In trying to understand why we suffer, we are pointed to each individual's karma. They tell us that we had brought it on ourselves by our past actions. We are to either go through it or find ways to overcome or rid of it if we choose so. Our past actions that gained merit too are a reason to be born again to reap the rewards in this life. We are told that vasanas or unfulfilled desires too are carried from previous births, another reason for our birth. Lately, we were shocked when Agathiyar told a couple that their karma was carried forward from previous Yugas! It looks like karma transcends time and space too. Then there are the curses that we brought onto ourselves from our past actions. I was one.
Neale Donald Walsch says that since the souls had a wish to experience emotions, they took birth. Neale who wrote a children's parable titled "The Little Soul and the Sun", adapted from his book 1 in the series "Conversations with God" (CWG), brings the essence and the message of life before birth, to the kids, in simple terms, which serves us equally well too. A story is narrated of a young soul who knew he was light but wanted to experience it. So he is given a choice to pick the desired action that he would like to do, from a list of many, once he is on earth. He chooses the act of forgiving. Another soul immediately steps up to join the soul in fulfilling its wish by being the perpetrator so that the young soul can then forgive him. They both come down to earth to live out their desire. As Neale wrote, knowing who we are was not enough; we needed to become "it". This desire triggers a chain of events, a learning process takes place and several experiences are recorded, whereby the soul becomes enriched through these experiences. We, being light in essence, for want of experiencing it, had darkness and all opposites created for us. As all the souls are perfect, many wanted and volunteered to come down to help us gain the experience. Thus we had all known each other earlier. We had planned to be together here. Those who needed a particular experience chose to come early while others remained behind to join later.
Fine we understand and accept and find ways to wipe away the karma that followed us. We attempt to "remove the stigma from one or other antisocial activity that multiplies until it becomes the norm that harms us and society." Agathiyar too gives us remedies through his Nadi readings after highlighting our past karma. So I leave to carry out these remedies accordingly. I believe my debt is settled. But how do you explain mass destruction as in forest fires, hurricanes and tornadoes, tsunamis, the pandemic, ethnic cleansing and mass migration, and wars and battles that come to affect us and the world at large? As we are part of this world anything happening elsewhere else will have a consequence on us too eventually right?
As Simon Reeve in the BBC series, "Incredible Journeys with Simon Reeve" who brings us to dangerous and life-threatening places and countries, in speaking about refugees fleeing conflict or persecution, says "I think we often talk about migration based on relatively selfish pros and cons. Are immigrants good or bad for us is often the tone? Very rarely do I hear people on the left or right of politics talking about the consequences for poor countries of millions of people hopping and leaving. When I go to those places and talk to people there, who often feel that they have been left behind, they complain about western countries pinching and poaching their university-educated through complicated immigration quotas. They think of it as being a brain drain often. I can understand why individuals leave, of course, I can. But collectively I do feel the consequences of mass migration can sometimes be countries that struggle to stand on their own two feet."
As he says we can understand if individuals chose to leave for better pasture or for other reasons, but how do we explain the exodus of people in large numbers from war or poverty-afflicted regions or places where Mother Nature herself has wiped out life and livelihood? Whose karma is it? Is there then such a thing as collective karma? So is there such thing as collective karma where the good too dies with the bad? If we believe that we are all buddhas and that we carry the light that is God within us, then whatever good or bad that comes to us is felt by others too provided they are receptive enough. Similarly whatever sufferings others undergo is felt by us. Neale says that God in addressing him is addressing others too. It is not him as a singular who has this conversation with God but rather all of us in the plural. In "Conversation with God - Book 4", God tells him "An awakened species sees the unity of all life and lives into it." They know "experientially that there is only one thing and all things are part of the one. Because they exist in another dimension they can view the sub-molecular structure of all things. They observe that there is only one energy in the universe that is the source and force that mixes up the foundational elements of which it is comprised, adding and subtracting, creating all things in existence through alchemy, hence altering the vibrational frequency of these variously combined elements to generate differing expressions of the essential essence." We learn that "the elements are both conscious and make choices", in other words as Neale puts it, "consciousness exists at the elemental level." Could this be the reason why early man and even some remote civilizations today still pay respect and homage and worshipped nature and everything around them, both living and dead, solid or liquid, seen and unseen? Agathiyar is said to have fed "elements" in keeping creation or prapanjam alive. Could these elements be the Buthas or பூதம் that is said to reside and live in and of us?
