When words and writings can be manipulated, edited, left out, or altered how can we place much emphasis on them? How sure can we be that what was given in the past has been retained and handed over to us untouched, and in one piece? In coming to us yesterday during the Satsang he called for, Ramalinga Adigal asked that we do not interpret the meanings of his songs and for that matter the songs of the other Siddhas too. Read it as it is and over time he shall enlighten us, he told us.
Much has changed over time with customs and traditions too. Much has changed or in fact, never entered into the worlds hidden from the eyes and manipulative mind of the man seeking to control and rule. Speaking at the Satsang last evening a devotee who had returned from Kailash in 2011 opened up our minds to the truth that what applies in one place cannot apply in another, even the very tradition, custom, rituals, and practices. If we are trained from young to take a dip in the waters and make our way into the temples and the males stand before the stone statues shirtless, can we possibly do the same in Kailash he asked? There is no temple. No statues. We stand in the open and salute the majestic mountain in the cold weather. We will have frostbite if we remove our clothes and shoes. We will freeze in the cold waters if we take a dip. There is no security net to break our fall if we slip. There is no warranty that we would return alive. The air there is thinner as we climb further up. We have to reserve energy and speak only if necessary. All else is possible in the comfort of our home ground but as we enter new terrain it is a matter of survival. Faith drives us and keeps us going. So what we practice and the mode of worship in lower altitudes varies or rather cannot be applied at higher altitudes. The rules are bent here or in the first place, are there any rules at all in these places where we are one with nature? It is pretty obvious that man has manipulated us and laid all the rules to contain and discipline him.
Even the Siddhas are known to bend the rules at times as this devotee stated that they were forever politically correct. Indeed we feel that they do play the political game too, balancing the act, manipulating man and his scenarios, playing a divine game, moving the chess pieces, and many more.
If Agathiyar listed a long list of do's in my daughter's Nadi reading to cushion the effects of her past karma, Tavayogi struck off the list telling me it was not necessary. When a devotee was asked to go over to India and carry out her remedies, as she was not able to travel due to financial constraints Agathiyar switched the remedy and asked that she feed the hungry here in Malaysia. If his guru Chitramuthu Adigal wanted us to conduct a Siddha puja at a temple for Lord Murugan in Taiping waterfalls on a Thursday, passing on his wish through Agathiyar in a Nadi reading for a devotee, due to our inability to carry it out on a weekday and request to do it on a Sunday, and mentioning it to Tavayogi, he gave us the green light telling us that he shall speak to "them".
When I met Tavayogi the very first time and told him that Agathiyar wanted me to come to the worship of the Siddhas, Tavayogi who was in Malaysia to officiate a local affiliate of his Kallar ashram told me to frequent the place and learn from those who started the organization. But Agathiyar switched my path and had me report directly to Tavayogi instead asking me to spend several days at his ashram in India and learn a thing or two from him.
When me and my wife started puja at home Agathiyar began to send strangers over. They would slowly open up cans of worms and spill the beans sharing their disappointments with certain establishments, sharing their sufferings, problems, failures, etc. As we were good listeners, trouble brewed when we made the mistake of giving them solutions. Speaking to Tavayogi over the phone he gave me a slap in the face asking why I had to interfere. Instead, he asked that I show them to Agathiyar. We followed his advice and asked Agathiyar to stop sending people over. Agathiyar listened at least for a while. Soon he made me realize that in no way was my family harmed. He was only using us and our venue to engage and help those whom he chose to see. We gave in and people started coming. Lord Murugan in a Nadi reading said the same too asking us to step aside and watch their divine play. The deities began to come down in devotees and in our homes. One fine day as I stood before Agathiyar's statue at home, he asked me what I would do if he were to shut his ears to my pleas and asking? Later my daughter told me that she believed Agathiyar was listening to her friend's health issues that she shared with me. Indeed when Mahindren and I were on the phone asking each other if we should ask for Gnanam the next time Agathiyar comes asking us what we wanted, Agathiyar in coming again told me that I had asked for Gnanam. When my wife and I traveled back from a coastal town to the city found that the network and signals were not strong in the interiors and had to hang up the telephone call to a devotee, Agathiyar eavesdropped on our conversation and answered our questions when he came later. Agathiyar would intrude into my conversation on Skype with Jnana Jothiamma and engage with her leaving me to wonder why the line went silent.
We have come to learn that there was this rapport and bond between the guru and the disciple as we saw between Agathiyar and Tavayogi where they could come to an understanding and mend the ways or suggestions and have us follow something more appropriate for that moment in time.
As man is governed by time and space and while the Siddhas are beyond its hold, one wonders how they could come across to us, if there was a bridge or a portal between both worlds. When the devotee stood holding on to the face of Mount Kailash and placed his fingers into a hole said to be the belly button of the universe, his mother in Malaysia had a vision of a torch of light akin to a finger touching her belly. Supramania Swami closed off a window opening that had the holy mountain Arunachala in full view at his kudil with a gunny sack telling me that he could no longer see the fiery mountain. He could see Siddhas, Rishis, and Munis going about their work on the mountain. Bhagawan Ramana is said to have entered an opening in the face of Arunachala mountain stepping onto a meadow of green grass and blue skies above in the hollow of the sacred mountain. He had the opening shut later. When Isakhi Siddhar came to a youth who was caring for a run-down Shiva temple in Tiruvanamalai he entered a crack in the wall in the inner sanctum inviting the youth to join him. The youth panicked and let go of the Siddha's hand. I had always considered stepping atop the Palani hill temple as stepping into the Twilight Zone after comparing my first, second, and third visits there in 2003, 2005, and 2016 respectively. If I had stepped away from Lord Murugan's sannadhi in 2003, not seeing nor remembering how he looked like, into a dark corridor and peering into a room exactly behind his sannadhi, asking if it was Bhogar's samadhi and invited in and given a tumbler of milk to drink that brought on a state of bliss, in 2005 following Tavayogi and my brother, we stepped away from the Lord's shrine into the open air again not seeing nor remembering his face, and walked some distance to climb a couple of steps into a brightly lit corridor that had murals of Bhogar's life events painted on its walls. We received the milk again. In 2016 traveling with the AVM family we were ushered into another entrance and shown Lord Murugan in the natural lighting. We came down a few steps and made our way into a separate building that housed Bhogar's samadhi which was brightly lit in natural light. Now where was I, I asked myself all three times. Did I enter a different portal each time? It seems like a scene from Marvel's "Dr. Strange". How can we possibly fathom these miracles? And the Siddhas are not revealing these keeping them a dark secret.