The path to transformation from man to a divine man and to other states is of many phases. What better mentor can we find to show us the phases if not Ramalinga Adigal who has been there and back. G.Valmikanathan traces Ramalinga Adigal’s brilliant journey on the pathway to God and these phases in his book ‘Makers of Indian Literature - Ramalingam’, published by Sahitya Akademi (e-book at http://www.vallalar.org).
The first phase is that of the purgative way, and the next according to Ramalinga Adigal, the illuminative way, and finally the unitive way. Valmikanathan describes the first part of the saint's life as that of the journey on the purgative way, where he embarks on the journey, worshiping Lord Murugan in Chennai and Thirutani, Lord Siva, and Vadivudai Ambigai in Otriyore, and Lord Nadarajah in Chidambaram, purging himself of all desires and attachments, of all imperfections.
When Tavayogi said that our effort was only necessary until we arrived at the Svathisthana Chakra, I did not understand then. He tells us that from here on the Siddhas will pick us up and lead us on. For this to take place many things have to happen first and take place or come into place. For instance, Agathiyar in the Nadi spoke about our karma and gave means and ways to rectify, exhaust, or erase them in their entirety. Next we we asked to worship the Siddhas since we have come to walk their path. The Siddhas who are forerunners then pass on their immense knowledge and share and teach the practices that they did that elevated them to their state to us. Following diligently and with discipline we shall see results. They correct our diet, stream our thoughts, make us fit, cleanse our internals, and bring a transformation within preparing the body to withstand the energies that are to be activated within. When the house is set right, and the body is strengthened by taking certain herbs or kaya kalpam for this purpose, the energies are released. The Muladhara is activated. The energies travel till Svathisthana. After that as Tavayogi says it is no more our effort but the will of the divine energy. Our efforts seize and we are totally dependent on God's grace to move further. Here it begins to pond or retain for most of us including me. The guru has to break the bund and let the waters out. As for me, Agathiyar did it. When I asked him what I should do next he replied "Do Nothing. It will do its work."
The journey in the illuminative way begins, in which one gains illumination, and gnosis and where one gains the knowledge or Arivu to differentiate right from wrong and to see the world and its happenings from a different perspective. The dawn of Gnanam follows where nothing is learned but all is perceived. This comes directly from the Prapanjam.
For the next phase and to know and understand and get a glimpse of it, we have to look up to Ramalinga Adigal again who has had the experience and sung about it in his Agaval. The journey on the unitive way is where we see results. The transformation takes place rapidly without our doing. God gifts us a body that can sustain his majestic presence. He personally sees through the necessary transformation.
G.Vanmikanathan in his "Pathway to God Trod by Saint Ramalingar", Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, writes,
"... crossing the threshold of the Unitive Way where God with name and form will disappear and where ultimately the worshiper and the worshiped, the seeker and the sought, the soul and the Godhead, will merge into each other."
"In the last song ("Thiruchchitrambala Theivamani Maalai") we see the budding of the concept of Arut-Perum-Jothi, the Great Effulgence of Grace, for the first time in our Swaamikal’s spiritual life....this is the first gleam of the concept of the rare great effulgence which will burst forth in a paean of praise of 1596 lines when our Swaamikal steps on to the last lap of the journey on the Unitive Way."
"Our Swaamikal is now ready for the highest of all possible acts of grace, the crowning glory of the long years of thavam. The conferment of the Effulgence of Grace. The Lord, out of His munificent grace, bestowed on our Swaamikal the very power by which He Himself exercised sovereignty over all the worlds. That power is the Great Effulgence of Grace. This state is achieved not by one's efforts but by the grace of the Lord who speaks, first verbally then silently."
Ramalinga Adigal could have headed back "home" but he stayed back to help our lot, carrying out the dictates of God.
"The Swaamikal was modesty incarnate. He did not like the limelight before which he was exposed to the world. After having gained all the Siddhis and attained the highest possible state, a man of such stature, Ramalinga Adigal chose to stay away from the limelight but the Lord acted otherwise. The Son of Man has become the Son of God, and he who was unknown and who did not want to be known was dragged much against his will to discharge his preordained mission on earth, to commence his ministry on earth, in order to establish the Pure Universal True Path to God, a path, a religion, based on compassion towards all creatures on earth, a religion based on intense and one-pointed love of God, a religion freed from the stifling influences of caste, country, race, language, conflicting creeds, petty cruel gods and inhuman sacrifices, freed from the dialectics of learned scriptures. He (God) spoke to Raamalinga Swaamikal who was the chosen Son of God in the nineteenth century to establish a universal brotherhood of man freed of all shackling fetters of castes and creeds, of rich and poor, of black or white, a universal brotherhood born of a sense of oneness in the eyes of God and based on compassion, on compassion alone."
Just like God pushed Ramalinga Adigal into the limelight, Agathiyar asked Tavayogi to postpone his intent to go into samadhi and start an ashram at Agathiyar Vanam in Kallar and come over to Malaysia later. Agathiyar had me postpone my desire to "leave" too, as he told me that he had just one more thing for me to do. I wonder what it is?