From https://blog.good-will.ch/WordPress/2010/10/23/rishi-agastya-a-little-miracle-and-some-stories/ we read rather quite an interesting piece of information about how Agathiyar fed these elements by serving people food.
"Last week I came across a transcription of a seminar given by Sri Kumar in the Nilagiri Hills in 1996 about Agastya, Master Jupiter. ..... (He) is often traveling with his disciples and loves to cook and serve. Through serving food he likes to spread himself into the people and thus adjust any imbalances in the mental, emotional, and physical bodies."
In Agathiyar's revelation to Dr. VM Jayapalan during his meditation, he spoke about the origin of his first temple at Agasthiyampalli. This temple of Agathiyar in Agasthiyampalli Vedaranyam is the first temple built in this Kali Yuga for Agathiyar by an Asura King who together with his subjects went hungry and had his karma removed as the dreaded leprosy cured after being fed and through chanting Agathiyar's Nama Japa AUM AGATHEESAAYA NAMA. This story was released by the Dr. as an audio CD entitled "Agathiyar Thiruvilaiyadal." I thank Dr. V.M. Jayapalan for permission to use portions of the narration.
The first civilization at the beginning of the age of Kali or Kali Yuga started in a part of the world which was to become Kubera Nadu later, with the birth of a child who would later become its king. The Asuras were glad that one from their clan was chosen to take birth and lead the nation and celebrated the occasion. The child was born with Asuric nature (evil tendencies) though. He was blessed and groomed by the leader of the Asuras, Sukracharya. There were temples and places of worship and the main deity was their Guru Sukracharya. Only his name was chanted and heard in this kingdom. Those who defied the rule were put to death. The kingdom was blessed with riches. But evil took shape in this nation and as a consequence, the people had to face 12 years of drought and famine.
Then a man riddled with leprosy appears one day at the doorstep of the king's palace asking to see the king. The minister meets him and tries to shoo him away but the old man is adamant that he meets the king to convey his message personally. He is eventually led to the king. The old man offers food to the king. The king ridicules him and drives him away. But the man before leaving, says that in the event there arises a need for food, the king is invited to his humble hut on the outskirts of the kingdom. Just as he had predicted, the king develops hunger pangs that no amount of food could satisfy. His guru Sukracharya then directs his disciple, the king to the old man. Only the old man can satisfy his hunger, he is told by his guru.
Upon arriving at the old man's hut in disguise, the king sees his citizens being fed by him. The only condition he laid was that they chant the name of Agathiyar. For each chant, they were given a morsel of food. He sees his subjects now chanting Agathiyar's name and not that of Sukracharya. He sits amongst his subjects and watches the prayers where his subjects join in. This was soon to become the first sessions of Kutu Prathanai or joint prayers that we have come to adopt now. Then something happens. The king takes on the dreaded disease, leprosy from the old man while the old man turns into a young, hale, and healthy being. He feeds the hideous king as the king sings the praise of Agathiyar. The disease together with his karma leaves the body of the king and stands aloft in an Asuric form. The king is surprised to learn that he had carried that much karma with him which was now mocking him in the Asuric form. He turns into a divine being. Agathiyar grants him moksha. To show his gratitude the king builds the very first temple for Agathiyar in his kingdom, Kubera Naadu which later came to be known as Vada Naadu and in present times is known as Vedaranyam. Over the years, a devotee of Agathiyar settled at this temple and cared for Agathiyar. The then Chozha king a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva tried to oust the Agathiyar's devotees from the temple after having debated on who was more superior: Lord Shiva or Agathiyar. To prove to the king that they were one, Lord Shiva and Agathiyar appeared together to the Chozha king at this temple of Agathiyar.
