As there was a thunderstorm some hours ago, I shut the modem and my laptop and turned to reading a book. I picked up Osho's "The White Lotus". When I flipped open the book my eyes fell on a story waiting to be read. It was a Zen story of a Buddhist monk who was invited to the palace by the king after taking a liking for him had patronize him and his teachings. Though he invited him over, he expected the monk to turn down his invitation. But the monk to his surprise took up the invitation and demanded that he arrive at the palace in royal splendor. As days went by the monk began to live like a king to the dismay of the true king. Finally not able to stomach it anymore, the king asked him what was the difference between them now. In his mind, a monk should live like a monk with no possessions and never fall for the pleasures of the palace. The monk invited him for a walk telling him that he will answer then. But it was a long walk that brought them to the fringes of his kingdom. The king asked him how much longer was he going to withhold the answer as they approached his boundary. Standing on the boundary of the king's kingdom the monk asked the king if he wanted to come with him. The king was reluctant and gave all sorts of excuses. The monk told him that he was leaving and dropped his clothes and stood stark naked just as he had sat under the tree when the king met him the very first time. Only then did the monk reply to the king's question on the difference between them. "I am going and I shall not look back even once," he told the king. "I lived a kingly life thanks to you. When I was at your palace I lived with all kinds of possessions but I was not possessive. You are possessive. That is the difference. I am going", saying thus he turned to leave. The king realized his folly and fell at the monk's feet asking for forgiveness. Again the monk said, "The difference is not in possession. The difference is in possessiveness. A simple person is not one who possesses nothing. A single person is one who has no possessiveness, and who never looks back". The monk left the king and his kingdom for good.
The numerous events that took place over the past few weeks were a lesson for all of us too. When Agathiyar came among us during the Siddha puja carried out by my eldest daughter at her home with family and her friends on 30 April, Agathiyar told us that his statue was leaving AVM and moving to Mahindren's house. He said he will inform me when I was to hand over his statue to Mahindren. The moment I returned to AVM I started packing his luggage and things and stood on standby mode for his directive. Meanwhile, on 5 May, Agathiyar instructed another devotee to hand over his statue to be given to someone else later. But he could not bring himself to part with the statue giving all kinds of reasons. Since he had refused to part with the statue, Agathiyar who told us that he would leave AVM at year's end to Mahindren's house had to juggle a few things. He had me pass his statue at AVM to Sri Krishna instead of Mahindren and gave the statue in possession of Sri Krishna at his home Pothihai Dharma Chakkram (PTC) to the devotee waiting in line. Just as we were moving him out from AVM to PTC, Agathiyar told me just what Ramalinga Adigal and Arnold Schwarzenegger said in "Terminator", - "I shall be back!" This surprised us all as it was yet another spin to the story. I guess I had played my cards well, and Agathiyar was pleased or maybe he wanted to test all of us as well. I was willing to part with a statue in my possession for 13 years and Sri Krishna his statue of a few months while the other devotee could not part with his that has been with him for some three years.
When he asked me to build a temple for him in my first Nadi reading in 2002, I became excited and overzealous thinking that I was the chosen one but Sivabalan who brought the Nadi reader from India and stood by me during the reading killed the kindled fire in me telling me that Agathiyar had mentioned this to fifty others. But the 24-year-old also told me that since none of them had carried out Agathiyar's wish he asked that I look into it. Though I tried very hard to get a space in existing temples to house Agathiyar, it never worked in my favor. I dropped the idea. In 2009 Agathiyar tells me that since I had desired to build the temple he had made arrangements with Thiru Arumugam who had promised a sweet spot in the temple he was building for saint Raghavendra. While awaiting the temple to be completed, Agathiyar's bronze statue that was commissioned in Swamimalai stayed in transit in my home. When the time came to move he chose to stay at AVM instead and had someone else buy a statue off the shelf and place him at the temple. Then Lord Murugan comes in the Nadi in 2018, asking me to build a temple for him. He also added that I shall do it differently. As I had no intention to proceed who should he send to convince me to do it but my guru Agathiyar. When Agathiyar mentioned the need for me to move house at the peak of activities carried out in my small home, citing that the home could not accommodate the growing crowd and that he had bigger plans for me, I did not take any initiative either as I was pretty satisfied with what I had. As I stood my ground Agathiyar told me that he shall do it. 18 months later Agathiyar tells me that he had tested me. I stood the test. He instead told me that I could renovate my home to create more space for the devotees to gather. Again I did not move. Then there was a time I was contemplating leaving the neighborhood as the din of the neighbors and the noise of traffic that bypassed the street that once was a dead-end, drove me crazy. Lord Siva too looking into my plea agreed that I had to move house. I used to joke with others that eventually after hearing all by pleas Agathiyar moved house instead leaving me in a quandary. As to the idea of expanding my backyard, I guess it won't be possible now as since my daughter started her vegetable and herbal plot Agathiyar came and endorsed it as Muligai Vanam or Herbal Garden.
The moral of the story in Agathiyar's fables is never to become overzealous when you are given a special task or receive a gift or a treasure from the Siddhas. It might be a test. Who can fathom the Siddhas and their lilas or play?