I received a surprise letter in the post a couple of days ago. I immediately recognized my daughter's handwriting on the envelope. Opening it up there was a drawing from my 4-year-old granddaughter. She had drawn some characters and sticking some stickers she wrote the words "Hi ava and tata from Ushalini." How sweet of her. In this age of WhatsApp and messages, she chose to write to us. The digital images and messages although instant does not stand up to the ways of the old, the snail mail and photos that we could hold, feel, and cherish. The old photos that are stained and faded add to the nostalgic feelings we have each time we hold these photos in our hands. This is not available in digital form although we could Photoshop the photos. The handwritten mails are a treasure too. I still cherish and treasure some pieces written by my late father and the mails I received from both Supramania Swami and Tavayogi during the early years of correspondence with them. The handwritten Agaval of Ramalinga Adigal is available in print too. We get to see the saint painstakingly write these 1596 lines.
Once my daughter told us that Ushalini gagged and gasped for air when she swallowed a piece of sugar art placed on a cake that was in the shape of a heart. Although Ushalini was terrified, my daughter calmed her down saying now she had two hearts. Sharing this with us, I told her "Fear not" and that it shall dissolve or be digested in her stomach. The stomach shall "machine it." She asked if there was a machine in her stomach? My children will remember me for teaching maths from the basics. When they come to me with a math problem I could easily show them how it is solved. But would choose to go to the very beginning in how the formula was derived, henced taking much of their time. They stopped coming to me after that. And so I, as usual, went on to explain the process of digestion to her. I told her the hydrochloric acid and sulphuric acid😨 in the stomach will work to break it down. My other daughter then exclaimed what sulphuric acid? Guess what? Immediately my granddaughter asked, "Where did you study?" I was stunned. I guess I have been conning too many people for way too long. My granddaughter is here to check me.
I had to go back and take a class in biology. I came across a wonderful video explaining the process with CGI or Computer-generated imagery.
Don't believe what I have written in this blog. It might be true at this moment but might fail to hold ground as we progress spiritually. We should be prepared to let go of our hold on our knowledge, opinions, or our perspective of things as they keep changing with each new experience. Sometimes it is enhanced and fortified. At our times it is broken and dashed. A new perspective sets in only to be broken again. The cycle goes on and on. This is how we evolve. If it was needed of our parents to take us on an external exploration back then, with the coming of gurus like Supramania Swami and Tavayogi they nurture us and leave us to stand on our feet. We mature with the newfound experiences. These experiences dare us to take hold of our spiritual lives into our own hands then. That is the task of the guru. To give us the experiences that strengthen our souls. Our soul then takes us on this exploration further.
What you read here is personal truth and not objective truth as Neil deGrasse Tyson says. So to a scientist or a psychologist, he needs proof and not hearsay or something like "I have seen it". Now I understand why a psychologist who approached me after reading my blog, suggested if what I saw and heard could be hallucinations. I told him to walk the path that I did and find out for himself rather than dissect me.
When Neil is asked "In your career as a scientist if there is that one question you wish to address what would that science question be", he replies that "I wonder if in fact, the human intellect is sufficient to actually decode the full operation of this universe in which we live." In speaking about beings from higher dimensions he says, "Their simplest thoughts would transcend our deepest thoughts. And maybe to them, it is obvious while we are here groping in the dark." He goes on to "think about the questions that we do not know yet to ask because discoveries yet to come but when they arrive put us into a new vista, a new place to stand, enabling us to see questions undreamed or unimagined before we got there."
We can relate to these pretty well going by the petty questions that we initially asked of Agathiyar and then realized that they were futile to the soul's growth. As we sat and figured out what to ask further, we then expressed our desire to serve him throughout the births which he shoots down too. Neil says "We need to ask the question that is beyond everyone's reach and adds that by definition we can't because we have not got there yet." Although we hesitated to ask about Gnanam for none of us knew what it was, then Agathiyar reaches out to our intellect, assisting us in asking the question to, to ask about Gnanam but after explaining about it we are told that that is beyond the reaches of many.
As Neil says, as we discovered more we were brought to a new vista and a new place of standing. It was time for the revelation. Agathiyar reveals the ultimate question that one should seek to ask - the means to join them, becoming one with them as a Siddha too. This too like Gnanam might not be achievable to us for we know pretty well where we stand and do not deserve these exalted states, but as Neil in ending his session says, "But that doesn't mean I should not dream of that frontier", yes let us dream on. No one can say anything for it is our dream.