Agathiyar in the Nadi, had asked me to come over to his temple at Agasthiyampalli. On my second pilgrimage to India in 2005, I included Agasthiyampalli on my itinerary. I had mentioned to Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal of Agathiyar's directive and my wish to be there and he happily agreed to take me there. There he startled me by opening his left eye in the granite statue of his just like he had told me in the Nadi that he would. In 2009 he had me commission a bronze replica of this statue at Agasthiyampalli and worship in my home. In 2013, he opened both his eyes in this statue at my home during Jnana Jothiamma's visit.
In the scriptures, there is the story that once a group of disciples in the Himalayas had the question of who is the one fasting most, and Maitreya told them, “It is Agastya, he never eats.” They wanted to see Agastya and went to him. Agastya said: "Observe me for three days.” They were very surprised to see him cooking, eating, and serving. He was not missing any meal, and every meal was from our standpoint very excessive in its quantity. After three days the group asked: "We have not understood your way of fasting.” He answered: "In so far as you don’t feel that you are eating, it is fasting.” He does not think he is eating. He lives in tune with the universal consciousness and in such a tune-up the food is given to all the elementals around him with himself as the channel."
In CWG we learn further that "the elemental level is consciousness in action. Every cell in our body acts with intelligence or awareness of its inherent function." Similarly "every element of the universe is imbued with this foundational intelligence. Every ounce of this life be it the cell, the particle, or the sub-molecular element, is embued with foundational intelligence. The element itself is this intelligence in particle form." Amazing. This explains the secret of nature and the body in healing itself.
We see a relationship between the story Agathiyar told to Dr. V.N.Jayapalan and what we read in the blog "Circle of Good Will" with what Agathiyar told my wife recently. Agathiyar recently in asking my wife to serve him food daily, told her that while it was food for him, it was medicine for us. Just as the Yagam and Homam we conduct have far-reaching results the food offered to the deities too comes back to us as prasad and blessings. Now we understand that whatever rituals carried out to the gods in the temples are not hocus-pocus but have a deeper meaning to them.
Just as we feed ourselves, we came to learn that the lighting of the sacred fire or Yagam or its smaller version the Homam too is said to feed and appease the Gods and Goddesses and all the beings of the other realms and worlds. We are told that however devastating a wildfire could be to man, forest fires are surprisingly compared with a Yagam. Is it then nature's (the general realm of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects) way of correcting and bringing a balance to the eco-system (that particular types of things exist and change on their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth)? Is nature feeding the elements in the absence of man observing the age-old tradition of lighting the sacrificial fire? Similarly, does this mean that if nature and the body have its chemistry in healing from within, when one's self-esteem is low another could help him by "lending" his spirit or "fire" for a faster recovery? Words of encouragement, support groups, group prayers, evangelism, a simple talisman given, or a dash of the sacred ash, together with help from the invisible hand of the divine and its angels, go a long way in building up their spirit to battle the illness. Agathiyar told us that upon hearing our pleading to safe Tavayogi from the impending danger to his life, gathered the Siddhas and held a Yagam. Tavayogi survived the ordeal. Later upon surrendering the running of the ashram and the Jeeva Nadi to Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar he surrendered himself to the recurring ordeal and went into samadhi.
We are told that "thoughts are cells communicating with each other." We are brought to understand that the energy of our thoughts has an influence over the cells of our body. We now fully understand why Agathiyar asks the next of kin and relatives of a dying man to keep reminding him to lift his spirits while his family went ahead to carry our remedies that Agathiyar stipulated in the Nadi. Sadly the man who was bed-ridden for some five years gave up on himself. He surrendered and lost the battle. All the remedies and Agathiyar's grace could not help because he had given up the spirit and fire to live. While the remedies to a certain extent could move the "matrix", it was his spirit's and his soul's desire to live that could bring about a total recovery in him. In another instance, Agathiyar, upon speaking to the soul of my mother-in-law who was ill, in turn, asked her to talk to her soul and reply whether it wanted to live or leave. He gave her an extension of life.