In the movie about Walt Disney, "As Dreamers Do: The Amazing Life of Walt Disney" we hear the truth spoken. "In the country, you escape the everyday world, the strife, and the struggle (to make ends meet). You get out to everything that is free and beautiful."
In the wildlife documentary "Borneo - Sacred Forest" in the series "Eden - Untamed Planet" on BBC Earth, we learn that the ancient forest of the tropical island of Borneo that remained unchanged for 140 million years and has 60,000 species of plants and animals making Borneo the biggest biodiverse island, is in danger as we now, in the words of the narrator, are witness to "Wilderness abruptly giving way to oil palm. Paradise has been lost to plantation. In the last two decades, 80 percent of the Orang Hutan's habitat has been felled."
It brings tears to our eyes watching destruction take place in many ways and in many lands. Mother Earth which took ages to bring forth a conducive living environment for us to live in has today been stripped of its timber and foliage and left barren and the land dug out for its minerals. We see much of the virgin forest fell to make way for plantations, industries, and housing needs. Man destroys the very thing needed to sustain him in exchange for his immediate needs and also a luxurious life. When the world's climate is affected drastically by his greed he pays a hefty price to stay alive. He turns for instance to inventions that purify water and air to survive. We in Malaysia have seen a month of extreme heat that was not seen before.
Soon man shall make earth completely inhabitable. While nature keeps giving we keep taking. Where and when shall it all end?
As Pocahontas sings that every rock and tree and creature has a life and a spirit, my granddaughter and I were surprised to see a pod that we found at the park that had dried and burst its seeds and opened up had closed after we set it "sail" in a pail of water. Not believing it we did it again the next day. The dried cracked pod came together when wet and opened up when dry even after many days.
Similarly, life does not end with death for us. Agathiyar says death is not the end but the start of another journey. Pattinathar sings that we mourn the death of close ones failing to realize we shall pass away one day too. Death is natural. If we rejoice in birth why do we mourn death?
The Siddhas on the other hand have found the means to evade death. Knowing the secrets to extend life, they prolong the life within the body and leave on their own accord hence beating fate at its game. They overrule the planets that otherwise determine the next course of action for all of us. They are masters of their destiny. In connecting with the Prapanjam they feed off it. The resource-rich Prapanjam keeps them alive for ages.
When Tavayogi shot me and my joy down leaving my home after his first visit in 2005, I did not realize and understand his words. He told me that he had nothing to offer and that I was climbing the wrong tree. He told me to connect with Agathiyar directly. Today I fully understand what he meant that day. He had meant well though his words hurt me and confused me further back then. Recently even Agathiyar who had been guiding me through the Nadi and later coming through devotees took the backstage just like Tavayogi telling me to henceforth engage with the Prapanjam directly. He said the Prapanjam shall provide for all our needs. Thence Ramalinga Adigal came to help us connect to the Prapanjam. Connecting with the Prapanjam one becomes self-sustaining. He exists alongside the Prapanjam and in it. The Prapanjam exists in him.
When the pandemic reared its ugly head Lord Shiva asked us to light the Homam that shall help heal the Prapanjam. Lately fearing a recurrence Mother herself the Prapanjam asks us to carry it out again. As Pocahontas sings we are connected in a circle in a hoop that never ends, indeed just as the mother feeds the embryo and fetus we feed off her. Thus the reason our forefathers worshipped her. Agathiyar lamented once back then to us that no one is following the Siddha Neri or path. We have shelved all good things and become a monster. The Asura in us has gained control over us. The divine has gone into hiding. We need to reach out to the divine to beat the asuric nature within.
We read at https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/the-asura-nature/, that "The Asura does not care for balance, but rather seeks to dominate, control, and master everyone and everything in his path. Blinded by ambition, greed, and power-lust, and drunken with the fruits of acquisition, the Asura lets nothing stop him in his path of domination. Such individuals become blinded to any kind of harmonious balance and are willing to sacrifice other lives, cause enormous pain, and destroy the harmony of the world if they believe it furthers their ambition."
We hear Sri Aurobindo comment on the nature of the Asura: “They see naturally in the world nothing but a huge play of the satisfaction of self; theirs is a world with Desire for its cause and seed and governing force and law, a world of Chance, a world devoid of just relation and linked Karma, a world without God, not true, not founded in Truth. The Asuric man becomes the center or instrument of a fierce, Titanic, violent action, a power of destruction in the world, a fount of injury and evil. Arrogant, full of self-esteem and the drunkenness of their pride, these misguided souls delude themselves, persist in false and obstinate aims and pursue the fixed impure resolution of their longings. In the egoism of their strength and power, in the violence of their wrath and arrogance, they hate, despise, and belittle the God hidden in themselves and the God in man. And because they have this proud hatred and contempt of good and of God, because they are cruel and evil, the Divine casts them down continually into more and more Asuric births. Not seeking him, they find him not, and at last, losing the way to him altogether, sink down into the lowest status of soul-nature….”
I guess these are the souls whom Tavayogi meant have come to see their desires turn to fruition at whatever costs. Here is an opportunity for us to kill the demon in us and take up the course of the divine. Let us become apostles of the divine rather than work on our own desires.