Ramalinga Adigal sang about a journey in detail. It sounds as if he was actually walking a street and coming across all that he saw on the way. Now where is this place? Is it real or a fiction of his mind as some might see it. I too was asked by someone in the medical profession if I was hallucinating after reading this blog. When I played the song in my car stereo Tavayogi began to clap his hands and sing along as we drove along the winding road to Bukit Rotan when he frequently visited Malaysia back then. He told me it was an internal journey of attaining Gnanam. Agathiyar told the same too some time back, that in traveling the chakras we shall come to reach the state of Gnanam. "When one starts the journey of going within, the result is Gnanam. But it shall vary among people. Hence, I cannot say exactly what shall take place."
ஒருவன் தனக்குள் உள்வாங்கி அவனுள் பயணம் துவங்கும் நேரம் அப்பயணம் தரும் பாதிப்பே ஞானம். அவை ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் மாற்றம் பெரும். ஆகையால் அவை நான் இதுதான் என்று சொல்ல இயலாது.
Then we have the numerous Yoga texts describing these chakras and their corresponding colors, and outlining the number of petals, giving the bija mantra of the respective deities that resides in these centers, all in detail. We read that in envisioning these and reciting the mantras, as we vision the travel, from one chakra to another, and make steady progress on our way to the higher chakras, we shall see the deities and their worlds.
Then we have the actual portals where we unknowingly step into and find ourselves all together in a whole new world too. A young man who decided to take upon himself the task of caring for a depilated Shiva temple in Tiruvannamalai has Esakhi Siddhar visit him and brings him holding his hand to the back of the Shivalingam in the inner sanctum. The Siddha slips into a crack in the wall still holding the poor and frightened soul. The youth lets go of his hand in fear and misses the boat or rather the flight to, who knows maybe Neverland. This astonishing happening took place somewhere around 2005.
When I stepped out of Lord Murugan's sannadhi at Palani on my first visit in 2003, I walked away from him not remembering what I saw or how he looked. As I came out of that portal, I stepped into another. Walking through the door into Bhogar's samadhi, adjacent to and behind Lord Murugan's sannadhi, I found myself intoxicated after drinking the abhisega milk given by a young priest in attendance. When I followed Tavayogi and my brother to Palani again in 2005, I was surprised that I had to walk down several steps and into the open air before walking into Bhogar's samadhi. It was very much different from what I walked into in 2003.
Bhagawan Ramana who is a Gnani and known for his teachings on Self-enquiry, shares his experience in walking into the Holy mountain of Arunachala. He describes green fields and meadows within the hill that is said to be hollow. He comes out and has the opening closed.
So it looks like there are two sides to the coin. It is both an external and internal journey. If the many pilgrimages we make, makes us a great orator, sharing all that we saw and endured during these journeys, the travel within silences us for there are no words to describe what is saw and felt. Each one has to travel within on his own path as Agathiyar says the journey will vary for each.