After our recent encounter at the Ayurveda center where the masseuse called to stop us from signing on to a proposed treatment over seven days at their annexed center but instead invited my wife to come in for treatment at her main center, I have decided to go with the flow. I knew that I was no more in charge of my life but he is and decides what is good for us. What surprised us was that she was persistently nudging us to come in for "the treatment" from the moment we arrived. Although the second physician too had not given us the schedule to begin treatment as yet, the masseuses went ahead and treated my wife. Bhogar later came to reveal that he was the one who had called my wife in for the treatment and she only needed one single session.
So while the eye doctor at a private Eye Centre referred my daughter to his buddy in the government hospital telling us that she would be in safe hands and that his friend would do the necessary procedures and operation, but offered to work on my cataract, I took both occasions as a sign from the Siddhas. But as the cost of the procedure in a government hospital would only be a tenth of that compared at the eye center, I was contemplating whether to go over to the government clinic that would then refer me to the specialist at the general hospital. But the Siddhas had a way of persuading me to take up the invitation immediately. I started having the feeling of grittiness in my eyes, a sensation similar to having sand in the eyes, that mysteriously came about just about that time. This became severe and unbearable on Friday night. I could not wait for daybreak. I walked into the eye center the next morning and asked the doctor to go ahead with the procedure. Mysteriously as it did come, the grittiness in both eyes stopped after the first eye was done. I realized that Agathiyar had decided what was good for me and didn't want me to change the course or plans he had for me, hence he brought on the irritation and discomfort to get me to see the doctor again immediately. The doctor briefed me on the procedure in simple terms, taking away the fear in me. Both the operations went well. Agathiyar later came by and told us that he had sent both me and my daughter to the respective places and had arranged for us to undergo the procedures. It amazes us as he had used modern-day technologies and the facilities and the experience and skills of those in the medical profession to give us both our sight back. He could have sent me and my daughter to any holy man and have him mumble some mumbo jumbo and splash some holy water or cover us with ash and send us back telling me that we will be cured. But he did not. He had both of us undergo surgery. He, time and again gave my daughter confidence to face her major procedure telling her that he would stand by her. He added that he would take on her pain. Even after the surgery, they were there to console my daughter. I had kept the painting of Lord Murugan that adorned last year's calendar tugged away between my books on the bookshelf at the head of her bed. I was surprised to see the painting on her bed when I went in into her room. I thought that she had kept the painting with her and prayed to Lord Muruga the night before. But she told me she did not know how it got there. She was equally surprised to see the painting. The painting had somehow nudged its way from among the books and found its way to her bedside. We saw it as a sign of the Lord comforting her.
Just as the cornea is said to let in 2/3's of the light and the lens the rests, the doctors have successfully performed the procedure. Now it is up to the prapanjam to lend a hand in healing us. Agathiyar came to teach us to bring the prapanjam within us by raising our hands up into the air and reaching out to the cosmos and inhale deeply and exhale at length. He said that the prapanjam and he shall do the rests.
It is indeed comforting to know that the divine shadow us. When my daughter had to walk quite a distance to meet her friend in the university she studied in to deliver the accessories that she had made for her, and after having walked some distance she felt tired. As it was almost dark, she was a bit worried and regretted having decided to walk rather than wait for the shuttle bus that plies through the campus grounds. That is when she saw an Oriental Magpie-robin perching on the railing along the footpath. As she came up to it, my daughter began to address it. She tells me that she conversed with the bird, "I saw the Robin and talked to it asking it to accompany me." To her surprise, the tiny bird kept her company, following her from tree to tree, flying ahead of her and perching on the branches of the trees waiting for her to catch up until she reached the spot where her friend was waiting. It then left. She then took the bus back. On another afternoon, as she was making her way up the flight of steps to a hall for a rehearsal of an event, the bird landed in front of her and hopped onto each step of the stairs till the top before it flew away. Lord Muruga came later to confirm his presence.
Agathiyar is a very practical man. There is no mumbo jumbo when it comes to treatment. Once he asked us to pick the leaves off the herbal plants in the garden and bring him some kitchen spices too. He asked for the mortar and pestle and began pounding the ingredients that he had asked for. He applied the poultice on the knee of a devotee who had tripped and fallen while playing soccer. Then again, he had my wife go over to the government clinics and general hospitals for all her ailments except the time we took up the queue from Bhogar to visit the Ayurveda center for her frozen shoulder. When my daughter and I came down with dengue fever he had us warded in the general hospital where he later revealed that he came with Tirumular to raise my daughter's blood count and platelet. When my other daughter fractured her leg he had us continue the treatment at the general hospital, warning us that seeking alternative means would worsen her condition. When we were worried that she would not be able to continue with her 3-month internship and we managed to convince the doctor on call at the emergency ward to provide an alternative to his suggestion that she rest for some three months in a fiberglass cast, he then agreed to affix an Ilizarov Apparatus that would provide mobility for her to attend and complete her internship. But Agathiyar came in the form of a senior doctor making his rounds the next day at the wards and took us to task for asking for this procedure. He reverted back to the fiberglass cast and asked us to be patient though it did take longer for her to recover. But when she had a mysterious fungus eating its way into her toes many years later, he told us to seek Siddha treatment for he said modern creams would not work.
Hence I have come to realize that by devoting our lives to the Siddhas they shall come to stop us from making the wrong decisions and direct us to the right place and people. This is where our years of worship pay off. We can never repay his kindness and compassion. We are indebted to him for life.