All these writings are more of a reminder for me than for others. I have to keep myself under check. Life indeed is a battle. But once the "I" knows who is master it is subdued and toes the line. I am no saint. I am no teacher. I am no guru. I too am a student trying to comprehend life and its teachings. I too am trying to find myself and my way in this maze of life. If in the past I took up searching for new ways to enhance my Self to fit into the mold that those before us had left around us, dictating our path and ways, Agathiyar made me realize that it was not about fitting into others' shoes but dropping the layers of skin and standing stark naked. There is no becoming but to drop all and realize that we are already IT! Once this realization dawns upon us all effort towards self-realization drops. This is the lesson the past two years of staying in solitude most of the time taught me. Thanks to Mahindren he made me realize that spiritual evolution is not about adding on achievements but letting go. If we want Agathiyar to come in the form shown to us by many before as depicted in statues and paintings we would be disappointed. In truth, he comes as Mahindren, my wife, my children and grandchildren, and total strangers too to educate us. Dattatreya is said to have considered the entire Universe and its creations as his teachers. He "reached self-awareness by observing nature during his Sannyasi wanderings and treating these natural observations as his twenty-four teachers for each of them taught him something useful - such was his greatness and humility." The 24 are listed at https://www.dollsofindia.com/library/dattatreya/.
- Mother Earth taught him tolerance, patience, and forbearance;
- Water taught him to comfort others;
- Fire taught him not to be judgmental;
- Air taught him to be unfettered;
- Space taught him to be unattached;
- The Sun taught him to cheer up everyone;
- The Moon taught him to remain unaffected;
- The Ocean too taught him to remain unaffected;
- The Child taught him not to hold grudges;
- The Village Girl reminded him not to disturb others;
- The Arrow-maker taught him to focus on the work on hand and concentration;
- The Prostitute Pingala taught him dedication;
- The Butterfly touch him to be unattached;
- The Snake taught him to drop desires and ownership;
- The Python taught him to be flexible;
- The Dove taught him love and peace;
- The Fish taught him not to fall for temptation;
- The Honeybee taught him to labor;
- The Deer reminded him to be ever wary of people who exploit others;
- The Elephant taught him to remember;
- The Bumblebee reminded him not to hurt;
- The Eagle taught him not to hoard;
- The Spider taught him to remain free and unattached; and finally
- The Wasp taught him intent and perseverance.
When Sankara awakens his student Giri, who later came to be known as Totakacharya, on the knowledge of 14 subjects, by an act of will, Giri immediately sings of the guru, "On the supporting tree of the Acharya grows the creeper of devotion, taking its root at its own feet and watered by his grace."
Giri was obedient, industrious, and upheld righteousness. He served Sankara well anticipating what Sankara wanted and provided it even before he asked. He followed Sankara like a shadow, always walking behind the Guru, stopped when he stopped, listened attentively to what he had to say, and neither did he talk too much in his guru's presence. This is the ideal student. Watching devotees and students of present-day gurus I am taken aback when they keep talking even as the guru tries to explain. The venue at times becomes a battlefield. It is a far cry from the depiction of the guru-disciple relationship we see in the paintings of Lord Dhakshanamurti and his four students where silence prevails in the presence of the master and where all thought processes subside.
Life is a process. Only man expects to see results in every venture, even in spiritualism. Do not be bonded by results. Your efforts would stop there. Let the process go on, watch the flower bloom, wither and fall. It is a process. It goes on and on. So does all of life. It is only when we start to dictate the course that we become frustrated and disappointed.
Frank Alexander in his book "In the Hours of Meditation", Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, 1993, wrote,
"Having done thy task, stand aside. Work to thine utmost, and then to thine utmost be resigned. Know that wherever there is worry and expectations in work, there is also the blindest form of attachment."