the doctors and God, as our close ones lie before us in a coma or sedated. Why burn ourselves out? The doctors are there. They know what needs to be done. Let them do their work. If they fail rest assured that they have given their best in wanting to save our kith and kin and that God has other plans for them. Our job is only to pray silently that our loved ones should recover. We need to be there for them if they do survive or do the last rites if they don't. Agathiyar always reminds us to let go of the souls when they are ready to depart. Any interference on our part shall disrupt the journey of the souls. Death is not the end of the journey. Life although ends here with our death, the soul lives on. Though it is the end of one's lifespan, the soul lives on and on and on forever. For instance, Tavayogi was said to be a very old soul having lived during the times of Agathiyar. He came back for us.
The night Buddha attained enlightenment, he went through several stages of awakening. One of it was where he had the recollection of his previous lives. Sogyal Rinpoche in his book "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", HarperSanFrancisco, 1993, quotes Buddha’s "The Middle Length Sayings" originally quoted in H.W.Schumann's "The Historical Buddha", London, Arkana, 1989. The author narrates Buddha’s experience. In the first watch, he saw his past lives.
"I remembered many, many former existences I had passed through: (he mentions a hundred thousand - SH) in various world-periods. I knew everything about these various births: where they had taken place, what my name had been, which family I had been born into, and what I had done. I lived through again the good and bad fortune of each life and my death in each life, and came to life again and again. In this way I recalled innumerable previous existences with their exact characteristic features and circumstances. This knowledge I gained in the first watch of the night."
In the second watch of the night, Buddha gained knowledge of karma.
"With the heavenly eye, purified and beyond the range of human vision, I saw how beings vanish and come to be again. I saw high and low, brilliant and insignificant, and how each obtained according to his karma a favorable or painful rebirth."
This is the right moment for us to reset ourselves and attune to these higher energies. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in his book "Science of Being and Art of Living", a Meridian book, 1995, says "Expansion of happiness is the purpose of creation." Instead what has happened is "the expansion of suffering that is a result of destruction." Nature was happy till man encroached, invaded, raped, plundered, and enslaved her for his selfish needs. We turned into monsters and miserable beings, losing the happiness that we knew once existed in us. When many prophesized the end of the world was near in 2012 with some masters predicting that asteroids would be on a collision course with the earth and the world would come to a standstill momentarily, revert anticlockwise and regain its normalcy later, bringing forth a new world, and a new understanding, having erased the earlier memories much as in formatting the hard disk, however much I liked the idea, it did not take place. While I welcomed that particular prediction, my teen daughter then told me, "Papa, why do you pray that the world should end. I haven't even started to live life yet!" It made sense. It was said later to be postponed to 2018. It did not happen either. These were predictions given by Rishis. They could never go wrong. Could it be that the mode and method of destruction had changed with all the prayers that went in as people feared the world would come to an end? Would the said catastrophe take another form then by their grace, maybe with minimal damage to the world?
In "BBC Earth - The Planets S1 - The Godfather" Professor Brian Cox explains that "without Jupiter (whom he regards as the Godfather of the planets) we would not be here." Once in the distant past ", the young planet went on a rampage. The giant planet embarked on a voyage of destruction across the solar system that transformed the destiny of the planets and the course of life on earth. The Godfather of the planet paved the way for us to inherit the earth. Although it flings rocks from the asteroid belt our way it also protects us. Jupiter intervenes becoming an effective shield. Rocks are captured by Jupiter's gravity and forces tear it apart - its journey cut short." In astrology, Jupiter is akin to the Guru. Planets are known to either favor or harm but Agathiyar says with the grace of the Siddhas they become guru or mentor.
A Yogi was said to have turned to a couple of friends on the banks of a river and reminded mankind that the worst was yet to come referring to the predictions that never took place back in 2012. Did he mean the current pandemic? Are they telling us that they are still in charge and their finger is still resting on the reset button? Are they forcing us to change our ways and bring on drastic changes in our lifestyles, faith, and believe by throwing in the pandemic?
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says that there is one Being, "the absolute existence of unmanifested nature." He says "its tendency to vibrate and manifest is referred to as prana or in other words, Being vibrates by virtue of prana and manifests." If only when it moves we know there is wind. If only when it moves we know there is life. Both these are only possible when there is prana. Only then we see manifestation take place. Otherwise, it is inert or in an unmanifested state of nature. All that is seen and unseen is an expression of prana.
Agathiyar says there are both the seen and unseen and although sight has its limitations, one thing that reaches out and is felt by all is vibration. He tells us that he is the vibration referring particularly to the vibration that arises and becomes pretty obvious when we connect with him in prayers, in performing rituals, in doing charity, in meditation, in connecting with the Prapanjam, and whenever he comes. Lord Shiva in finally answering our prayers, wants us to tap the prana from the Prapanjam, intensify it within, and further strengthen and energize it by the recitation of both the mantras of Lord Shiva and Lord Narayana and use this intense vibration in cleaning it. Would this immense energy that manifests as Agathiyar then take on the pandemic? Would Agathiyar who is known to perform Siddhis take on the Siddhi of Aṇima or the ability to become smaller than the smallest, reducing his body to the size of an atom, and wipe out the virus that is minuscule for our sake? If Lord Shiva had invoked Agathiyar to manifest to bring stability to the world in the past as we are told, could he be invoking Agathiyar again to help us rid the world of the pandemic? Just as when righteousness is at its lowest ebb and evil reigns in the world, when the needs of the world, cosmic necessities, and the needs of its inhabitants propel the divine to descend, where the un-manifest takes the manifested form could Agathiyar save us?
It is possible, knowing that Agathiyar told my daughter that he and Tirumular came to raise her blood count when she was down with dengue and he had a hand in the eye operations that both of us went through. As Agathiyar says while man chooses to only believe when a miracle happens the Siddhas say belief and it shall happen, we shall choose to believe. Meanwhile, let us continue following Lord Shiva's command.