As I had written earlier that I had phlegm built up excessively in me since 8.9.2022 after my train journey back from my wife's hometown, and I knew it as a continuous process of expelling the excesses in the three dosas, Vata, Kapha, and Pita, seeing my plight, Goddess Ma collected the Holy waters of the Ganges that streams from the tresses of Lord Shiva, into Agathiyar's kamandalam, or drinking vessel, and added a pinch of the sacred ash, and had me drink it telling me that it shall rid and purge the remaining dosas, a devotee passed me an herbal preparation of the herb Solanum Trilobatum or Thuthuvalai that removes "difficulty in breathing, sinus, chest congestion, and other respiratory problems." Just as many strangers knocked on the door of Jnana Jothiamma's apartment in Chennai and passed her herbal preparations and gifts, this devotee too passed me the sacred ash too that came from Chidambaram to be used with water to emulate Shiva's Ganga waters and to be taken. Goddess Ma told me she was there to deliver Agathiyar's appreciation for our services and to bring forth Lord Shiva's Ganges water that flows from his tresses. I saw a similarity with Ramalinga Adigal's song "Arutpirakasa Maalai" where he sings of how Lord Shiva as Nadarajah came in the wee early morning hours walking the distance till his feet became red and sore just to deliver something rare in his hands in the confines of his home. Though I cannot remember or trace the source I came to understand later that it was Agathiyar who had come with two sweets (laddu that signified Jnana) and handed them to Ramalinga Adigal.
Yesterday as I flipped through the pages of the book "Sittar Meiporul", authored by V. Balaramaiah, I was surprised by the following paragraph.
There is a door where if it is opened ambrosia or the pure Ganges water drips and fills the entire body. In writing on the 10 Deeksha, Balaramaiah says, this Holy water sets the stage for one to arrive at the body that surpasses the 5 elements.
அமுதம் சிதாகாசத்தில் அமைந்துள்ளது. இதையே பிரம்மரந்திர மென்றும் சொல்லுவார். இந்த சிதாகாசத்திற்கு ஒரு வாயிற் கதவு உண்டு. இதற்கு ஒரு பூட்டு உண்டு. இதைத் திறந்த நிமிடமே சுத்த கங்கை என்னும் அமுது சொட்ட ஆரம்பிக்கிறது.
வள்ளலார் உண்ட அமுதமே சுத்த கெங்கை. இதுவே அமிர்த ரசம். இதுவே பகீரதன் வெகு பிரயாசையுடன் சிவன் முடியிலிருந்து இறக்கிய கெங்கை. சிதாகாசத்திலிருந்து சொட்டும் இந்தக் கங்கையே மரணமிலாப் பெரு வாழ்வுக்கு நம்மை உய்ப் பிக்கும். பாபங்களெல்லாம் போக்கும்.
இந்தப் பஞ்ச பூதங்களுக்கும் அப்பாற்பட்ட ஞானியினுடைய தேகம் சித்திய டையும் காலத்தில் ஏற்படும் மாறுபாடுகளைத் தசதீட்சை என்று சொல்வார். இந்த தீட்சை முன்குறிப்பிட்ட அமுதமென்ற சிவ நீரைப் பருகுவதால் உண்டாகக் கூடியது
Know that the first three Deeksha has taken place subtly when toxins are rid from the skin pores as sweat; excess Vata, Kapha, and Pita are eradicated; and old tissues and cells are rid of. In the fourth Deeksha the skin is shed as in the snake. Jnana Jothiamma tells me that seven layers of skin are shed.
Annie Besant in her talks on "The Laws of the Higher Life", the Theosophical Publishing House, 1903, says that "Here we see a consciousness that shapes bodies according to its needs, gradually refining them and bringing them under the control of the higher."
In her book "Avatara-s", The Theosophical Publishing House, 2002, she writes,
"... inasmuch as the body is an instrument we have to use, a certain treatment of the body is necessary so that we may turn our footsteps in the direction of the Path. The body alone will never take us to the heights we aspire to, yet to neglect it will make it impossible for us to attempt those heights at all. ... The body needs to be refined, to be improved, to be molded into such a form, and made of such constituents as may best fit it to be the instrument on the physical plane for man's highest purposes."
"... the purification of the dense body then, consists in a process of deliberate selection of the particles permitted to compose it; the man will take into it the way of food the purest constituents he can obtain, rejecting the impure and the gross."
For those intending to do so, Besant allays the fear and regrets at having sent in gross impure food, telling us that, "... by natural change the particles built into it in the days of his careless living will gradually pass away, at least within seven years - although the process may be considerably hastened."
Jnana Jothiamma too was asked to endure the intense pain that came with these bodily transformations since the body had to expel all the tissues and cells that came to be as a result of eating meat during all her years of living in ignorance. Agathiyar in consoling Jnana Jothiamma and asking her to bear the pain and suffering told her that the cleansing had to be expedited and that her meat intake of the past sixty years that went on to compose her body had to be expelled. She had to go through a grueling cleansing process where for instance she vomited 32 times a day. She told me one had to shed seven layers of skin too. She told me that I would not possibly endure the process. It is said that their bodies would undergo severe changes and would be hideous to look at during this period of transformation. I had wondered if this is the reason the saints went into hiding some as many as twelve years before reappearing in society, having undergone a massive transformation, thus avoiding being ridiculed and made fun of by society. But I was surprised to see the cold and wet feeling come on in the crown of my head even when I took to task my neighbor's kids for making a din late at night. If that is the case one then need not go into hiding but came to have this bliss right in the midst of the marketplace. I guess this feeling is here to stay in all circumstances. Is this the everlasting bliss that Tavayogi asks us to seek rather than the momentary bliss that comes on due to the senses and external causes from time to time?
This Holy water reminds me of how Agathiyar had me consume his Agathiyar Kuzhambu, a herbal preparation prepared by Siddha physician Thiru Arivan, and had me prepare and place the water outdoors till 5pm and to have me drink it when I woke up to go to the loo in the middle of the night and finish it upon waking up the next day. The former was to be taken six months once while the latter was daily. But I only managed to take the latter for 51 days before giving it up. Both these were done to bring a balance to the three dosas and expel the excesses.
We are indeed blessed that we did not go through the amount of pain that Agathiyar, Tavayogi, and Jnana Jothiamma went through. As the devotee who shared the same experiences mentioned, what appeared as mere words in books are being experienced these days by their grace. The words of Ramalinga Adigal which are also God's words are being realized in the self these days by their grace.