There was a call to come to the path. It was through the Nadi. The first lesson from the Siddhas was on karma and its effects. After having been threshed and strangled by the effects of our past karma, Agathiyar restored our faith and belief in the divine law and its system. Besides having us experience life as it showers on us the good, bad and ugly, Agathiyar then brought us to rediscover his 5 tenets which he proposed to serve as the core purpose of human birth at the Tamil Sangam.
1. He says that man must first understand his purpose in taking birth. The Nadi comes to a layman, seeker, or aspirant to reveal his purpose. The Guru comes to the disciple to reveal his purpose. The sadhaka in going within learns his true purpose in taking birth. Those who by some means leave their body momentarily come to know their purpose too. These are the means man comes to realize the cause of his birth and his mission. To a layman, he is told he took birth because of past karma. To a disciple, he is told that he has come for a mission to undertake for the good of society and mankind. To a Gnani, he realizes that he has come to merge with the divine.
This reminds me of Dr. Bhani, a Siddha physician and devotee of Agathiyar, who gave a talk in one of the gatherings at a local Peedham many years back. He told us that songs of the saints can carry an inner meaning. They could be seen from an entirely different perspective by people of different standings in life too. For instance, the popular song of praise to Lord Ganapathy by Avvai goes as follows, carries three different understandings depending on the status of the listener. He went on to explain further. As a school-going kid, his class teacher would tell them that it was a song in praise of Lord Ganapathy and was sung in front of the statue or picture of him. Later as he took up Siddha medicine his guru told him that it was purely about medicine and treating illness and disease. When he came under the discipleship of his spiritual guru Yogi Ramaiah he was told that it was a song of Gnanam. A single song can carry so many variants of its meaning according to the listener's status.
வாக்குண்டாம் நல்ல மனமுண்டாம் மாமலராள்
நோக்குண்டாம் மேனி நுடங்காது - பூக்கொண்டு
துப்பார் திருமேனித் தும்பிக்கையான் பாதம்
தப்பாமல் சார்வார் தமக்கு.
If the Siddha doctor stopped short of revealing the components of the herbal preparation, my friend a Medical doctor shared the components.
"அவ்வையார் தந்த பாட்டு.
திரு.....திருநீற்று பச்சிலை
மேனி......குப்பைமேனி
தும்பி.....தும்பை
கையான்.... கரிசலாங்கண்ணி
பாதம்.... சிறுசெருப்பாடை
கற்ப மூலிகைகள். பாதம் கிடைக்கவில்லை
The ratio is 1/4:1/2:3/4:1:1&1/4. It is to be taken twice a day, half an hour after breakfast and half an hour after dinner. For the first 12 days, with honey. For the next 12 days with ghee. Then, a break. Can be taken in 3-monthly intervals."
Traveling in a car, we cannot foresee what is beyond the turn or corner until we traverse the bend. One who flies in a light aircraft or helicopter sees a larger picture. As an astronaut, he sees the whole world. Just as our view expands as we change our mode of travel the Siddha who are in an elevated plane and are spiritually elevated see far and beyond. If a man has conquered space, the Siddhas who have conquered both space and time could look into the past, present, and future.
2. With his purpose known then, he should come to thank the divine creator or energy that brought forth his birth (through consultation with the lunar forefathers and their angelic hierarchies that co-exist with us down here). Living a purposeful, meaningful, and fruitful life, coupled with a sense of gratefulness will then bring forth the showering of his blessings. These blessings and the efforts in carrying out his dictates result in the soul gaining strength or Soul Power or Atma Balam. He asked that we show appreciation to the divine that gave us an opportunity to take this birth again to come to terms with it and sort out our lives.
3. He asks that we then thank all the caretakers both seen and unseen, in the present and the past.
4. There arises then an obligation on our part to "dutifully aid and help, the ongoing evolution of all co-existing human beings."
5. The final task is to extend this aid and help, towards "the ongoing evolution of all co-existing beings and entities, existing upon the lower levels of the evolutionary ladder, dutifully supporting the manifested matrix or prapanjam."
(Summarized from Vashisht Vaid's post on his blog https://holysageagathiyar.com/ )
Having introduced us to his 5 tenets, Agathiyar provides all the tools that serve to enhance and enrich our purpose in taking birth. The mission and tasks and their accompanying techniques, methods, and tools work further in strengthening our body, soul, and spirit. To aid in seeing through these 5 tenets in life the Siddhas drew up a concise plan dividing it into four stages namely Sariyai, Kriyai, Yogam, and Gnanam. After following in the footsteps of our parents and ancestors engaging in Sariyai all life long, we are introduced to Kriyai with the coming of a guru. Following in the footsteps of the guru for several more years, we are brought to the next stage that of Yogam, or the science of restoring the health of the physical body and that of the soul. Eventually, Gnanam shall dawn on its own.