Just as one who has been on a world tour spurs another to go on one too; just like my friend who retired earlier spoke about his hiking ventures and spurred me to opt for an early retirement too; just as my daughter's lecturer who studied abroad ignited the idea of and fueled the desire in her to at least enroll and take up a student exchange program that gives one exposure to the world beyond the limitations of the walls of his/her world; just as attending a class in Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP made me think out of the box and see things in a different light and perspective; just as the couple the Sri Krishna's brought us to see the plight of the homeless for the first time and began us on a feeding program, something that they took to their hearts to do too; many a saint too has called us to their path after they saw the results of their venture in adventure. As with the saints, it is not that they found a new path but they had rediscovered what was in existence and brought it to our attention with the intention that we too should take it up.
If these people love to share their experience, their wisdom and knowledge or food, there are some who are the reverse. They tend to grab more or all of both wealth and knowledge for themselves but never give back. Shunning this group, giving up on them and the hope that they would ever change, one sets his eyes on the path of virtue and on doing charity. He then begins to explore God. For another, thinking that the religious path would be a balm for the beaten soul of one who is a nerve wreck he shifts his sight to the divine. But here too he sees the grab for power, position, and authority, etc. He then moves within shunning them all. Seeking solace and peace he looks towards the spiritual path, looking for a guru who could show him or her the path or way to attain it. Some turn back disappointed having felt cheated and their trust wounded or killed by their masters and fellow followers of these establishments. On the brink of giving up on life and hope the divine shows a way, for he has exhausted all the means available and known to him. New roots and new shoots grow. He is made to understand that he needed all the past bitter experiences to grow spiritually. Instead of taking his life, now he takes his life into our own hands. Similarly we are reminded that we need to accept all the experiences, either good and bad. Only then are we ready for the journey to the final frontier that of knowing ourselves. If all this while we were seeking others to tell us who we are and what to do with our lives, now we come to find out these answers for ourselves as we go within. This is true realization. A good master would ignite the fire and the seeking and search in us. That is all he does. A good master would not spoon-feed us but have us discover for ourselves the path and the way. He shall then step aside. The good master would not have us under his shadows forever but set us free to discover our true Self. He would not settle to have clones of himself walking around and vomiting whatever he had said but instead want his disciple to ingest and understand his teachings, garnish it with his own experiences and understanding and place them on a plate for the generation on hand and yet to come to taste, digest, assimilate and follow.
A devotee of Goddess Ma used to exchange notes with me as her husband attended to my car at his workshop in the past. I would speak and laud about Agathiyar and Tavayogi and his Kallar Ashram to her, while she spoke about her guru and her role and participation in expanding her guru's preachings and teachings and his mission. She served her guru becoming the apple of his eye. She organized and managed his events in her locality often traveling to another state to see him to get his blessings. Her hold on her guru was so strong that she told me that she never locks her home and car believing strongly that her guru shall care for her property too. As her popularity grew so did her enemies grow in numbers. Sadly those in the inner circle envied her as they saw her rub shoulders with their guru. They became jealous of the attention she got from the guru and the responsibilities given to her. They envied her rapid progress in the establishment. She began to face objections and negative vibes and coincidently came down with ailments. She began to stay away initially partly prompted by her family to do so for her safety and health. Soon she stopped her patronage towards her guru and the mission. Years passed by. Business was bad and her health deteriorated further. It was hit further by the pandemic. As seeking treatment the modern way saw no results, she sought the traditional way. Many religious figures turned up to conduct puja in her home promising a reversal of both health and wealth. A year back one such person told her to conduct a Yagam in her home and expand and deepen the worship of her favorite deity. She went back to worship Goddess Ma. Another master of a different faith told her to install and worship Lord Ganapathy too. Surprisingly while the former told her of a mysterious figure waiting outside her house waiting to be invited and allowed in, coincidently the latter told her to take up the worship of the Siddhas. At the same time she began to have dreams of these mysterious personalities who resembled and were in the image of the Siddhas we know.
