I have become a preacher. I realize that this is would I end up doing unknowingly these days. Over the weekend we had a wedding in the family. I could not start small talk nor engage in the hot topics dealt by others. I kept to myself most of the time by taking on small chores and responsibilities to while my time. Occasionally one or two would walk up to me and talk on Agathiyar would surface. Hence when I accompanied Thiru Arumugam at his table, I took the opportunity asking him to narrate his efforts in putting up the Jegathguru Sri Raghavendra Swamigal Miruthiga Brindavanam in Ipoh Perak and have it documented.
He shared his sadness that the worship of gurus paled before temple worship in town. Tavayogi too upon arrival on our shores preached that we should move up the spiritual ladder and come to Gnanam. I too have come to realize that devotees favor the festivals, gaiety and cheer that comes with these festivities, which is absent in Guru rituals and ashrams. Here one had to adhere to discipline and silence. One has to understand that the path of the guru is indeed one of adhering to disciplines and silence. Hence it is only for those who have crossed the festive bridge. Agathiyar too spoke about this bridge. He told us that now it was a solo walk as the bridge had narrowed and would not accommodate rows and rows of followers as in the parade grounds.
Before we come before God, for a favor or help, we need to ask ourselves if we were worthy of it. If we had never raised a voice for an injustice done to another or gave another a helping hand, how can we possibly stand before him asking the same? In these moments I would ask myself what I would do if I was Agathiyar. The man had not done Vaasi or breathing practices in his whole life but wants an extension of years of his life. How can that be given? The number of years we live is directly chained to the number of breaths we have taken along with us on this journey to use. Once the stock we brought with us was used up in all kinds of excessive and pointless activities, the body can no longer hold on without the very breath that sustains it? The only way is to accumulate prana by means of breathing techniques and practices and add to the count. This would give us some extra years.
Then another man might not have done charity in his whole life. But he stands before God asking for charity to be done to him. How can God give him these extra years when he had never helped kept another alive a few days by feeding and sheltering him?
The saints say that both Dhanam and Tavam are essential to life. These are akin to the two breaths commonly spoken about, Ida and Pingala.
Their children too stand before God asking him to extend the lives of their parents failing to realize that God just cannot go on fulfilling wishes. Death is a painful reminder to all those living to buck up and take on their practices seriously.
Blood transfusion can be given when there are donors or from the blood bank and organs can be donated to another, but one cannot give another his breath. But the most merciful and compassionate has mentioned to a handful of devotees that he had saved them giving his breath. They live till this day surviving on Agathiyar's charity of breath. If one has survived the ordeal with the timely intervention of Agathiyar, should not he then devote his whole live towards Agathiyar's cause? But it never happens. They go back to doing their old stuff. What is the point then in having then around for more years if they are not going to give back to society and mankind and do Gods work.
When I shied away from listening to mostly first-time strangers and those who after frequenting my home would bring themselves to share their grief, sorrow or sufferings, Agathiyar asks only one thing to me. If he was to shut his ears, where would I go? This jolted me and made me prepare myself to listen to others albeit the advice that came flowing freely from me as in the past that brought me into hot soup. I became his ears and eyes henceforth. True enough he mentioned the song written by Sadhu Om in appreciation for his guru Bhagavan Ramana that outlined the need to accept all things clearly, "Yepodhu Nee Arivaayo Appothey Santhi Adaivaai", set to a lovely and calm music and sung by Sriram Parthasarathy. Agathiyar asked me to adapt and follow those lovely and meaningful lines of the song by Sadhu Om that are the gist and cream of Bhagawan Ramana's teachings.
Similarly during the last Sivarathri Yogi Ramsuratkumar came amidst us and unknowing to us was listening to the songs I played from Sriram Parthasarathy's Sadhu Om YouTube channel on https://www.youtube.com/@SADHUOMCHANNEL. After identifying himself as the beggar to my wife he asked that we play the songs again. He sat and listened to these songs in a state of heightened bakti as Bhagawan Ramana too was his guru among Aurobindo and Swami Ramdas.
If we thought Agathiyar was listening through us, he was also watching all things seen for he mentioned the movie "Saguni" and pointed out how a guru should know when to shut up his big mouth.
Today Agathiyar has come to show me another facet of devotees where I can distinguish them just as Tavayogi helped me to differentiate the gurus. After inviting me to his Kallar ashram in India after our first meeting in Malaysia in 2005, and after Agathiyar similarly asks that I spend a couple of days at his ashram learning from him, I journeyed to India again hot on his heels. Besides volunteering to take me places that Agathiyar had stated in my second Nadi reading just days after his arrival in Malaysia, Tavayogi wanted to know if I wanted to visit gurus, and masters or visit the caves and abodes of the Siddhas. I chose the latter and we set of to the nearest cave in Uthiyur the next morning where Tavayogi had spent years meditating.
Moving on to the jungles and hills of Courtallam and Papanasam, and visiting the Tanjore big temple, and other places we returned to his ashram after several days. Again, he invited me to visit the gurus and had a local man Mani bring us to several places in Ooty. The first place of stop was an ashram. The second was a temple and the third and final was a visit to a lonely man in a large unpopulated mansion. I had no idea why he insisted taking me there. But as we got into our car and drove back home on that damp twilight night, he related the differences between them. The first was eyeing for the post of heir to the ashram. The second was caught into rituals and would drown in it forever. The last was someone to look up to just as the Oldman later told us that he would be a star in the night sky the next time I came. The visit to the lone saint reminded me of my granddaughter's much-loved tale that she asks to retell again and again, "A Dark, Dark Tale", written by Ruth Brown. After coming across the dark moor, in the dark woods, dark house, and its dark door, the dark hall, and the dark stairs, and dark passage, the dark curtain, in the dark room, and the dark cupboard, in a dark corner, what should you come across but a dark box in which there was a mouse! So too as we approached the lone bungalow set in the woods of the cold and wet Ooty outskirts, and as we alighted from the white Ambassador and walked into the warm and cozy bungalow after running away from the rain drops and chillness outside, a large painting of Adi Sankara awaited and ushered us into the large living room. It was all quiet and still except for our movements. Calling out Mani made his way while we kept abreast with him finally finding an old man coiled up as a serpent in a corner of a single bed. Mani introduced us. Tavayogi and he spoke for long. I too was introduced as a Malaysian visiting Kallar ashram. Sometime later his aid came over to attend to his needs after work and brought us a hot steaming cup of Ooty tea that warmed our body and hearts. Before we left Dayananda Swami who initially stopped me taking his photo allowed me to do so and told me that he would be a star in the sky on my next visit.
Today I pretty well understand the insistence of Tavayogi in showing me the many facets of gurus so that I could differentiate and be forewarned. So too Agathiyar brought many seekers to my humble home that turned into his Vanam and showed me each man's desire in wanting to know Agathiyar or the Siddhas. The learning process goes on. I guess these is then Gnanam that is spoken about.