Gary Zukav writes in his book "The Seat of the Soul", published by Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2014, that "Creating authentic power requires that you become responsible for everything that you create. The Universal Law of Cause and Effect shows you how you already are responsible for everything that you create, and knowledge of it gives you a strong incentive to create healthy and constructive experiences with your choices. This is the law of karma." This is what Agathiyar told me too after revealing my past karma and the reasons to be born again and again and reminding me to tread the path carefully henceforth after educating me on the nuances of karma. Though we are told by the Siddhas that our past deeds summoned the need to be born again to repay our debts, we learn that our soul had sought to have the experiences that we gain from events that take place in our lives, as Neale Donald Walsch in his book "The Little Soul and the Sun" tells us that the soul that knows that he is light, wants to experience it. As in the world of the absolute only knowing is but there is no experience, the soul comes down to earth to experience itself as Light. "The Little Soul knew itself to be the Light but it wanted to experience itself as Light." Agathiyar did mention that there were many instances of experiences that he wanted me to have too, telling me that it was his doing too. As for the saints they choose to come back to uplift their fellow humans. So rebirth has to be seen from numerous perspectives.
The body is like a bus with its mechanics, circuitry, and the fuel that drives it. There are mechanics, electronics, and chemistry on display within the body too, but we rarely see it or are aware of it just as we take a ride on the bus oblivious to the operation that goes on in riding the bus. Then there are the thoughts that are akin to the many passengers who board and get off. We carry the stories of people who board the bus and often unload them to others. Our lives are a composite of many other lives and stories that we gather or that they share while traveling and journeying in life. How much of it we wonder is truly our own story? I once asked an elderly man to talk about his family instead, breaking his talk on politics and the state of the nation that he started rattling about to the mechanic as I arrived to repair my car and moved on to share with me. Sadly he had nothing to say and kept quiet. We have to change. That is why we are here. We learn and change from watching and experiencing.
In an episode of "Lets Trek Japan" on NHK World, hikers are required to carry garbage bags to dispose of leftover food, bottles, cans, etc that they carry with them on the hike. It reminded me of seeing a Japanese man walk the length of the railway station as a kid in the small town I was born in. I had no idea what he was looking for until I saw him throw away a cigarette butt on the ground. He was apparently looking for an ashtray or bin to throw it into as he had been disciplined in his country. Seeing that it was not provided he had no choice but to relieve it elsewhere. My daughter's lecturer returning from a visit to Japan had mentioned to them that one could lay a prayer mat and pray in the toilets in Japan for they are that clean. I too saw how a supervisor in a Japanese mall inspecting the cleanliness of the toilets went to the extent that he picked up the urinal trap and inspected its underside. A nomad family was shown tidying up and making good the grass where they had pitched a tent to graze their animals before moving on, in a documentary on Siberia that I saw some time back. Then the camera pans to another spot where oil wells, the drilling rig, and drums are left scattered all over by corporate companies that extract oil.
My home is pretty bright now with a new coat of paint. What started in my daughter's bedroom soon saw the whole home painted in white. It has covered the walls and ceilings that were darkened by years of performing the homam. I guess Agathiyar decided that there was no need for rituals in the future and mooted the move to repaint the home.
A devotee shared what the astrologer had told her sister as a remedy for her illness. He asked her to repaint the home. The expense incurred in painting would offset the medical bills. The late Dr.Krishnan had told me that according to my horoscope, I would have to face uncalled-for expenses. But this was in exchange for remaining healthy. We just cannot comprehend the divine laws as yet. The Siddhas and saints see through them and choose to remain silent.
Just as Tavayogi said I made him popular through my writings having many call him or call on him at his ashram, Agathiyar had me just pen the posts and he took them to the world. I am amazed indeed seeing the wide readership. I guess the reason he cut me off from existing movements during my search to know the Siddha path and placed me directly under the tutorship of Tavayogi was to mold new thoughts and ways using me as a tool, breaking away from the rigid views held by many who came to the path before me. I did my own home puja to the Siddhas initially alone and later joined by the family after Tavayogi asked that I include them too. Later Agathiyar sent many youths to join the puja and carry out charity too. But though we gathered at my home that took on the name Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM), it was never to become a movement with followers. When many movements in the name of Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal scan potential seekers before admitting them, laying rules and regulations on the onset that they needed to adhere to, and expect devotees to turn up weekly and participate in all their events, break away into fragments because of differing ideologies or rather egos, and compete and fight to host events among them, we at AVM embraced all those who dropped by or were sent over to watch and participate in the rituals and puja and encouraged them to start the worship of the Siddhas in their own homes. We encouraged them to carry out charity according to their means with the families.
I was told by Agathiyar in my very first Nadi reading that in a former birth as a Namboothri priest, I had gone against the teaching and practice as enshrined and followed by the priestly kind and hence earned their wrath and curse. Now following the Siddha path I tend to lean away from the norms and practices that many on this path follow out of fear of breaking age-old traditions and practices. We at AVM searched, researched, and put into practice and dropped those beliefs and practices that hindered the growth of the soul and its empowerment. Today we are freed of the chains that tie many down in the path.
The words of John Newton in his song "Amazing Grace" beautifully describe this.
Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!
I have already come:
and grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me,
his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease:
I shall possess, within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
the sun forbear to shine;
but God, who called me here below,
will be forever mine.
(Source: https://hymnary.org/text/amazing_grace_how_sweet_the_sound)