I was disturbed before and after writing the last post "Addressing some disturbing issues." Those thorny issues mentioned in the post mooted me to write on them. Then after posting I did not know how readers would perceive and receive it. But when a reader wrote me the following message I was relieved that my views were accepted.
Vanakam aiya, I just read thru you blog post from 20th June on " Story of mantra revealed ", to 8th July on "Living under shadow of guru" till latest one 10th July on "Addressing some disturbance..."
Wow! You have wrote painstakingly about it! Its so mesmerizing aiya to read the whole blog from the date I left since lockdown and WFH started! 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Sorry to write at this wee- hours but i feel i need to tell you this:
I have Amazing journey from the day i came across your blog and read it! Keep writing aiya💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
There is another piece that I wrote on another thorny issue that of whether there is a need to be a vegetarian or otherwise while walking the path of the Siddhas. I had written it, then withheld the post for the topic might likely wake up sleeping giants. A controversy might likely ensue. Although many truths were revealed by the Siddhas, I have my reservation and hesitate to post it. It might not go well with certain quarters. Just as Agathiyar used me to tap the remove button and remove the participants of the WhatsApp groups a year and a half back, let him move my fingers to publish the post too. Then I shall know that he wants it to be made known to the public.
Speaking about the public, nobody turns an eye and appreciates the garbage collector. They are a very important link in our circle and in our daily cycle of living. Only when the workers came down with Covid-19 and the trucks did not move and the rubbish started accumulating since last Sunday, people began to take notice about their existence and went asking around. I have deep respect for them. An architect in my former office, to make ends meet in a foreign land and support his studies back then in his university days, worked as a garbage collector. After returning to serve and work in Malaysia, he has moved over to Australia with his wife and son since. I have deep respect for him too.
Just as the garbage collector has a major role to play, we too have come with a role and purpose. But it saddens to see many among us either living for themselves or go by with life aimlessly. I was a spoilt brat being the second youngest in a family of 7. The good Lord kept us fine, though there were periods where we went with just one meal a day. The leftovers from lunch were served for dinner. But life was fun. We would play all day long and come home for a quick meal and return to our play. I never knew troubles. I am grateful my parents gave me a good education too. I am grateful to the divine for looking over our shoulders. I am grateful that I am still around to chat with my granddaughters over Skype and WhatsApp. What more could one ask for? Looking around I never complain much over what life has offered me. I have had blessings all the way. But seeing the state of the world around us and its "inhabitants" saddens me. Watching the numerous documentaries that bring to us the sad state of things cuts deep into our hearts making us weep. Why has man fallen so low I ask myself at times? All the saints profess that human birth is difficult to come by and one should cherish it. The world's population stands at 7.9 billion as of June 2021. Are all 7.9 grateful to have taken birth as a human? Does that mean the rest of creation is not important at all? We are told that while we are dependent on animals and plants, they can survive without humans. Yet we consider ourselves as superior beings. If man goes extinct no harm comes to the planet, but it is not so of animals and plants. Animals and plants too are interdependent on each other.
I am sad people have lost touch with nature. A neighbor told me it was a waste to have a backyard where we have some plantain trees growing. His priority was in increasing the carpet area, the area of a property inside the external walls. He said I had underutilized my built-up area. Then I had another neighbor who questioned why I had so many trees planted in the small ground what that remained of my front yard. What could I say? They don't know my small garden has many visitors to it. A squirrel spends time dozing on its branches while butterflies come around fluttering their fragile tiny and colorful wings. Ants make a beeline to who knows where and what. Snails of all sizes and all kinds of leeches and slugs make their way slowly and an occasional toad croaks aloud. Dig the soil and we see earthworms boring even further down. The species of birds known as Lonchura punctulata or burung pipit used to stay the whole day in our garden. Their coming was rather intriguing. Agathiyar in my Nadi reading told me to feed what he called spotted birds or புள்ளிகள். When I came home after the reading these spotted birds were perching on the branches in my garden. Amazing right? They left when we were stranded in my daughter's home during the lockdown in March of last year. What was an orchard nearby when it was developed as a housing estate drove the animals and birds away into our houses looking for food. There were monkeys and snakes too. Where else can the go? The irony is that we intrude into their space and habitat and complain that they trespass. We have seen the man-elephant conflict once too often at Kallar too.
We just don't know how fragile we are. If nature was to lease its force on us we shall be wiped out for good. Man has to respect nature and start to live in harmony with it. It is not sufficient to tame and breed animals alone, the animals in the wild need to multiply. Here too is a chemistry and a ratio or proportion. As in all things there needs to be a balance. The wise have always watched nature and learned from it. Nature sure does teaches us if only we are willing to watch and listen. Nature shall then bring us back to the basics and simplicity of life.
I use to wonder whenever I see the moon and the stars in the sky, how many watch them. Yes they know its a full moon and a new moon reading the almanac or seeing the calendar. Our ancestors sailed the oceans looking up to the skies. They saw the signs in nature and knew many things. We have to be told through media. Although we have gained much with technology we have equally lost much of the simplest things in live like watching the clouds go by. We hardly look towards the skies these days to see if it would rain and whether we would need to carry an umbrella along. These days the smartphone forewarns us of afternoon showers.
I think my era was last to be with nature. The generations to come are Tech-savvy and savvy consumers. I fear there shall be a wide gap between nature and them.
... unless we show some respect to it.