Simon Reeve who in his travels brings us places says we take life for granted life. If only we knew what went on in war-torn regions of the world. He risked his life to bring these heart-stopping visuals and commentary to us sitting in the comfort of our homes. When we are looking for comfort in life many go about life without even the basics. I am ashamed that I do not appreciate what life has given me. We have forgotten those words like thanksgiving and showing gratitude and love. Many do not have them in their vocabulary. Many others do not have these on their list of things to do. If these are the prerequisites for a man to become a good, noble person with high virtues, for one intent to become a divine or godman he needs to be compassionate and surrender in totality to the divine and his ways. Ramalinga Adigal is synonymous with compassion and surrender as we come to know further reading and singing his songs from the Arutpa.
Top on his list of asking in this song of praise is for His grace.
Over the weekend both our families, mine and Mahin's revisited the Sri Mayuranathar Srimath Pamban Swamigal Temple, in Dengkil, Selangor. This temple is one guru temple housing both Lord Murugan and his disciple Pamban Swamigal. AVM had jointly conducted several Siddha puja here at the invitation of the late Amarar S.Maniam. It has also been the venue where we lit 108 oil lamps and conducted homams previously. All these pujas in public came to a close with the arrival of the pandemic where we had to continue puja within the four walls of our homes.
Stepping into this temple last Saturday thinking that our grandchildren will have a field day running around as it was a sited on a vast expanse of land, surprisingly brought all of us including the children to sit around and sing the praises of God and gurus. If I had frequented this temple several times before, this time around I connected with the divine energies prevalent here. As Osho says that these energies are located slightly away from the inner sanctum, I came to realize why the bronze deities at this temple are brought around the temple grounds on a small makeshift chariot on auspicious days and tend to stop at the four corners of the temple where the arati is shown by the temple priest. Besides the inner sanctum, the intense vibrational energies are easily felt here as I realized too. It was sort of an outing for our families as we shared our food with others at the temple too.
Later we proceeded to the Sri Agathiar Sanmarka Sangam, where I was a frequent visitor at the beginning of my search to learn the worship of the Siddhas. Nothing had changed in years here. We were cordially invited and entertained by the host Mrs. Ganeson, who turned out to be the wife of a devotee who contributed towards the cost and participated in puja that ushered Agathiyar in the form of the bronze statue at AVM in 2010.
Devotion towards the Gods and the guru has become part and parcel of our lives these days so much so that there is never a day without speaking about them. Agathiyar in comparing the many dharmas that we are asked to take up, places talk about the guru even a step higher than feeding. I guess that is what Tavayogi took up too after starting a movement for Ramalinga Adigal in his hometown of Tirupur in 1994 and giving all up to take on the life of a mendicant and Turavi. He settled in Kallar in later years and began preaching the ways of the Siddhas. We were blessed to have met him in a timely manner when Agathiyar had asked us to come to the worship of the Siddhas. He nurtured us teaching us the rituals and starting us on doing charity that saw AVM take shape with the coming of many youths sent over to AVM by him after their Nadi readings. Today AVM has shifted its gaze on the tiny tots teaching them to sing the praise of the Siddhas and having them perform libation or abhisegam and carry out homam.