Last night a drama unfolded in our neighborhood. It was raining since the late afternoon that extended till we went to bed. I was awakened by a commotion outside at 1.30 am. Looking out the window I saw my neighbors from two opposite households' coming together. Shortly after a patrol car came followed by another. As it was still raining and was a period of lockdown and it would be wrong to gather, we waited for daybreak to enquire what had taken place. The story unfolds.
When I came home after being stranded in my daughter's home during the first lockdown last year, my neighbor updated me on the going on in the neighborhood. Among them was that someone had punctured their car, van and bus tires. They suspected someone but had no proof. The police too had asked for proof of the culprit either caught red handed or a video recording of it or a CCTV recording. They could not work on mere suspicion, my neighbor was told. They left it at it. But deep inside they held a grudge for the culprits action had caused them money in this difficult times of lockdown.
Yesterday as it was pouring and the family keep a vigil, something drove them to go over and take a look at their parked vehicles. What they saw shocked them. A neighbor in his eighties held a long sword in his hands. He had cut through the tires to one of their vans. Shouting at him, the man was startled, slipped and fell into the big and deep roadside drain. He had a cut, and blood began to flow profusely from his head. The neighbors picked him up and sent him to his home. He was taken to the hospital by his children. The police arrived shortly.
I was proud of my neighbors for although they had held a grudge all this while as it had caused them anguish and money to replace the tires, at that moment their anger turned to that of compassion and love. I told them that their attendance at Sunday mass in Church did not go to waste. Christ had tested them I said. Here was an opportunity for them to convert anger into love. As for the angry old man, I wonder what drove him to this state? My neighbors were in the travel and tourism industry. Hence we see their stalled vehicles parked along the road during this period of lockdown. The old man received the returns of his unlawful actions within a year. It reminds me of Agathiyar's message that was shared some time back telling us that in this period of time, one's karma shall be repaid in this life itself rather then postponing it to sometime later in the future or another birth as in the past.
There seems to be an urgency to set things right. Even we were chased after by the Siddhas asking if we were doing our practices? What was normal and acceptable might not hold water anymore. There is a drive to bring a drastic change in all areas it seems. The repayment of karma is hastened. Changes are brought on hastily. We are being moved forcefully. Something is in the air that we cannot put our finger on.
In times where tensions mount and anything can go wrong, where we are used to hearing snatch thieves and others bashed up by the public until they bleed when caught, and before the police is called over, here good sense and compassion prevailed. As tensions flare in difficult times as we are all undergoing now, it came as a relief that it was settled amicably with the old man's family willing to foot the bill for all his wrong doings.
I don't know how I would have handled a similar thing. As it is I do throw curses around when angered. I then go up to Agathiyar and ask for forgiveness. I ask that others forgive me too and that I shall forgive them too. But then another thing comes up and you lose your cool. I guess only death can do us apart - me and my anger - as Vairamuthu penned the lines in his song.
This is a beautifully written song and to add to its tearful but true to the core lyrics, the melodious voice brings the message across beautifully. I heard it played over the local radio station as I walked into my home after work on 8 March 2014. That was the day the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared on route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. I cried on hearing both the news and the song that was played after the news was aired. The song touched the soul. Later when in 2016, we brought Agathiyar to the homes of devotees to carry out Homam that was presided by Tavayogi and Mataji who were on their visit to Malaysia, when we sang the songs of praise to the Siddhas in all these homes, a devotee couple chose to sing this song. Our mouths dropped open and we felt uneasy for she had chose to sing this song during a happy and joyous occasion. We could see the uneasiness in the eyes and gestures of all those seated that day including Tavayogi and Mataji. I nudged my way through the crowd to her husband and asked him to tell her to change the tune, and sing another song. But she went on to complete the song. A few days later Agathiyar came in her Nadi reading read by Tavayogi. He told them that he had relished the song and thanked her. It was a song from her soul or atma for the atma. Again our mouths dropped wide open. Since that day we reserved all our opinions and comments as far as Agathiyar is concerned. We dared not judge anything. We dared not say what is right and what is wrong.
