We come across an attempt to answer the question of the advent of diseases in a study "Origins of Major Human Infectious Diseases" by the National Institutes of Health at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK114494/
"These results provide a framework for addressing unanswered questions about the evolution of human infectious diseases - questions not only of practical importance to physicians, and to all the rest of us as potential victims, but also of intellectual interest to historians and evolutionary biologists. This review illustrates big gaps in our understanding of the origins of even the established major infectious diseases."
This question that was never raised by us when we were kids ourselves and now as adults, as we have come to accept illnesses and diseases, seems to be important enough and has been questioned by a six-year-old. My six-year-old granddaughter after she had recovered from a bout of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease in recent weeks, had surprised her mother and us by asking her mother when did the first disease appear. Then she had asked when did the first man appear? Just like her two-year-old brother, like a sponge that absorbs lots of liquid, is picking up words from his siblings and conversations with adults around him, the eldest is keen to know more. She has set the ball rolling for I am eager to know too. This reminded me of my daughter sitting on Tavayogi's lap as a seven-year-old asking him "What was Atma?" the first time we met in 2005.
While reaching out to the internet for authentic answers, I have asked a student who graduated in this subject and is currently employed for scientific facts and a Siddha practitioner for the answers within the pages of the Siddha texts that I shall share in my future posts.
It is interesting to note from the above research paper that,
"Native Americans resisting European colonists died of newly introduced Old World diseases than of sword and bullet wounds. Those invisible agents of New World conquest were Old World microbes to which Europeans had both some acquired immunity based on individual exposure and some genetic resistance based on population exposure over time, but to which previously unexposed Native American populations had no immunity or resistance."
Just as we are told that, "Human hunter/gatherer populations currently suffer, and presumably have suffered for millions of years, from infectious diseases similar or identical to diseases of other wild primate populations. However, the most important infectious diseases of modern food-producing human populations also include diseases that could have emerged only within the past 11,000 years, following the rise of agriculture", we read at https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/pandemics-timeline that, "Communicable diseases existed during humankind’s hunter-gatherer days, but the shift to agrarian life 10,000 years ago created communities that made epidemics more possible."
We read at https://en.wikipedia.org/ that,
"The first evidence of the existence of viruses came from experiments with filters that had pores small enough to retain bacteria. In 1892, Dmitri Ivanovsky used one of these filters to show that sap from a diseased tobacco plant remained infectious to healthy tobacco plants despite having been filtered. The first human virus to be identified was the yellow fever virus. In 1881, Carlos Finlay (1833–1915), a Cuban physician, first conducted and published research that indicated that mosquitoes were carrying the cause of yellow fever, a theory proved in 1900 by a commission headed by Walter Reed (1851–1902)."
From https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.631736/full we see the following table 'A Timeline of the Pandemics".
Unlike science that unravels the mysteries of life, day by day and moment by moment, often correcting its earlier findings, religious heads, and spiritualists who keep vomiting the same Puranas fall short of revealing the how, and why of many of our questions. For instance, when many know the lives of saints, very rarely can they tell us what happened to them after they left their mortal frame either sitting in samadhi or stepping into the inner sanctum of temples, not to be seen again. This is deemed a merger or union with God. If so where are they now? If they are with God where is God now? Where is his residence? Where is his plane or dimension? What does God do and all those who joined him? Do they administer the day-to-day running of the universe and the worlds within them and all beings in it?
These are questions that we hardly ponder and ask ourselves. Our belief in God ends with the granite or bronze statue and the many paintings of God. We know his residence as within the walls of the temples. And apparently, he too works 9 to 5 like us having specific hours of the day when the doors to his "office" are open and he is accessible to people.
A rare guru who went into samadhi recently in India, Nithyanandam Swamigal, makes us question where the many saints went after their merger in a video clip that I watched recently. In an age where we do not get answers from elders and the wise, he surprised us with the answer too. He explained referring to a verse “கண்டவர் விண்டதில்லை; விண்டவர் கண்டதில்லை” He says that once we cross the thin line and step onto the other side we cannot possibly speak. As we are in his presence, and in him and vice versa he in us, as we are one with God we only see. Though we see we do not speak. If he were to make a comeback like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the "Terminator" he cannot see the place he speaks of now. Though he could speak, tell and write, he sees not.
As I am writing this, I suddenly realize Agathiyar broke the rules to show something of that world or state that cannot possibly be seen in this world of ours. The most compassionate and loving father went through the trouble building the stage meticulously taking his time so that I and my wife could see it. But sadly just as Tavayogi pointed me to Agathiyar opening and closing his eyes in his granite statue at Agasthiyampalli and I could not see that miracle, both of us could not see it then too. Then he took a different approach and had us shut our eyes. Just as there were many things that he shared earlier but asked us to refrain from sharing further, he asked us to keep what we saw to ourselves and within the four walls of our prayer room.
Man had placed a barrier between us and God. He has made God become inaccessible to us. He dictates when God can be seen. God can only be seen in his grandest on certain days while he is only accessible at certain hours on other days. Man like in everything else has laid the rules here too. We too are so used to having others do things for us even when it comes to something very personal like puja and prayer. We need someone to bring up our problems, needs, wants, and wishes to the Almighty. We need someone to handle the preparation and execution of rituals that reach out to the deities to bring our desires to their attention and call out for their blessings and fulfillment.
We must understand that God resides in us. As such why are we looking towards others to grant permission and access to see him outside in the things that man created? Should not we instead see God in all his creation? As nature is closest to God, get back to nature to nurture, cherish and nourish us. Spend more time in nature. Sadly, we get lost in time at the malls or lost in the mobiles and tablets for hours. Look away from your computers, smartphones, and televisions and instead look out of your window for once. Look at that lovely full moon that is in the sky right now (This piece was drafted on the last Full moon night). Appreciate God's creation and you shall appreciate yourself.
Since everybody these days seems to give advice, I do not want to join the foray. But it hurts and the heart bleeds when certain things take place before our own eyes. Can we stay indifferent or should we voice out? If we involve when do we know to draw the line and or to cut off or back off or end it? Or do we plunge into it and find ourselves caught in the vicious cycle and circle of life? These are questions that have always bugged me. But Agathiyar came as a savior and started and at the same time stopped many things in the nick of time. He had us move on rather than stagnate or rather become slaves to them. He had us own, use, and eventually give it up be it a thing or a process. He herded us as the shepherd would to the next field to graze the fresh, green, and newer experiences that abound there. Rather than have the stream stagnate into a pond, he broke its bunds and had us flow and join the rest of the tributaries and eventually reach the ocean of bliss or so it seems. When everyone is obsessed with reaching the ocean and not enjoying the ride, Agathiyar showed us how to live in the present and enjoy the journey. The journey indeed is the path. These days I just cannot start an action or end it. I do not plan no more. I just go with the flow as I know that he is the source of the river. Rather than being obsessed with the destination, he showed us that the bliss was in the source, pure and unadulterated. Both the destination and source are one just as Tavayogi wrote and autographed my copy of his book "Andamum Pindamum". Tavayogi identified the residence of God as being within this inner chamber of the heart. He wrote, "The journey begins and ends there". It is a journey of returning back home.
