Before the call to come to the path of the Siddhas came by, Lord Shiva decided that I had to purge myself of all my previous learnings and practice including simple rituals during my home puja, visits to the temples, yoga that I picked up from books and the information stored from small satsangs held with some senior colleagues back then. I took up his advice to keep all my doubts and questions to a later date and dropped these routines. After 14 years Lord Dhakshanamurthi comes as a painting given by my nephew who was ordained by his Paramaguru to pass me both the painting and the Vasudeva mantra.
I learned later that the Vasudeva mantra is said to pierce the Vishnu granthi. The other two knots are Brahma granthi and Rudra granthi. We are told that further practice of pranayama would pierce these too and the six chakras. R Venu Gopalan in his book, "The Hidden Mysteries of Kundalini", enlightened me further on this mantra stating that the Vishnu Granthi adds obstructions for the sadhaka keeping one under the wraps of attachment and bondage. The mantra is recited for balancing the Vishnu Granthi. I was soon to learn from my Nadi revelation the following year that all my efforts in carrying out puja and yoga practices would not see results as I had my karma stand in between and deprive me of all my efforts. So it now makes sense why Lord Shiva put a stop to my efforts. I would end up frustrated and might have made some drastic move in the opposite direction.
R Venu Gopalan writes,
The nadis of the heart chakra is cleansed. It balances the heart chakra. Continuous practice of meditation on this mantra helps purify the thinking process. It also helps in dissolving all the past karmic deeds for a better future.
From Awakening State at http://www.awakeningstate.com/spiritual-awakening/om-namo-bhagavate-vasudevaya/ we learn that,
This Sanskrit mantra can be practiced to attain freedom (moksha) from Samsara – the “Karmic Wheel” that keeps us bound to cycle after cycle of incarnations. This liberation mantra is a karmic eraser.
So first and foremost our bad debts have to be cleared. Karma that causes suffering, pain, and delays stood in my way obstructing even the good I deserved. I understood from my Muslim friends who travel to Mecca to perform their Hajj, they had to ensure that they settled their debts to others before leaving for the Holy land. They had to ask for forgiveness from everyone too.
Besides ridding my karma as I came to know later, I was told that in taking up the recitation of the mantra and worship of Lord Dhakshanamurthi, I shall meet my guru. As told I began to worship Agathiyar and took up the call to come to the path of worship to the Siddhas a year later, after reading the Nadi. I received Agathiyar's painting from Sivabalan who brought in the Nadi reader from India. I came to know later that Agathiyar was Dhakshanamurthi too. I came to know a couple of years later, that Agathiyar had passed on the message to my nephew's Paramaguru and initiated my coming back into the path of devotion after a long absence of some 14 years. Agathiyar had paved the path even before materializing before me as words in the Nadi in 2002.
Negative qualities needed to be dropped and replaced with those that are positive. I needed to repent for my past actions. In the Kaanda Nadi reading, Agathiyar gave me remedies to further rid my karma having me complete them locally and at numerous temples in India too. Agathiyar gave the techniques of Nadi Suddhi and Dega Suddhi to adopt and put into practice. The purification of the Nadis is required before one progresses to take up pranayama. These are prerequisites to taking up asanas and pranayama as we take note in the 8 Angas of Patanjali. So it makes sense why my previous efforts in puja and yoga in the eighties never saw results.
Swami Vivekananda speaking about this practice of Nadi Suddhi or purification of the nerves quotes from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.
First, the nerves are to be purified, then comes the power to practise pranayama. Nerve currents will have to be displaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibration will begin, the whole constitution will be remodeled, as it were.
So it makes sense now that all the practice of recitation and chanting of mantras, and pranayama is to help build up the vibration in us to become at par with the divines. Then we are one. The good vibes drive the bad away. The light drives the darkness away. And so has all our efforts intensified the vibration and the light within that was hardly noticeable and visible initially.
As we have come to understand that life is full of knots that have to be released these were slowly and meticulously removed, many a time unknowing to us, happening rather subtly. If the first knot and blockage were released with me receiving the Vasudeva mantra in 2001 and chanting it and the practice of purification of the Nadis gave the power to practice pranayama, the following year a series of knots were released by getting to know my karma and performing the remedies locally and in India, eventually the energies at the numerous temples I visited in carrying out my parikaram came within to further clear the path, as shared in a previous post. Returning home from my maiden pilgrimage to India, the spate of energy transmission that erupted in spontaneous outbreaks of tears and cries of joy, as detailed in a previous post, continued. The process of clearing the "house" continued further. I understand now why I lost hold of myself, my "I" in all the sannadhis of Lord Dhakshanamurthi. The guru granted his darshan. Agathiyar guided me further through his Aasi Nool. The gurus in physical form came to shed light and clear my ignorance. Yoga that was taught by my gurus hastened the process of clearing the airways and bringing in prana. The chakras that were either sluggish or dormant were energized, the blockages released and the passages cleared. This resulted in a sudden surprise move of the energy that took place without my knowledge. I broke my back so to say. I couldn't move momentarily after coughing out phlegm during my morning shower. A nerve pulled and tugged from my lower back right to the toes. I had to bear this pain in my lower back for some 3 years that became worse. First, I could not walk long distances. Then I could not sit long. Finally, the pain woke me up from sleep. Agathiyar came to explain why I was going through the agony. The 3 dosas had gone haywire resulting from energy awakenings in the Muladhara chakra. He asks to stop all my yoga practice in 2011.
Then it was time to purge the physical body. He had me take a shot of his purgative Agathiyar kuzhambu that came by through Siddha practitioner Arivan Aiya and detailed to me another preparation to prepare and consume daily. Then the energies came within and perform miracles. The Siddhas spoke through us. We could connect with the Prapanjam in some rare moments.
Looking back now, what a journey it has been. I often ask myself if I deserved their compassion and love and the shower of miracles. I am a sinner yet they chose to shower their grace on me. How could I ever repay their kindness?