SHARING

I cannot seem to have a decent conversation with others these days. When the only thing they talk about was current affairs, politics, money, and others, I on the other hand can only talk about Agathiyar. Hence I decided to live the life of a hermit keeping away from people and events. A friend and reader of this blog from Europe always calls me and each time his talk moves to the topic of the Nadi which interests him a lot as an academician. Yes, I started my journey reading the Nadi. I had moved on since. He has not been able to move away from the mystery of this mystical oracle. Another new reader messaged me and we spoke over the phone some days ago. He had seen and carried out the remedies. At the onset, he asked me my opinion on the Nadi. Yes, I have read Nadi numerous times. It has guided me to this day. To someone who asks if the Nadi is true, I would put forth the following. A medicine works only if we have faith in both the drug and the doctor. Then again it only works if we take it in the precise amount or prescribed dosage and at the precise times. Otherwise, we would not recover. If the fault lies with us can we say the medicine did not work or the doctor is a quack?

Similarly, it is with the Nadi too. It works if we go with faith. It works if we follow what is said and predicted. We make it happen. We bring these predictions to life. Just as Agathiyar asked me to give life to his murthy or statue at my home, we give life to these predictions of the Siddhas. Just as we draft our ambitions and work tirelessly towards achieving them we have to move to make the predictions come true. If we do not lift a finger as when we doubt it, can we then blame the Siddhas and their oracle? Someone asks me why their parents should carry out remedies for his inadequacies. When we visit a doctor he usually asks for our family health history. Some genetic diseases are inherited we are told as we may share genes. Similarly, since we are all connected as blood relations even remedies extend to extended families. It is only when we step out of our suspicion, negative assumption, prejudgement, and prejudice and look at the oracle with awe and mystery shall we reap the said benefits.

When someone is given a mantra for instance as a solution to their problems or illness, they do not immediately execute it but begin to explore, investigate and seek opinions further. If they finally decide to recite it, they do it a few times and expect results immediately. They want instant results. It does not happen. We were asked to recite Agathiyar's name some 100,000 times when he came as a bronze statue to our home in 2010. The mere mention of that number of chants to sing gave me shivers. How was I to fulfill Agathiyar's directive? Back then we did not have the following that we had in later years. Consulting with Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar she asked me to gather others too and have each participant contribute to the number. That advice came as a relief to me. I gathered family, relatives, neighbors, and friends and chanted Agathiyar's name. But as we were a tiny group we only managed 45,000 among us which took us 2 solid hours. We gave up as our throat was dry and parched and our vocal cords became irritated and inflamed. But the most compassionate father accepted our prayers acknowledging our effort in a subsequent Nadi reading.

One who is filled with divine energy might light a fire with his mere look but we still need a matchstick to do so. As long as we are on earth we are at the mercy of the stars and planets, nature, and society. The saints managed to stay aloft though. They are indifferent to what goes on around them. We marvel reading the lives of the saints and wish we could be like them. But we are not ready to walk the path they had trodden. We have a foot in the greenhouse and another in the scorching sun. We bathe in pleasure and also yearn for a paradise that lurks elsewhere. I guess it takes many births for us to let go of our hold on the three pleasures that are: ownership of grounds; craving for wealth, gold, precious gems, and stones; and the lust for flesh. 

In writing on Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, BKS Iyengar in his "Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali", HarparsCollins Publishers India, 1993, says Patanjali lists four padas: Samadi pada, Sadhana pada, Vibhuti pada, and Kaivalya pada.

"The first pada deals with the science of disciplining the fluctuations of consciousness. For this reason, it begins with the code of conduct. The second pada gives detailed information regarding the practices. The third pada explains the hidden wealth which comes through these practices. The fourth pada speaks about cultivating actions that cannot produce reactions so that consciousness may dissolve in the light of the soul for the very being." 

