Switching us off in 2019 and getting us to sit at home with the rest of the world in view of the pandemic Agathiyar has arisen to move to the homes of his devotees. I guess it is for the sake of exposing the kids to the path this time around. Agathiyar has moved away from the norm and decentralized AVM. His wish is to see every home become Agathiyar Vanam. And so he broke his devotees' dependency on a center. Neither did I want my home to turn into a center. I believed that Agathiyar shall grace the homes of all devotees who call out to him just as I did. For the past 2 1/2 years, he saw to it. Today I understand his calculative moves to build and destroy even this group. He taught us non-attachment. For that matter, AVM was a loose group of devotees getting together to worship and do his work. Today the buck has been passed on to these youngsters who made the core of AVM to groom their children. These kids growing up in our homes need our guidance. They had come taking up residence in the homes of parents who prayed to the Siddhas. They have to be groomed now after a break of 2 yrs that coincided with the several lockdowns in place as a result of the pandemic. For this purpose, Agathiyar is visiting his devotees again in their homes having libation or abhishegam and the fire ceremony or homam performed.
Everything has been said. Has been told. There is nothing much to add. Now it is time to reflect on his words and live the life that he envisioned for us rather than live according to our wishes. Agathiyar walked the earth in the past to bring balance just as there is talk about balancing the scales in Marvel's screen adaptation of the comic book "Moon Knight". We often speak about uplifting experiences. When the Siddhas come within it is literally an uplifting experience. We lose our guard or awareness of the moment and are lifted off our feet in these rare moments of bliss.
Intellectual pursuits might bring in money, recognition, fame, and recognition and satisfy the ego. It might bring some good to the masses too. Now I truly understand why Supramania Swami told me back then in 2003 when I met him for the very first time that there are three things one should either keep secretive or do it secretly. Sex, taking food and puja, or conducting prayers. I was taken aback then asking myself how I was to adopt these three. It is impossible. For sex, you need another partner. Food is usually taken in the midst of family and friends, colleagues, and strangers too at events or eateries. Puja is in the company of others too. Today I understand his words pretty well. What he meant was all three bring on satisfaction to the soul going beyond the senses. Sexual satisfaction that is satisfying to the flesh, body, and senses takes on another paradigm shift and satisfies the soul moving from chitrinbam to perinbam when one arrives at a state that Swami mentions. He did not stop me from indulging in the act. Never have I read Ramalinga Adigal stop us. While the former recommends engaging in the act on full moon nights the latter recommends fortnightly.
Food too has become auspicious and sacred not only filling our stomachs but has gone beyond the tongue that tastes them going beyond the throat and stomach and beyond making flesh and blood. Going beyond the state of satisfaction brings on a state of experience where it reaches the farther reaches of the entire constitution that we are made of. Agathiyar explains that in his state he is feeding the elements or buthas. Food in the form of prana-packed air around us leads us there. Pranayama done consistently shall bring us to a state where we engage with the prana all around henceforth taking it in without the need for these practices later on. It is as if we switch on the gear to inhale all the goodness of prana around us.
In puja we sing the praises of God by belting divine numbers. We tend to ask why does God need to be praised as put forward by a seeker to me. Agathiyar came to answer him only recently that they do not need our praise. On the contrary by doing so changes take place in us at the level of the cells and atoms. Vibrations begin to happen that bring on a multitude of forms and sounds that transform the very self. We become transformers bringing on the energy turning into energy vortexes and in turn help spread to others at times healing their souls and bodies too. These songs later transcend the joy that is apparent in listening to our favorite song and singer and alter the height of reception connecting with the divine music out there in the universe.
Sex, Music and Food bring on extreme satisfaction and completeness or puranam to the ailing soul. The touch of a partner, the care of the parents, the soothing words of a friend, and the encouraging words of our mentors all bring us out of the rut that we are in. The guru comes to lift us up further. Agathiyar tells us that he was only delivering the teachings and practices that the Siddhas themselves had carried out and experimented on. Hence I believe it was not wrong for me to drive away a curious psychologist and a reader of this blog, who wanted to lay me on the couch and reach into my mind to establish his hypothesis that I was hallucinating when I shared many a conversation that Agathiyar had with us in this blog. I told him to carry out everything I had practiced and find out for himself rather than establishing findings based on others.
The Siddhas are very much down to earth. I was surprised to hear that Bhogar had spoken about the flesh trade that flourished in a neighboring country. A devotee was told by Agathiyar that he did not mind his photo kept in his bedroom. The Siddhas never alienated any woman who menstruates in their puja.
Water breeds all kinds of creatures. How us that vegetarian? Plants take in the minerals from the soil that is a result of numerous other once-living but now dead creatures breaking down eventually and decomposing into the soil. The air we breathe carries numerous minute creatures too. I guess when Ramalinga Adigal realized that there is nothing actually vegetarian in nature he looked towards the skies for drinking water, drinking the rainwater even before it touches the ground and is polluted or before fishes and amphibians appear and begin to live in it. He advocates that we drink rainwater too. But our air is so polluted with industries thriving.
One thing I learned traveling with my gurus on the path of the Siddhas is that nothing falls from the skies at least initially and that we have to slog and work towards it. Tavayogi says our efforts are till the second chakra svadhistana. Thenceforth they shall raise us up. Supramania Swami too told me that we shall polish the ware till it shines. Today after traveling some 20 years we can sit back and reap the gains of our ventures thanks to the grace of the gurus and the Siddhas.
