It is said that Ramalinga Adigal summoned his followers during the last moments of his disappearance and reminded them to worship the light that he had worshipped in his room in Sidhivalagam Thirumaligai some time back and gave them some instructions and some words of advice. Marshall Govindan in his book, "Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition", 1991, Kriya Yoga Publications, Canada, reproduced with permission via e-mail writes,
Towards the end of 1873, he placed outside the door of his room the oil lamp that Ramalinga had been using inside. He asked his disciples to worship it and keep it burning forever. He asked them to imagine the supreme grace light manifested in it and to pray to him for grace. He issued instructions to his disciples that except for the burning of camphor, no ritual be performed. Devotees should pray silently, filled with love of God. And enter into ecstasy.
When the time came for him to move on, he released a statement.
On the auspicious day of January 30th, 1874 at the age of 50, Ramalinga wrote and released to his devotees the following statement: “My beloved ones! I have to be out of your sight for a time. Do not worry. Keep the light of the lamp (Gnana deepam) burning forever. Imagine that God is there and worship the light. You will be amply rewarded. I am in the body now and after a while; I shall enter into all the bodies of his creation. Close the door and lock it from outside. The room, if ordered to be opened, will only be void.”
When locals reported to the officials they came over and opened the door to find him missing. Many assumptions were made but no one knew for sure what transpired after he went into his room and had his followers lock the door from outside. All his followers had to go by and reported were his words, "I shall enter into all the bodies of his creation. Close the door and lock it from outside. The room, if ordered to be opened, will only be void." Just as Lord Murugan and Agathiyar only reveal the truth of what had taken place many years on, the mystery of Ramalinga Adigal's disappearance was revealed through Mother Mira Alfassa who was an aid of Sri Aurobindo of Pondicherry some 104 years on in 14-1-1978. An article in the website http://www.ramalinga.com states that Mother Mira had seen the happenings that took place on that Friday night when Ramalinga Adigal attained the Jothi in Sidhivalagam Thirumaligai during her meditation. This is indeed a rare account of the mystery behind Ramalinga Adigal’s disappearance. I reproduce below the said article "A Vision of Dematerialization of Ramalinga's Living Body" by Gangadharan, a disciple of Mother Mira Alfassa.
“On the first day of the Tamil month of Thai (14-1-1978) I had a continuous vision in my usual meditation in the night: the vision of de-materialization of the physical body of Swami Ramalinga into and as the truth-light of supreme grace which contains or possesses in itself supreme compassion and bliss of grace. Though I have had occasions to ascend into and remain for some time in the truth-world of grace-light where from I could see the earth as part of the universe, the said vision came to me when my consciousness was on the earth itself.”“To begin with, I sensed an ineffable silence and peace prevailing everywhere and I heard continuously Paranada, the mysterious divine sound. Then the vision broke out.”“A small village was seen in its simple and beautiful surroundings. There was the concrete presence of the supreme and universal divine with the beautiful truth-light of grace and fragrance, which enriched the place all the more and enraptured my heart with ever-increasing aspiration for grace. At the center of the village was seen a small house. Sweet fragrance of grace radiated everywhere from the house.”“Vallalar was seen entering the house. His face was calm and peaceful. His whole body was radiating the light of grace. Besides, his body was of silken or light golden shining color. He stepped into his room, closed the doors, and bolted inside. At that time there was the concrete presence of the supreme and universal divine in the room. The presence could be sensed even physically and even by the born-blind. There was also silence, peace, fragrance, and the light of grace due to the presence.”“Vallalar sat on a white cloth spread on a low wooden plank and began to concentrate. In that poise, he was seen as a mountain of truth-knowledge with the truth-light of grace and peace and fire of tapas. He was verily a supreme form of the divine. Flood of light was radiating from his pure and luminous body into all the directions.”“Supreme grace, supreme compassion, and the light of grace are expressive of the secret truth that they hold the key for transformation of physical body into the deathless physical body of grace in its eternal youthfulness. One has to live in the depth of the ocean of blissful grace-light for being transformed into the divine nature and as the divine body. The intensity of the flood of light that radiated from his whole body was very powerful and one shall have the strength and capacity to bear and receive it. My whole body vibrated with a joy and pleasantness because of the vision of light of his body.”“After sometime of concentration, he rose up and saw the physical sky. Full moon was shedding its blissful cool rays over the earth. A little distance away from the moon was seen a very bright dazzling star of light. Vallalar poured his concentrated gaze at it for some time. He became enraptured with blissful joy in the heart, which radiated on his face. A little time thereafter, he again sat on the white seat of the plank and entered into deep concentration.”“Though Vallalar was inside the closed and bolted room, he could see clearly the whole universe with its tiers of many worlds of mind, life and the physical including the physical earth and sky with its moon, stars and clouds.”