Watching the shoot sprout from the seed, push its way through the soil, and reach for the sunlight tells us that life is not easy. It is only when we face problems that we grow and we find ways to overcome or come out of them. Our lives are similar to the flow of the river. It begins from the headwaters and flows rapidly with full force encountering numerous rapids before settling to flow very gently into the bay and the sea. In youth, as we have all the vigor we battle the rapids and take on the adventures that come along only to wind up and retire as the river does eventually.
The blog administrator at http://agatthiyarjnanam.blogspot.com/2014/01/agatthiyar-meijnana-kaviyam-1.html, Geetha Anand writes confirming what was told to us too by Ma, Aiya, and Agathiyar.
"Siddha marga is an experiential path, not a dry jnana marga. It is a path where experience and knowledge go together. Experience is always correct. When one tries to verbalize an experience, mistakes and shortcomings occur. These mistakes can be corrected only by re-experiencing the original experience. This is possible only by Divine grace."
We learn the secret to creation as revealed by Agathiyar from agatthiyarjnanam.blogspot.com.
"The primary cause for the manifested universe is Suddha Maya. This Maya emerges from Siva and Sakti principles.
Tavayogi in his "Andamum Pindamum" writes, "At the beginning there was Sivan. From it emerged a sound. From that sound emerged Sivam or a spark, light, (or the divine spirit, as P.Karthigayan calls it), without a form or formless. The vibration that resulted was Sakti."
Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia in his "The Mahavakyas of the Upanishads" compliments the above.
"When Siva pairs with Sakti, the pairing of Siva-Sakti that is a result of desire or Iccha, causes the creation of all the lower tattvas (Padaital). This pair has the two properties of Jnana and Kriya respectively."
Hence Jnana and Kriya are offshoots of Iccha Sakti. A desire that stems or arises leads to an action that results in knowledge or lesson or experience. This brings us back to my hypothesis in a previous post, "Can we deduce that Iccha is the myriad of never-ending thoughts, the deep yearnings and desires, and vasanas carried from previous births that induce all these? Can we then deduce that Kriya Sakti is executed into actions that then bring upon us its equivalent responses, results, and experiences that take shape as Jnana Sakti? Is this how we are connected with the larger picture, the bigger energies?
Agathiyar says "the Divine supported the manifested world, represented by the various lifeforms. This Maya leads to manifestation starting from Sadasiva."
Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia compliments the above statement by Agathiyar from "Agatthiyar Meijnana Kaviyam."
"When kriyasakti and jnanasakti of the Absolute are in equilibrium, aham or self appears (Sustenance or Kaathal). This is Sadasiva tattva or Nada tattva. The objectivation of self-awareness that "this is me", gives rise to delusion or concealment (Maraital). This is Bindu tattva.
In "Agatthiyar Meijnana Kaviyam", we learn further that "When the completely unmanifested Divine took up a manifested form, due to the limitations it imposed on itself, some contradictions emerged."
Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia writes, "After the initial chaos and when things begin to settle "came the tertiary elements - the various Anatahakarans, the various Vikaars, and Vrittis, the three Gunas, etc, that would form the third layer of elements or Tattvas of creation."
Agathiyar says, "The Divine corrected these mistakes by providing its experience. Hence, Agatthiyar says that the Divine corrected the sastra. Also, the various incarnations of the Divine are said to occur to correct the mistakes that had crept into the scriptures and in their practices. Siva's Divine play or Tiruvilaiadal are episodes that occurred for this purpose."
KR Sivakanthan in his "Sittargal Tathuvamum Yoga Neri Muraigalum", Tirunelveli Then India, Saiva Sitthantha Noor Pathippu Kazhagam, Chennai, 2003, writes on the subject of creation too. Creation began in Paraparam from which Param emerged. From Param came forth Sivan, Sakti emerging from it later, followed by Naadham. Vinthu emerged from Naadham, Sadasivam from Vinthu, and Maheswaran from Sadasivam. Uruthiran emerged from Maheswaran, Vishnu from Uruthiran, and Brahmam from Vishnu. Brahmam gave birth to the Pancha Maha Bhutam, which came about or evolved from each other. The five elements saw their beginning from the sky, from which came forth the element air. This gave rise to fire. Water emerged from the fire, and earth from water. Finally, man, animals, birds, plants, mountains, and rivers rose from the earth. The reverse takes place at the end of the cycle, all returning to the form from which they came forth.