A couple of days ago, she gave me a call and asked if I was still aligned with the Kallar Ashram. She told me all the recent happenings in her life seem to show her to the worship of the Siddhas. She wanted to know how to go about it. I shared a digital copy of my humble and small compilation of songs in praise of the Siddhas telling her to sing these songs. I told the hurt soul that this would suffice and not to seek further lest she be hurt again and confused and perturbed by the many interpretations of people though in the Siddha path too. I told her I was glad that Goddess Ma had brought her to Father. I ran through the story of how Ma had stood at the door of the final leg of Ramalinga Adigal's holy pilgrimage and showed him to Lord Nadarajah and his dance at Ambalam. I shared with her how Goddess Ma previously had brought two great souls to Father too. Jnana Jothiamma who went by her maiden name Molly Menon prior to coming to knock on the door of Kallar Ashram in 2011, was a staunch devotee of Goddess Ma and the deity Karupanasamy. Her love for them was so great and deep that Ma used to be with her wherever she goes and talks with her. So was it with Karupanasamy. In April of 2011, she flew to Chennai from the USA to inaugurate the 7-foot statue of Karupanasamy that she had sponsored. Returning back, she chanced to see my earlier website indianheartbeat while searching for Agathiyar. She emailed me asking about Tavayogi and his Kallar Ashram. The calling came for her to step into Kallar Ashram in November the same year. Just before her arrival Ma told her that she would have to leave her and added that she was in good hands referring to Agathiyar. Karupanasamy who stood by her was asked to stay out as Agathiyar initiated her through Tavayogi. She soon held fast to Agathiyar. She soon traveled Tamilnadu seeking the abodes of the Siddhas. She made two trips to AVM too in 2013 and 2014. Agathiyar chose to open his eyes during libation or abhisegam to his statue at AVM in her presence giving us the rare sight of seeing both his eyes open in his bronze statue. Agathiyar's desire that she should preach the Siddha path both locally and abroad, having her start in the USA, and continue in Malaysia before settling in India, for some reason did not see the light of the day. He took her back with him abruptly. He has not revealed the reason for doing so. I guess he submitted to her burning desire and yearning to reach his feet rather than for want of all the fame and glamour, power, and position that might have come her way if she had held back and stayed around to travel and preach.
Another devotee of Goddess Ma was given permission to read the Nadi. He arrived at AVM after the reading. He participated in all the puja and charitable activities taking the lead. With the lockdown in place, he continues his prayers in the confines of his home with his family. Agathiyar brought him to Yoga and Jnana eventually. Goddess Ma had shown Mahindren to Father too.
If the guru is known to show God, vice versa, God shows the guru to him too. Goddess Ma showed me to Agathiyar. Agathiyar showed me to Tavayogi. Tavayogi in turn showed me to Agathiyar. Agathiyar in turn showed us to Goddess Ma. We have come a full cycle indeed. We are grateful. A reader after reading the post on the need to be grateful sent me this piece.
Such a beautiful post aiyya ... It's such a beautiful post that my eyes get welled up - I thought that I'm grateful. But time taught me that, it's not at all true.
She wrote further about Matha Amritanandamayi and how she defines gratefulness through a simple story.
Here, Matha Amritanandamayi (amma_ hugging saint as she's known abroad) tell about it like this - "When some groups go to nearby houses to collect money to organize the temple festival, if the householder give them money not up to to their expectation, the collector become dissatisfied and much irritated. But at the same time when a beggar go to houses and if nobody give him anything he doesnt feel bad. He never complaints. And If somebody give him a glass of water or some food or money, he become so grateful that he bless the whole family itself. This is the difference.
Amma says that, the beggar was unaffected because he knew that nobody is entitled to give him anything . He know that he deserves nothing. He has no rights. So he's grateful to each and every penny or any contribution from anyone. All of us should be like these beggars " - is what Amma advises.