“When he was thus absorbed in deep concentration, an effulgent truth-light of grace broke out from his heart and with its unique heat began to burn his radiant physical body very slowly, as at a snail's speed, and that in an upward direction, from the heart towards the head. The burning of the body may be somewhat likened to that of an incense-stick which however burns downwards by its inner heat of fire, forming ash covering but without the falling down of the ash-form. When the upper part of his radiant body was burnt completely from heart to head, there was left in its place a form of pure white substance, which also radiated its light of consciousness. The burnt part, however, showed all its features intact and clearly and even the burnt hair of his head was seen distinctly as luminous white hair. Then the heat of the pure light of grace descended to burn the lower part.”“After the whole body was thus burnt, Vallalar was seen as a bodily form of pure white substance from head to foot, radiating its light. The white form kept intact all the different kinds of cells of his body and all the distinctive features and formations of his interior and exterior body. His bodily form did not shrink in size after the burning. I saw no visible flame nor sensed its heat during the burning of his living body, nor smoke, nor any bad smell as of burnt tissues, nor heard any cracking noise as of burnt bones. Instead, there was a sweet fragrance since the time his body began to burn and it spread everywhere. I sensed in my heart an ineffable calmness and silence, which gave me in turn a state of bliss.”“Now a second stage of burning began. The unique heat of grace-light began to burn slowly Valalalar's luminous form of white substance from head to foot downwards. When his white substance-form full of its radiating light, was thus burnt completely, the white substance became very fine sub-atomic conscious particles, which permeated and pervaded the entire universe and the farther pure worlds of consciousness beyond. The fine, white and conscious particles with its radiating light also entered into and got distributed everywhere in the earth and even in matter. After the universal pervasive distribution of the particles, they could be seen no more and disappeared from my sight. Now there pervaded everywhere the sweet, soft and fine fragrance of camphor which gave my body a blissful sensation and enraptured my heart as well.”“Then I had the rare vision of Vallalar's universal luminous golden form. In fact, the immensity of his golden form contained in it the whole universe. This form too disappeared from my view and was replaced by another vision in which I saw the golden light of truth-knowledge and grace entering into all the directions more speedily than the lightning. It permeated and pervaded the whole universe and the farther pure worlds of consciousness. It entered into our earth and all its crores of the physical forms of beings and objects and in the apparently insensible matter and even in the very dark realm of the vast in conscience. All the forms that were permeated by the golden light of truth changed into golden forms of beings and objects. The golden light entered into my whole Adhara including the physical body. My body felt in all the cells vibrations of ease and pleasantness.”“Then I heard some words of grace. However, they were indistinctly heard and could not be deciphered, as I was absorbed in a rapture of bliss due to the sublime vision and experiences. Thus, the vision lasted an hour of time and ended.”
We are blessed to come across this wonderful revelation that brings to light the process that is much talked about becoming light. Hearing Ramalinga Adigal becoming light and later when Tavayogi told us that Ramalinga Adigal's devotee Jeganatha Swamigal's body emitted light as he was laid in Samadhi in 1959 at Tapah, Perak, Malaysia, I told Tavayogi that I wanted to see him perform the same feat. He replied that he had missed the boat as the transformation has to happen before the age of 60. Tavayogi was 69 when I met him in Malaysia. However, he told me his end would be in the form of Sahaja Samadhi.
Sahaj samadhi is a type of samadhi, or "deep spiritual bliss," which yogis believe to be their natural state. Many consider sahaj samadhi to be the highest, or the most complete level of samadhi. It is said to be unconditioned, non-dualistic and uncontrived; and, as a state, it is always accessible to the wise and those who have burned their past karma. (Source: https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/6224/sahaj-samadhi)
Then when Jnana Jothiamma came along I was eagerly waiting for her to achieve that state. But Agathiyar took her with him abruptly putting an end to all the plans laid for her. I believe her love for him overshadowed all the gifts and treasures that awaited her, all the adoration and respect that was due to come her way and all the power and authority that came with it.
But I am consoled by Supramania Swami who told me that he had seen the light or Jhothi days before he passed on, on 7 February 2007. Agathiyar came in the Nadi that weekend and told me that it was true that Supramania Swami had gone into Samadhi. Dhavantri came after Tavayogi's demise and told us that Tavayogi would guide us further in the light form. I was overjoyed that he did attain that state after all. Later Dhanvantri told us that our tapas helped to bring him to the state which proved Supramania Swami right when he used to remind me to carry out my tapas diligently so that he shall rise in stature. I guess we help each other achieve his/her objectives. We are glad that we had unknowingly contributed to the well-being of our gurus.