There were many lessons that came through to us through simple acts of blunders done by family and friends, devotees and others that served to remind many pertinent points. If we at AVM were told to stop all forms of rituals and charity for the past year and a half, a friend from India told me over the phone that they too were asked to stop the practice of lighting Mocha Deepam for others. This ritual is done at temples to appease the departed souls by the immediate family members and blood relatives who remain behind. But my friend and others took it up as goodwill gesture gathering monthly and conducting the ritual at a temple in their vicinity where Agathiyar's shrine was installed too. It was done with good intention to fill in for those who skipped or could not do the ritual for their loved and departed ones. It was done as a civil service. They used to light numerous oil lamps at the temple and invited others to do so too. Soon they found that the ones who hosted and sponsored the rituals began to fall sick one by one. When they referred to Agathiyar he said that as he was in the temple he did not sanction it and asked that they stop the ritual. Agathiyar in a Nadi reading somewhere else had advised doctors and surgeons to light a Mocha Deepam to compensate for the karma that might befall on them in going about their professional duty, where someone might die in their hands while trying to save save them. So it seems the act or ritual is disallowed for one while allowed for another.
Another good soul in India who took up the task of renovating run down temples met with a tragic end running into an accident. Agathiyar in a Nadi said that though it was a great endeavor he did not sanction it. It was not his job and task. Agathiyar reminds us to mind our business and to do only things that were tasked to us.
A friend closer to home, was introduced to the ways of the Siddhas from his school days. Nadi readers used to stay in his uncle's home where he was brought up. His uncle used to bring them over from India to assist those who are unable to travel to India for a reading. That was his uncle's purpose in life Agathiyar had told him. My friend would be roped in to translate the readings. After his marriage, the couple would organize trips to bring those who had read the Nadi and had to perform remedies to India. That was tasks to them by Agathiyar as a service to mankind. They should have stopped at that. But in their eagerness to help they went overboard and began to look for and purchase the items for other's remedies going door to door, shop to shop etc. Finally Agathiyar came to remind them that it is for those who were given remedies to go through the trouble of shopping for or seeking or searching for them and not his job to simplify their remedies. Those given the remedies in searching for them shall shed a part of their karma in the process. If he was to attend to it all and make all the purchases and have them just attend to carry the ritual part of it, their karma shall befall on the couple, they were told sternly. And it sure did for the couple told me that they went through hell.
In giving remedies that involved making pilgrimages to temples built atop small hillocks, it was meant that in tracking up the hill or climbing the numerous steps their karma shall reduce partly. The difficulty encountered in carrying out his asking or directive was intended to reduce their karma. But these days we have people or animals to carry us up or modern day facilities and other modes of transportations that eases the task of reaching these temples. It surely defeats the purpose and original idea in having the temples in inaccessible places. We can never second our karma or its remedies to others. We have to bear them full weight. We can never privatize them. We can never have proxies to do them for us. But there are exceptions in cases of an invalid, the sickly and dying or due to financial restraints in making the trip.
We have to be careful treading the path with the Siddhas. What we think as right and sensible might not go well with them. My best bet would be to follow to the very word their directives for theirs is a calculated and precise move. Please do not modify the terms of agreement. They would not like it. As the incredible Hulk says “Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry”, let us not get into the bad books of Agathiyar. It reminds me of the story were a visitor to Yogi Ramsuratkumar moved a cup of tea placed in front of him and the Yogi, the Yogi reached out and placed it back where it was left by his attendants.
Last nights incident reminds me of another incident narrated by a friend many years ago that took place in his family home in the eighties, where a thief stayed in the roof space of their home for days having entered the home to steal. When he heard the family return he had to hide there. But the family was big and there was never a moment when someone was not in the living room. Eventually he fell to the floor, breaking through the ceiling. He had fainted out of exhaustion and hunger. The family arose him, fed him and send him off giving some money. If this same incident was to happen this day, you can imagine the poor hungry fella being bashed up and handed to the police.
When the merchant Tiruvenkadar or later came to be called Pattinathar gave up all his wealth and became a mendicant, his sibling called him over and served him an Indian delicacy uthappam. But she had poisoned the food. Pattinathar who begged from door to door received the delicacy. Immediately he knew the contents and her intention to poison him. He threw it over the roof and as it caught fire he walked away bringing us a lesson, "தன் வினை தன்னை சுடும், ஓட்டப்பம் வீட்டை சுடும்", What is sowed shall come back to us.