I think from that total humbled position only, one has the purest gratitude.
True. Yogi Ramsuratkumar addresses himself as "This Beggar" too. As Matha Amritanandamayi says, all our experiences and learning are meant to bring humbleness to us. We have to acknowledge that our perspective and understanding shall change with time and experience. He is humbled by the course of time and the experiences it brings with it. He is humbled by the tide and waves of experiences that washes his shore. Taking numerous births, and gaining a myriad of experiences, and learning from them is all meant to enhance the soul or build soul power or Atma Balam. Very few come to know the soul though. We might have a desire but to achieve it, there must be a burning desire. For the fire to burn continuously in us, it has to be fed continuously too. This needs dedication and discipline. To add to it he has to be focused on his objective and not deviate, lose sight of it, or be distracted. Persistence shall pay off we are often told. If after all these ingredients are in place and the result is not seen we can accept that at least we tried. If we had a calling from the divine initially it is now the moment to call out to the divine to work his magic in us. Just as all the ingredients that go into making the stew lose their original form, after placing the effort we need is to step aside and watch the change take place. Only after we step aside having placed a concerted effort does the magic take place. The magic portion begins to work its magic both in the pot and in us. The body and soul see a rapid transformation.
Speaking about stew Agathiyar wants us not to waste even a grain of rice asking us to pick those that had fallen off our plate. He brings us to be attentive while eating too. My mother told me that her father expected absolute silence while she as a child and her siblings sat to dine together.
Children are the ones who are living in the present moment. Give a toddler an ice cream and watch him or she savor the desert. He/she grabs it, looks at it, feels it with their fingers, squashing it, messing it up, takes it to their lips, tastes it with the tip of their tongue, and only then begins to eat it. Of course, what we end up with is a mess that we end having to clean up too.
Watch an adult on the other hand. We would immediately take large bites of it, and shove the food down our throat, without properly masticating them in their mouths. We fail to savor the uniqueness or the distinct taste and texture of the food. We hurriedly eat our food while engaged in talk. Otherwise, we are distracted by other thoughts or fear of the future or sulk over the past while eating. Sadly we seem to have become a nation of couch potatoes too, munching while watching television without even knowing what goes into our mouth. Sadly the smartphones too have taken control of our lives. The first thing we do is reach out for the tv remote or our smartphone before sitting to eat. Reunion or family dinners are as silent as the grave not that the family members have adopted silence in respect of the food served before them, but each member draws out their smartphones and engages in messaging a distant one while ignoring the loved one's right next to him or her. Puja and worship too are marred by devotees absorbed on the phone. There are then those blatant fools who do not use earphones but blast the audio and watch videos on their smartphones in public places.
A thought brings us to action. The action is only rewarding and sees fruition or the fulfillment of purpose only if the thought is sustained with it till its fulfillment. It is only when the thought follows the action that it becomes conscious. The act is then done consciously. Otherwise, it is an act of automation or unconscious. In Buddhism, every single act is a form of meditation and is done consciously. So too is the act of eating and drinking considered as meditation. For instance, an elaborate method of awareness is given in a simple and daily regime of eating raisins. Lama Surya Das in his "Awakening the Buddha Within - Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World, Bantam Books, 1997, teaches us the chewing meditation. "Eating meditation is a marvelous way of putting ourselves in touch with now-ness. It can really slow us down and make us more aware of compulsive behavior", he writes. This meditation does try one's patience to the limit he says. For instance, he says we who are accustomed to eating raisins by the handful are taught take in one at a time. Before we put the raisin into our mouth we feel it and we smell it. We look at it as if we have never seen it before. We are asked to examine it thoroughly. Only then do we begin to chew it slowly, as if tasting it for the very first time. We are asked to chew it till it becomes juice. Our stomach would very much appreciate the juice rather than chunks of food swallowed hurriedly. We are taught to direct our total attention to the raisin, which otherwise we hardly do. Agathiyar says the same too regarding eating.