We have to arrive at the state of Suddha Vidya to escape the clutches of Maya. Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia writes, "The acknowledgment that “I am this,” happens in Suddha Vidya or by the grace of the divine (Arulal)"
Surrender to the divine will, acknowledging that it is all his doing, performing the given tasks without taking credit for it, rather seeing oneself just as a tool in his hands, bringing upon us to drop the self-awareness that originally was held by us that "This is me and all my doing", shall bring the divine or guru to draw the curtain or veil that gives rise to this delusion or concealment. Once the curtain is drawn aside, what remains is the pure awareness of "I am this."
So it seems that nothing is perfect at the onset, even with the divine plan. Just as they perfect things along the way, so do we as we go on. Watching the story of John and Molly Chester transform "the soil that was completely devoid of life", into their Apricot Lane Farm (https://www.apricotlanefarms.com/) is proof enough. Their story is told as a feature documentary "The Biggest Little Farm - the Return", where this couple regenerates a land, that had been farmed for 45 years. In 8 years they do a marvelous job but not without problems. But they were optimistic about the future of their farm though. When asked about their resilience, they reply, "That resilience exists within the natural world. It gives us hope for it is waiting for us to unleash its full potential. As long as we continue to show up each day, our little world will reveal more of its secret."
This is true of the guru-disciple relationship too. Each day as we show up before the guru he reveals a little bit.
They continue, "While our farm may never reach perfect harmony, it is alive with infinite possibilities. What created the place was not brilliance or experience - it was freedom." They managed to transform "a place that 10 years ago did not even exist" into a dream come true. That is how we shape the world too.
Tavayogi spoke about freedom too. The Siddha path is of gaining experience and with the brilliance that comes as grace, we are set free. The Atma should be set free to explore he told us. This we see in children always exploring their surroundings and youth always exploring new ideas. It is us the adults who end up in a rut becoming complacent and lazy.
Figuring out that "The quality of the food we eat starts with the quality of the soil", the couple "allowed nature to show them a better way." Biodiversity or having a variety of living organisms around did the trick. Then when they lose their harvest to birds attacking their orchards, snails doing damage, ducks polluting their pond, coyotes stealing their chicken, rodents pilfering their orchards, and their farm destroyed by the natural acts of droughts, winds, and fires, "something happened!" Hawks returned to chase away the starlings. Guardian dogs protected the chickens." This made the coyotes focus on another problem they were facing - gophers. What the coyotes did not eat other animals ate. John and Molly believed that "The solutions to our problems began to appear within the diversity that we had created."
Just as we saw how Nature was both the problem and the solution to this couple, in the episode "Route Awakenings", from the series "China Revealed" on National Geographic Channel, the explorer, and presenter Harry Yuan, states it beautifully that "Nature is both the problem and a solution here." He continues to explain, "You have a problem - flooding, and then you have materials like rocks and bamboo that are found in abundance here. So nature is basically the problem and a solution here." Rocks from the river are placed into huge bamboo baskets that are woven to contain them. These are then placed in the river to create a wall to contain rising floodwaters or divert the river's flow or split the river into two. "What a great idea", he adds.
Stephen Grissom on his blog at https://www.siddhavasihealing.com/blog/siddha-vasi-healing-ancient-wisdom-in-the-modern-world quotes his guru's saying,
“Immerse yourself in the problem. There is hidden the medicine” or in Stephen's words, "The actual medicine that resolved the man’s illness lay hidden within the suffering of his sickness." He quotes his guru Pal Pandian again, “The beauty,” Pal said, “is that the solution to every situation, lies within the very problem itself.”
Indeed, Nature is both friend and foe. The Siddhas had a way of gaining its respect and in turn, were given access to its wide knowledge. They tell us that antidotes are always available, around the vicinity of poisonous plants. It is said that plants would bend down to salute Agathiyar as he passes by and pass on the knowledge of their properties which later came in handy in preparing medicinal potions. They used this knowledge for the good of all of the creation.