We have forgotten the reason we usher in the harvest festival Pongal. It has us throw away the junk that we have been collecting for years, at least once a year. It was good housekeeping then. So is it with this body. This body too undergoes changes daily. Those who have not seen us for a while would be likely to pass a comment on the way we look or how we have grown up or aged. The pains of growing old are felt by many. In the movie "Dev Bhoomi - Land of the Gods", a villager from the Himalayan mountains self-exiles himself after a mishap. He finds work employed in the kitchen of a Bangladeshi in England, first as a dishwasher and later as Chief Cook. Upon knowing that his eyesight was failing and the doctors cannot do much, he returns home to meet the anger of the surviving relatives and villagers who knew him. Wanting to part his savings with his sister but as she did not want it, he builds a school that was burned down. He loses his sight shortly. In another movie "Thandatti" an old woman is left to fend for herself. After her children drain her of her savings she is seen on the streets. It is sad to see the elderly become outcasts. On the other hand, many elderly chose to remain back in their homes and hometowns when their children move out for various reasons. Those who choose to change and accommodate the changes that tag along with time survive. When nature itself has accommodated the many changes why can't man? Why are we bent on keeping the old flame alive?
Where are the days when they respected the wise and elderly? We grew up not as a child to our parents but to the entire community in the neighborhood. Others would look out for us. It was a good gesture on the part of society then, though at times it turned out to be detrimental to us. I got a spanking after a neighbor saw me sitting in the front row in the 35 cents class at a movie. She had reported the matter to my parents. I got a spanking for watching up close the movie.
Watching the movie "Maaveeran" brought me to put my thinking cap on. A comic strip artist for a Tamil daily realizes that events from his story take place magically. He is forewarned of events in real life by a voice that only he hears. This happens after hitting his head after he falls in a suicide attempt that goes wrong. He awakens to hearing this voice. In the climax scene, he asks the occupants of his apartment to leave as the voice tells him that it would collapse. When questioned as to who alerted about the disaster he points to the voice. People then turned around to return to their homes in disbelief. Who in his right mind is going to believe him? Any warning of a disaster has to come from the authorities. Is God an authority here? Would his word stand before the law and lawmakers and for the matter in the court of law? Would God stand in the dock? Would he come as a witness? If God was to appear we would reject him offhand. Man has made his life so sophisticated that he can't bring himself to see God in the simplest of things.
This brought me to question if what was to happen is best kept a secret. It makes us think that it is even better when God does not narrate the happening in real-time as in the movie. It gives us the scare. On the other hand, if we are alerted we could take some action before tragedy strikes.
As we are made up of stories accumulated in this birth and the stories from the many previous births, we are writing our own autobiographies. Though it is just that it is not published in book form, others read us and our every move in real-time. God might intervene in some people's lives provided they seek him out. Or he might have a need for us to take on his task in which case he comes knocking our doors.
Do we want to leave behind an extraordinary story or one that is run-of-the-mill? When he tells his girlfriend that he was just an ordinary guy who cannot possibly fight injustice, she reminds him that though he was an ordinary guy but only he heard the voice, "But only you an ordinary man heard that voice, right?" She asked him if he ever wondered why? "Did you wonder why?" She continues that though many have written the story it was only he who took the approach to fight against injustice. "Many have drawn this comic before you. You were the first to draw about the warrior fighting the people." She saw his anger in fighting back and in seeking justice and changing things deep within him that came to the forefront through his comics. "There is an anger in you deep down to fight back and change everything. That anger is the stories you hear. The voice is your power" she concludes. As he fears his death, he tells her "My death is the climax of his stories." She tells him that "That is the climax of all our stories. But what you do before the climax is what counts. He could be anything God or magic, let him be anything, he wants to do good to the people through you. Until now I told you not to do this, but now I am telling you to try for once doing what he tells you to." This sounded like a message to me too. She answered the hesitation I had in taking the step adorning the role of a guru, that I had voiced out in the past several posts.
As he had his old timidity and fear set in after the voice stopped speaking to him he tells her that "But he had already stopped telling the stories, how do I know what happens next?" She replies aptly, "Why? Arent you a storyteller too? Find out." He took things into his own hands henceforth. I guess Agathiyar would stop speaking once we take on the role too. Now I understand why Agathiyar pointed me to Tavayogi at every instance. He was a living role model. He was a living guru. Similarly, the expected Nadi reading that I had mentioned in an earlier post too I believe would not take place. I believe Agathiyar is telling us to believe in our capability and strength now after having guided us through his Nadi for years and later coming through his devotees. These were required for the seekers, students, and disciples but not for the guru. Now I understand why Tavayogi refused to read the Jeeva Nadi for himself that was in his possession. Just as there can be only one Captain on a ship and just as Guhai Namasivayar sent off his student Guru Namasivayar once he saw signs of a guru in his student, Agathiyar would step back and just watch. As it is he had Ramalinga Adigal link us to the Prapanjam earlier and telling us that now they stand as the Prapanjam too, to deal directly with it for all our needs. Now I understand why Tavayogi took up the lighting of the Yagam post-tsunami 2004 and had carried it out as an annual event. We understand how he told us that he would speak to "them" when after listening to our inability to gather on a weekday to carry out a Siddha puja in a faraway town as desired by Tavayogi's guru Chitramuthu Adigal and conveyed by Agathiyar in Tavayogi's Jeeva Nadi reading for a devotee at AVM. This is what Tavayogi in bringing me to the caves and jungles and in pointing me to the skies and the trees said that "they" were welcoming us, mentioning the breeze that blew and the aroma of sandalwood in the air and the invisible petals that were showered on us.
Just like the voice in the movie finally says "Mutrum", Agathiyar is most likely saying he is bringing an end to my housemanship.