Eating meditation is exactly what my older granddaughter does. She has a hundred and one question asked before she puts any food into her mouth. It is the same question over and over again, asking as if that was the very first time she saw the food. She would want to look at it first as if seeing it for the very first time. She holds it, takes a teeny weeny bite first, tastes it, if it agrees to her palate only then does she go one to chew it till it becomes pulp. But the sad thing is as parents we hurry them up because we have other chores to attend to. We ask them to eat fast and teach them to swallow whole. I am glad both my wife and daughter sit through this daily regime patiently answering her questions while feeding her. Agathiyar had come strongly asking us not to change children into becoming us. He asked us not to corrupt these young souls with our ways. He asks to let them be.
Nature too is beautiful. It understands man well. It knows that man is stubborn and does not give up his old habits easily especially his addiction to his tongue. Hence it takes charge dictating what he is to eat in his later years. In old age, there is a reason for the teeth to fall, for it would force us to substitute solid foods for liquids. This is apt and timely as our internal digestive system and its co-partners have sort of resigned to a quiet life then. Taking this into consideration, we should not shove in more than these internal organs can handle. This is substantiated by medical findings at https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/features/digestive-health-aging#1
One of the most common things we see, certainly as people are getting into their 60s and 70s, may be a change in bowel habits, predominantly more constipation," says Ira Hanan, MD. "Your digestive system moves food through your body by a series of muscle contractions. Just like squeezing a toothpaste tube, these contractions push food along your digestive tract", Hanan says. "As we age, this process sometimes slows down, and this can cause food to move more slowly through the colon. When things slow down, more water gets absorbed from food waste, which can cause constipation. And as we age, we start to have more health problems that require medications. Several common medications can cause constipation. Then you have the aging colon and all the problems related to it," says, Hanan. "Like the colon, the esophagus can also slow down with age, moving food through more slowly. This can cause problems swallowing food or fluids."
"People often become less active as they age", says Ellen Stein, MD, "and being inactive can make you constipated. Some people may avoid drinking too many fluids so they don't have to run to the bathroom all day long. Between urinating more and drinking less, you can become dehydrated."
So should not we rethink and retrain ourselves to eat right, beginning right now, to safeguard ourselves from future ailments? But as I watch adults and the elderly who have lost their teeth shove in chunks of meat, swallowing them, it saddens me. Besides dumping carcasses into their stomach, it is going to stay for a while in them before it gets digested by their already sluggish digestive system and expelled.
I for one do not sympathize with those who do not take care of their own health and body. When we can show all the care and importance to things around us and beyond, how is it that we have missed something that is so crucial to our survival, something that is required as a vehicle for both the spirit and soul to dwell in? Pleading ignorance of care for the health and body is not permissible in my book of terms. The greatest gift after the gift of birth is that of mobility where one is granted to go about doing his thing without the need for assistance from others or become dependant on them. I know because I had battled the pain in my lower back for more than 2 1/2 years as a result of engaging in Yoga that in bringing a balance to my three dosas, in the process first did upset my body system so that it could be corrected. This was followed by a surge of dormant, locked, and pent-up energies that arose and were gradually released. They tore down the doors that were obstructing its flow, and in making their way up to higher regions cleared the blockages on their way, and finally settling still as in a stagnated pond. Occasionally it goes haywire again only to subside again. Of course, I have come to accept and understand that any form of correction is always painful, be it being reprimanded by the discipline master and asked to stand in a corner or outside the classroom; to be remanded and come under the custody of the law; or come under the watchful eyes of the guru and having to carry out daily regimes that are back-breaking or as in this case when the silent transformation begins to take place within. Ramalinga Adigal spoke about his 12 years of having to endure untold suffering as his body went through extreme and radical changes. Jnana Jhotiamma too shared with me her pain and agony in seeing through these bodily transformations take place. But eventually, the end product is blissful and rewarding. We tend to change and become a different person in the process. We evolve into a greater being. That is the very purpose of coming here.