My thoughts were so muddled the past couple of days. I guess disturbing things that came to my attention recently brought me to ask where is man heading. The past few posts, you might have guessed, reflects these. When we want to make this world a little better, there are those who are bent on destroying it. Where shall we go if we kill off this world? Taking these a little further we are shown the implications of our actions in movies and documentaries. Yet it is taken lightly and seen as entertainment and forgotten.
Then some religious and spiritual figures have scared us with theories and predictions etc. Even Lord Shiva and the Siddhas are said to be angry. That's what I have heard or read. Nobody actually paints a picture of a promising future. So where do we go or to whom shall we turn to? But the irony and sad thing about this is that it has been going on for ages in many forms and in many places. Famines and starvation have existed since then where people in great numbers starved and died. Looking towards the other bank of the river, many saints came along only to save themselves. We were left behind. The Siddhas came to uplight mankind but no one seems to listen to them either. All they want from us is a commitment to at least try to change for the better. Avvai came. Tiruvalluvar came. They gave us the ethics of good living. We are a far way from assimilating them in life. We do not make a resolution to change. It is all in the attitude. When our attitude changes to be inclusive rather than selfish, we shall look after the welfare of our neighbors, the community, society, and nation. But it needs all parties to participate. We asked if our individual actions could make a difference? If one person could change the world?
So last night I contemplated on bringing to a halt my writing. What do you know, this morning I receive the following message from a dear friend in Delhi.
"Hi Shan sir....just wanted to say that your articles on the blog lead one to silence, From questions to answers, from doubt to faith, from ignorance to gyan, from darkess to light. A delight for the true seeker.....from moments of weakness to strength....and I can carry on. Om Agathesaya Namah."
I messaged him, "Siva Siva tqvm. It's a boost to carry on. Truly I was contemplating stopping writing just last night and I receive your message this morning. Don't know what to say."
He replied further.
"and I was about to write that dont stop writing..... this is a divine happening orchestrating through you....Let it be."
These writings besides being a delight to the true seeker as my friend says are also meant for me. But I have failed miserably in complying, following, and adopting them too. I have stood before Agathiyar ashamed of myself many a time. Whatever I write has to be either my experience or has to be experienced by me before I share. Otherwise, it would be akin to forwarding messages as is the case in social media. The Siddhas too only disclose what works for them, meaning they have done it and have seen its results.
Man in coming to religion and spiritualism seeks to know the secrets that mystify the mind. He is attracted by words like kundalini and siddhi, mukti and samadhi, etc. But all this in the hands of the wrong person can do much damage to him and to others too. Hence the reason the saints began working on our attitude, habits, and character first. Tavayogi told me that the guru shall wait patiently to see us evolve from an ordinary man to a good man first with noble thoughts and high virtues. But we, the seekers and aspirants and disciples do not have the patience to wait that long and move on to other gurus who can give us instant results. We forget that there is nothing given by the gurus but that we need to flower from within. They are only catalyst to kindle the flowering within us. Then when the gurus are too generous we have disciples who cannot manage these energies. They struggle to take control of it and often have to bear the pain and suffering or live with it for the rest of their lives. Both body and mind have to be strengthened first before we indulge in any activity that might arise these subtle and powerful energies. A true guru would prepare the student first before having him indulge in this dangerous play of energies. It is akin to playing with fire. He would monitor and guide further. He comes to heal or bring him out of his agony. Or if the need arises to have him stop the practice momentarily or entirely.
We are taught to become a divine man first before we can imagine becoming God. Then a man who claims he is God should go beyond performing Siddhis and demonstrate feats and be able to carry out the 5 distinct roles of God, that of creation, sustenance, destruction, veiling, and showering grace.
In bringing a change, one of the most difficult things we face is to forgive another. But some have magically done that. The story "The Farmer and the Nun" in the anthology documentary film "Rubaru Roshini" or "ஒளி வரும் வழி" introduced by Aamir Khan speaks about acceptance and forgiveness. Swami Sadanand of the Shantigiri Ashram, Bamodi in Madhya Pradesh, asks us several pertinent questions as to which is more important rain or shine, heat or cold, day or night, and finally inhalation or exhalation. He drives the point that we need both including friend and foe and happiness and sorrow. The greatness of a human is to accept and forgive another. The three stories in this movie focus on questions asked by kith and kin as to why certain tragic events took place. Living with these questions for years finally they come to meet those who were the cause of their sorrow and forgive them. It is a great thing to come to terms with and forgive another. Closer to home we saw our neighbor forgive another even after he was caught redhanded causing damage to their cars.
The other component in life is to overcome fear. Fear of the enemy kills us even before we step onto the battlefield. Now we are faced with an unseen invisible enemy - the covid virus. To overcome fear Lord Shiva had a seeker sit it out at a cemetery the whole night long. She did it. To rid our fear of the virus Lord Shiva asks that we recite the same mantra given to her. We realize that saints like Jeganathar stay close to cemeteries too. Could there be a reason for it?
Besides discipline that is a must if we are to succeed in this endeavor, trustworthiness is a must too. One needs to be honest, tell the truth, and shame the devil.
Another vital component is the commitment to the cause. We are told of a batch of scientists in Russia who never touched the grains that they were studying and researching their genetics. They were so committed to their work to heighten food production in the face of widespread famine and starvation that they starved and died. The future was trully precious to them that they preserved the grains in their labs. This is revealed in National Geographic's "Cosmos: Possible Worlds"
Then we have the opposite characters. When my daughter, son-in-law, and his brothers opened up a Food Bank with contributions from family and friends they saw selfish individuals make their way to the center and cart away as many as 5 bags of rice each forgetting to leave some for others too.
Change I believe is vital in all areas and fields. Could it be possible that maybe when I was cursed for bringing radical changes to the age-old traditions in temples as a priest in my last birth that I was given the freedom to bring the change in Siddha worship now? It is said that kings and ministers of the past take rebirth again playing the same role that they had cherished or become part of the kingdoms or governments.
Michael Wood in BBC Earth's "The Story of China" narrates the following.
"Everything is a payback. Jung fled his empire to become a penniless Buddhist monk. He wrote "I think of the things I did in the past. I write them all down. To beg forgiveness. In life everything has a payback. The rags I am wearing now are payback for the fine furs and silk that I once had. The straw that I sleep on is a payback for the soft beds. The smoke in my eyes and dung in my nostrils are payback for the fragrance in the past. This sack on my shoulder is a payback to all those who carried me. For every kind of sin there is a kind of retribution. I was nearly 50 years old in 1645 when my country was shattered and I had lost everything. Looking back was as if my life under the Ming had been a dream."
These are a few of the notable virtues that we need to work on before even imagining joining the fold of the Siddhas. Let us work on these small but vital things in life first. To come to the path of the Siddhas is to come to their fold eventuality.