The journey passes over several terrains. Hence we should be well-equipped to walk and climb it. We need the tools to help us cover the distance on this journey. As a child, we had no worries as our parents did all the work, making sure that we were protected from harm's way. I took on the many Kavasams or songs that are said to provide a shield or act as a field force that protects us, in my days of bachelorhood memorizing them by heart. So after memorizing the Kandhar Sasti Kavasam, Shanmugam Kavasam, and Vinayagar Kavasam, during the days of my bachelorhood, a force field was erected around me, that protected me from the many doubts and questions that arose after seeing all that took place around me in my circle of friends and relatives. I was kept in this safe cocoon for some 14 years away from harm's way. When the moment of reckoning came the shell was cracked open to let the light of understanding come within. It came by way of a mantra, my very first, given to me in the most mysterious way. My nephew suddenly out of the blue knocked on my door passing me the Vasudeva mantra that was to bring me to meet my guru soon. He asked not to question the source of the mantra given but after a couple of years, it was revealed that it came from Agathiyar through my nephew's Paramaguru Gopal Pillai who came through a devotee. If I had chosen to recite mantras and songs on my own before, I was given my first tool that came from the divine officially.
Chanting this mantra pierces the Vishnu granthi. We are told that further practice of pranayama would pierce the other two knots Brahma granthi and Rudra granthi and the six chakras. R Venu Gopalan in his book, "The Hidden Mysteries of Kundalini", enlightened me further on this mantra stating that the Vishnu Granthi adds obstructions for the sadhaka keeping one under the wraps of attachment and bondage. The 14 years beginning with my marriage and engaging in family life did exactly that. Reciting the mantra cleansed the nadis of the heart chakra and balanced it. It led me to my Moola guru Agathiyar who showed me the ways and the means to dissolve all the past karmic deeds for a better future.
From Awakening State at http://www.awakeningstate.com/spiritual-awakening/om-namo-bhagavate-vasudevaya/ we learn that,
"This Sanskrit mantra can be practiced to attain freedom (moksha) from Samsara – the “Karmic Wheel” that keeps us bound to cycle after cycle of incarnations. This liberation mantra is a karmic eraser."
In reading the Nadi Agathiyar who came as my Moola guru, called me to his path and the worship of the Siddhas by reciting their names besides praying to the other deities. With the coming of the guru, he equipped me with further tools. The mantras and practices come as tools. Armed with these tools I took on the journey without fear as I knew he was beside us. I had a new set of mantras now to recite - a long list of names of these Siddhas. I was given another tool.
Agathiyar besides helping me rid my karma by giving me remedies to be carried out locally and in India brought me before my very first guru Supramania Swami in a mysterious way again. Just as my nephew came and passed on the Vasudeva mantra, my guru passed me a Siva mantra. I had another tool now. Just before I left him after a solid 5 hours of revelation, not through reading the horoscope as we intended for my daughter, he reached into the belly of the Prapanjam and tapped into the events of the past, present, and foretold the future.
Agathiyar gave me the techniques of Nadi Suddhi and Dega Suddhi in the course of several Nadi readings to adopt and put into practice. The purification of the Nadis is required before one progresses to take up Pranayama techniques. Swami Vivekananda speaking about this practice of Nadi Suddhi or purification of the nerves says that "Nerve currents will have to be displaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibration will begin, and the whole constitution will be remodeled, as it were." He quotes from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.
"First, the nerves are to be purified, then comes the power to practice pranayama..... in 15 days or a month purity of the nerves is attained; then begins pranayama."
Three years later I met my second guru Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal, who was visiting Malaysia in 2005 in a mysterious manner. A leaflet mentioning his intent to build a temple for Agathiyar in the Kallar hills that was given to me by the Nadi reader on my first reading in 2002 led me to him, asking if he was the one mentioned in the leaflet. I was officially enrolled into the path of the Siddhas by him giving me and several others the mantra of Agathiyar. I had yet another tool now. From chanting the mantra of Lord Vasudeva, and reciting the names of the Siddhas, to chanting the mantra of Lord Siva, I received yet another mantra that connects me with Agathiyar.
Having introduced me to all these fine tools that serve to enhance and enrich our purpose in taking birth, he now comes to work further on strengthening my body, soul, and life breath. Coming again in 2007, Tavayogi besides helping me finetune the ritual of lighting the Homam that he had asked me to do earlier, officially started me and several others on certain Asanas and Pranayama techniques. Impurities that block the passage of the prana in the nadis are removed. As everything is established in prana, the body is made fit for the spiritual sadhana. The disorders and imbalances in the body and its 3 dosas or bodily humor that are a result of our lifestyle, are reset to their original factory setting. This necessitates the need for Deha Suddhi too. Agathiyar gave us his Agathiyar kuzhambu to consume for the purpose of Deha Suddhi.
Once one's karma is ascertained and remedies are done to counter it, the soul is strengthened by bringing forth compassion and love and gaining merits from doing good deeds and actions as in doing charity. The thoughts are channeled towards the noble and the divine by conducting and carrying out worship. The body is cleansed of its impurities by taking purgatives and reverting to a menu satvic in nature. It is then strengthened with the intake of certain herbs. With the prana that is ingested in larger volumes through Pranayama and having the nadis purified, leading to the lower chakras purified and activated to rise up, the mind is finally brought to quieten down by observing the breath. In the silence of these moments, the full force of the divine can come down in torrents and do its will. We connect with the Prapanjam. It passes us the final mantra that goes beyond all actions and activities. It brings us to wind down and settle within. The mantra is SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI. I was blessed to receive it directly from Mother Prapanjam days ago, hushing me, telling me to put my worries for others and the world at large aside, and assuring me that she has everything under her care and control.