We are always trying to fit into a mold. First, it's the parents whom we follow and imitate in many aspects. Watch a child and her actions and movements and speech, it shall resemble the parent. I am watching my granddaughters imitate their parents. Then we want to follow our peers, friends, and colleagues to be accepted in their circle. Then we want to be associated with or be a part of a religious following, establishment, or movement for it is an added value and gives us a status of being affiliated with these. Coming to a guru we very much want to worship him and dress like him, rather than follow his teachings and put them into practice and try to attain his state of achievements.
I had never had a dream nor an ambition. I was happy with my career and life. In the eighties and nineties, I read a lot. I was not one to read novels or biographies though I read much about art, drawing, and painting as I was an artist. Then for no reason, I began to read more on customs and traditions, and religion. Soon I picked up home puja and Yoga from the books. All that was brought to a stop by Lord Shiva in a dream in 1988. After a period of hibernation, I was back on the path by the timely intervention of the divine in 2001. I reestablished with the divine. I was on talking terms with them willing to receive their instructions. As we progress with our home puja our perspective and understanding of the divine changes. It is only after we start puja on our own that we can gain ownership of the divine. I had written earlier of a lady who was told that the Siddhas were waiting outside her home waiting to be invited in. She had asked me how to go about their worship. I gave her a copy of my compilation of songs on the Siddhas. It is only after we start welcoming the divine and his missionaries into the home that the divine comes to have a conversation with us. Otherwise, it would remain a monologue with him as in the temples. Soon even this perspective changes. You can safely drop the rituals for the visits and conversation go on as the bridge is laid.
Then we have the stories of the saints who interact with God. Just as Karaikal Ammaiyaar in response to the temple priests who had apprehended and scolded an old lady for pointing her feet towards the inner chamber of the temple where she had laid her burdensome torso down to rest her aching legs, Ammaiyaar who after journeying places spreading and preaching the word of God, coincidently was witness to this harassment, asks the temple priest to show her a place where God did not exists so that she could place her feet in that direction, I too am inclined to ask the same question to a viewer of my YouTube Channel who after watching a clip of Siddha puja asked me, "Sir, tell me about siddhar placement in pooja room. thank you." But Ramalinga Adigal did spell out the directions where one has to face in worship and meditation according to his purpose and needs in doing so.
All the rules and requirements are good till we connect with them. Once we make contact nothing holds us further. We drop all our hold on practices, beliefs, Karma, the planetary influences, SOP's, traditions and customs, etc. We drop all the specific forms of the divine that we had held on too.
The 41-year-old seeker in the following videos decided to become a turavi. From staying alone in a house he wants to move to the jungle. He wants to move on. This is the evolution of the body, soul, and spirit. He has nailed it right too. Some of his talks resonate with what is written and said in the numerous posts in this blog too. But several other things said might not apply to others and the general public for the spiritual path is one that is carefully customized to each individual's state and means of achievement. For instance, the need to go for turavaram or become a mendicant might not be for all. Agathiyar told us to stay in the family and society and carry on turavaram or abstinence from things not conducive to the soul's growth. There is no common formula to emulate or follow. Hence the reason, in the past, the teachings were one to one, between guru and the sole disciple, specific for the soul to evolve further. Later gurukulams sprang up. Now we have institutions dishing out certificates upon completion of their courses.
As he says, unless and until one embarks on the journey truthfully upholding the regimes and practices with discipline and commitment, what is said might not register in others. It's only when you arrive there that you understand what was said of the place, event, or happening. It's only with personally going through the experiences that we can vouch for its authenticity and truth. If we haven't tried it it's best not to comment or say things out of assumption. Just like a caterpillar munches happily on a variety of plant leaves or the silkworm is attracted to the mulberry leaves, in my days of reading where I had a ferocious appetite to know and discover almost about everything, I was surprised to read someone claim that a priestly clan used to eat behind closed doors because they consumed beef secretly. I refused to believe that claim. These days I too shut all the doors and windows when I am about to eat for before you know it and before we dip our hands into the food, Mr. Fly flys by and comes by to sit on it. Can someone coming by or passing through assume that I am taking beef with my meal? Making assumptions is pretty dangerous. A similar story is told of an old lady who earned the wrath of Lord Shiva and had huge karma added to her list. A King had hosted a feast for his subjects. But many died after consuming the food. On another occasion, as several traveling sadhus new to the kingdom asks the way to the feast from the old lady, she cautioned them that if they go ahead to consume the food they shall die as the King had killed many before. That is when Lord Shiva instructs the keeper of records Chitraguptha to write the karma that was in waiting after the previous tragedy on this lady. Shiva explained to Chitragupta who wanted to write it on the King that the King was innocent. What could he do if a snake that was in the clutches of an eagle that had caught it was to spit its venom in mid-air and it should drop into the broth that was boiling? But the old lady had without investigating assumed that the King had killed his subjects.
This seeker reminds me of my former colleague Sekaran who after falling in love with the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda stepped into the Yogoda Satsanga Sakha Math, Ranchi. Subsequently after five visits and stay there he decided in 1994 to leave his career, family, and friends to join them becoming a monk. He left me as a parting gift a beautiful painting of Lord Shiva and Paramahansa Yogananda's "Autobiography of A Yogi" and some words of wisdom. I take this moment to thank him for the painting that I worshipped, the book that introduced me, a temple-going lad, to the existence of gurus in physical form, and his advice that I picked up that had taught me self taught to blog and maintain a YouTube Channel.