Bringing us to do rituals he had us step out of it and go within. Bringing us to do charity he had us leave it behind too. He made us realize that each one of us is serving be it God or mankind or plants and animals in their own capacities. We are serving each other in numerous capacities. But talk about serving we only limit ourselves to those in the religious ways serving God or those serving man and beast on humanitarian grounds. We fail to realize and give credit to people who do serve others by going about their daily life and occupations too. We forget to thank the rubbish collector. We forget to thank the other road users who drive carefully saving us from mishaps. We forget to thank the medical profession that is on stand by 24/7 caring for our needs. So how do we return the favor? What we can do is to go beyond our routine and jobs and help others too with our knowledge.
Do not carry the bitter past that is ingrained in us due to constant recollection. Neither carry the baggage and can of worms. The evolution of species can be divided into two categories. The amount of love for others serves as a yardstick. Man who is full of love is seen as a divine being or deivam by family, friends, society, and community. Animals that return the love towards humans are said to take on a human birth at some time in the future. On the other hand, a man who is a pest or parasite in society might slide back down the ladder and take on an animal birth. An animal that is a danger and pest to others will need to take several births before attaining the height of human birth. That which determines our next birth is I suppose love.
We do not have a face. What we see of ourselves is a reflection in a mirror or water. In the movie "Dune" we hear the advice of a grandfather shared. He had said that great men do not seek power. Instead, he is called to. We understand it as when villains seeking power cause widespread damage. Here then the hero accidentally happens to be in the wrong place and is bestowed powers.
I was happy to receive a call from a friend who told me life was good for him now. After landing a much-needed job that paid sufficiently for him to settle all his past debts he paid his gratitude to Agathiyar. He continues his home puja and conducts puja at Agathiyar temples. He continues his yoga practices and his charity programs. Life could never be better he tells me as he had shared the past life that had taken a toll on him earlier. It is rare to come across those who give thanks to the divine. We think we deserve his kindness and mercy forever. We take control of our lives all live long and only allow him for a moment into our lives as we stand before him at the altar or temple and expect him to help us out in times of trouble. When nothing materializes according to our wants we condemn him for not helping out and even question if he was around. In reading the Nadi we are told that our lives revolve around our karma. We fail to realize that the divine cannot intervene for we have to live it out. But when we surrender to him he knows what needs to be done henceforth. Many show their anger towards him when they are threatened with illnesses and their lives take a beating. How fair is it for us to blame the divine when we do not take care of our health and lives or make wrong choices in life?
Watching the movie "Sound of Metal" made me recall my fear when I thought I was losing my hearing several times. A fear would set upon me and I would pace my home desperately blowing my nose and doing pranayama hoping it would clear. Similarly, a sudden fear for no reason would arise in me waking me from my sleep many a day. Agathiyar in asking me to go within also placed lots of obstacles and hurdles for me to clear. I failed miserably. Just as I thought I should sit in meditation as he has asked us the clanking of the pots and pans from the neighbors who would decide to start cooking just then. Or a neighbor would drill into the wall or knock and bang something just then. The din and noise from the neighborhood children banging the wall and letting out screams would upset my meditation and I would arise to leave. Just as I think about getting some fresh air and opening up my windows the smell of cooking rajasic food from the neighbors or the stench of the neighbors' cats that chose to go in our garden reaches my nose. I would frown at Agathiyar and get angry at times initially. Later I began to congratulate him for his mischief in seeing that my venture in following his directive fails. He was sabotaging me. He was testing me. Ramalinga Adigal comes to tell me that all these shall lead one to gain Gnana or reach that state of impartiality.
In the "Sound of Metal", Ruben who is a metal band drummer loses his hearing fast. His girlfriend sends him over to the home for the deaf. He is given a separate room and told to just sit and have his morning coffee at 5am by the caretaker. In the event he can't sit doing nothing, he is told to write. Similarly, there are some rare moments when I can go beyond sitting for some minutes, many answers come to my mind and I resign to start jotting them down less it passes by in a flash. Later I would expand these notes and write by post.
The caretaker of the school for the deaf comes around later asking Ruben if he had ever experienced a stillness that prevails in these moments of silence. He goes on to tell him that the place, where stillness is, is the kingdom of God and that it never abandons him. He says further that his house is built on trust and if that is violated anything can happen. How true. How far do we trust God? Instead, we go ahead and mend things and worsen them.
The movie "Sound of Metal" made me appreciate hearing. I guess that is how my aged mother hears too for she has lost her hearing as we have to speak up. I still have a fear of losing my senses and my eyesight, hearing, taste, speech, thinking memory, and mobility. In my younger days I used to hover close to the ceiling and look down at myself, my brother, father, sister's, and mother sleeping. I would then sway violently from one corner to another and dive into my body. I never knew what was happening then. Some tell me that could this be an out-of-body experience.
There we several moments of discomfort that I asked myself if it was due to my age reaching 63, the vaccine that I took for covid, or whether it was subtle changes that Agathiyar brought on from within. These are the times I missed Tavayogi. He has to be here now so that I can fall back to him and enquire about these changes that are taking place within me and in my thoughts.
Giving hope to live to another is great dharma. Agathiyar often does this too. Just as the blind man asks a young boy contemplating suicide to describe the surroundings, and just as a blind inmate of an adjacent cell in the prison gives hope to a young boy remanded for several days in the jail by describing the world beyond the walls of the prison, when he is asked to describe what he saw through the open window, Agathiyar gives us hope too. In the former, the lad begins to see the world anew and drops his intention to take his life. In the latter, the kid is surprised to find out that the one who narrated to him the outside world while in prison was blind.
Agathiyar says that the greatest dharma that even goes beyond service and feeding is to spread the word of the guru. Know our purpose. There are 4 ways to do it. The Nadi, guru, in deep meditation or after a near-death experience. Know it before our life comes to an end.
The mountain is a mountain again. I have come one full cycle. I have done many stupid things in life. Now it is time for payback and to correct the wrongs. Otherwise one needs to come back again just to do these in another future birth.