Similarly, a common man is asked to visit the temple and pray before the deity. This brings him to focus on the statue momentarily. He is momentarily engaged with the prayers conducted forgetting his surroundings for those brief moments. If my parents had launched the Samadhi pada that was devotion to the deities, the guru came to bring us to carry out sadhanas in the Sadhana pada by having us carry out rituals and practice yoga. In carrying out rituals ourselves we build focus and concentration even before we sit in Puja. Having gathered all that we need to conduct the rituals for instance the homam, in repeating the names of the Siddhas we are focussed further on the chore or task on hand. In carrying out the other half of Dharma which is charity and service to others compassion builds in us for another being. This compassion envelops all of creation in the saints as Iyengar writes the central thread of Patanjali's philosophy is the relationship between the self (Purusa) and nature (Prakrti). Agathiyar then brings us into the Vibhuti pada moving us to the inner quest (Antaranga sadhana) or Jnana marga by having us go within on an internal journey that gives insight into the very purpose we came thus fulfilling each individual Dharma. It surprises me that Agathiyar has given me the green light to share my inner experiences with readers as he takes me on this new journey. Agathiyar has shut me up completely. First, he gave me the sanction for me to retire early in 2016. Then he had me devout my entire time to carrying out puja, Satsang, and charity. Then he stopped all this in 2019 and asked that we go in. He gave some techniques for that purpose. My interaction with others ended when he closed the social media groups that I had. He gave me pain so that I would not move around unnecessarily. My outside engagements came to a stop.  Then he had noisy tenants move in as my neighbors. The smell of cat poo that they raised and the din they made, made me shut all the doors and windows too. Recently as my body froze like a log, he told me to shut the windows that I kept open throughout the night till morning too as the cool breeze would do harm to me. I am practically living in a cave in the city now. He has kept me from the public eye except for a handful of his devotees who come by to see him at AVM regularly. 

Finally, "In Kaivalya pada we lose our identities and merge in the soul (emancipation)" says Iyengar. If Agathiyar had given the 5 tenets for mankind in general as his mission and purpose, our mission is to be free from the gravitational pull of the Gunas says, BKS Iyengar. This is the summit of yoga. 

We had read about Agathiyar's extensive travels in the past. But a thought struck me if the myth and legend that follows Agathiyar's travels was actually a journey within like what Tavayogi told of Ramalinga Adigal's song "Aani Pon Ambalathil" as a journey traversing the chakras within.

We follow this internal journey that appears to be an external journey initially as translated by S Vanmikanathan.

"It is the aani-p-ponnambalaththe kanda kaatchikal, the visions I saw on the magnificent golden hall, the 109th decad of the VI th Book. He sings in 32 stanzas of jubilant verse, all of which end with the refrain: "The sights I saw in the Hall of Prime Gold are wonderful sights, O mother, wonderful sights are they!"

He goes on to describe in detail the sights he saw. I omit the repetitions and refrains and give, in his own words, of course, the details of the sights which met his eyes. The refrains are evidence of the irrepressible joy bubbling in his heart. He says: "There appeared a mountain of effulgence and on that was a street. I went along that street and in its center, there was a platform. I climbed onto that platform and on that platform, there was a hall. When I approached the hall, on top of that hall I saw a seven-storeyed tower. What shall I say of the wonders that were on the seven storeys? On top of the seven storeys there was a golden pillar. When I beheld the pillar and climbed on it, what shall I say of the novelties I saw! It is not within my capacity to describe what met me as I climbed on. At the several stages, Sakthi-s, in thousands and thousands, came, They came and tried to bewitch me, but, that I may not be bewitched, I gained the power of grace. With that power, I climbed up that pillar and spied the jeweled crest. On top of the crest there stood a dome, that I saw. On top of that dome, there was a temple of one thousand and eight-carat gold. On seeing the temple, I went unhesitatingly inside the portal in the tower. At the portal in the tower, there were Sakthis-s and Saakthaa-s in crores. Their hues were white, red, and scarlet. There, all of them asked, “Who is this man?”, but I went past them. I went past them, and there, at a sacred doorway, were five persons. With them showing me the way, I went to a jeweled doorway farther up. At that doorway, which I remember well, there stood two, a man and a woman. With them pointing it out to me, I beheld with love welling up in me the private sacred entrance (which leads to the sacred presence of Lord Civan)."

Speaking about a private sacred entrance, I tend to believe now that I was led through this sacred entrance that I deemed as a portal during my very first visit to Palani where I had a private moment in the samadhi of Bhogar. 

"At that sacred door, stood Aanandhavalli, my Mother. I beheld the Mother, Her grace I received, and ambrosia I partook of."

I was given the sacred milk at Bhogar's samadhi back then in 2003 and again in the company of Tavayogi in 2005.

"By Her Grace which held me up, I saw the presence of Natarajar, O mother, I saw the presence of Natarajar! The boon I received on going into His presence, God knows it, O mother, God knows it. In the Hall of prime gold, the sights I saw, wonderful sights they are, O mother, wonderful sights they are." 

All these sharing is not to boost my ego or have readers assume or think that I am special. It is out of love for the divine that we share as Swami Kriyananda says in the video.