Asked to worship the Siddhas by Agathiyar in the Nadi, I ventured to look for places that conducted this worship. I found many organizations and movements associated with the Siddhas but none worshiped the Siddhas per se as we see in the temples at that time (2002). One organization had moved on to reciting the Agaval and the worship of the Jothi. Another establishment was solely aligned with carrying out charity. Meeting my guru Tavayogi he spelled out that we should come out of Bakthi and temple worship and seek Gnana. The guru of another Agathiyar Peedham took me to task for conducting libation and praying to Agathiyar's statue. Ain't this all confusing? Now, what is happening here? Though we have many grey areas here all these have been understood only now after having walked the path for some 20 years.
It is all about shedding the skin or shirt or rather in this context leaving what is learned and moving on to other new learnings that come by as we progress spiritually and as the Atma in us evolves together. It is all about letting go of our hold on beliefs, faith, rituals, practices, methods, texts, paintings, statues, gurus, and even deities too. We then stand on the threshold of Advaita. Unless we drop the thought and practice of seeing God separate from us we can never move from Dvaita and Advaita. The goal is to reach oneness with the creator.
Though the journey was confusing and frustrating at times as we saw so many contradictions and dissimilarities the puzzle is solved and the pieces have come together. We now understand that each person was right either in holding on or moving up at that period of time, according to their state of spiritual progress and their comprehension of spiritual matters. I can now accept all that is listed in the opening paragraph. I guess I have matured spirituality and am beginning to see the full view of the spiritual path drafted for all of mankind to evolve and progress in good time according to their karma and nature, effort and discipline, yearning and spirit. As for us, I see that we are often reminded of Bhagawan Ramana's teachings these days. We tend to concede and conclude with Bhagawan for why would Bhagawan build a temple too. A head of the Divine Life Society pointed out years ago the need for temples, especially in Malaysia. Temples like language are one's identity he said. Wipe them out and we lose our identity. I guess that is the reason our ancestors have a saying, that not to reside in a town that has no temple.