After Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal took me on a tour of some Siddha Samadhi, caves, and temples in Tamilnadu, and upon returning to his hermitage in Kallar on 28 September 2005, I told him I did not want this trip to end like any other tour of pilgrimage spots. I needed something to work on. I asked him what I was to do now. He stared at me for a while before answering. He asked if I was chanting Agathiyar’s mantra regularly. Then he passed me a technique for breathing and asked me to work on it. He told me I had to put in lots of practice. He told me in Tamil, ‘Vaasiye Kadavul’, its translation being, Breath is God. In his book, ‘ATMA DARISANAM’ he quotes a Siddha song, to support his claim, ‘Moochapa Theivam Endru Munnor Sonnar, Munivargalum Sidhargalum Athaithan Sonnar’.
Although we became accustomed to the deity Vaalai whom a devotee and AVM family member used to worship personally and whom Nadi reader Tamaraiselvam worshipped having built a temple for her in India, the first mention of Vaalai was made in a Nadi reading some time back in January of 2017 when Suren approached the latter for a reading in Chennai. The message was conveyed to us at AVM through them. Agathiyar instructed us to include hymns for Vaalai Thaai too during our prayers. I began to compile some songs on her to be recited during our home puja.
Over the weekend Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal came through the Nadi and a devotee respectively. Moments before they came as we sat chanting the Arutperunjothi mantra, when Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar came out of her meditative state she told me that the message had come across for us to establish the worship of Vaalai at AVM. But since Agathiyar after putting an end to all our puja and charity, told me to go within and observe my breath, I did not intend to start worship and rituals. Mataji in a timely manner tells me that the breath itself was Vaalai. Now I understand what Tavayogi used to tell us then. He had expressed the power and strength of our thought. He used to say that we become our thoughts. For instance, constant thought on Agathiyar shall have us turn into Agathiyar too. This is worship in the actual sense. It is an internal worship where we bring ourselves to focus on a point or thing. Mataji pointed out that this was Taranai or concentration. But it has taken other forms and become an external ritual. In worship, I have come to understand that the intent was to catch the attention of the energies and forces that have taken on numerous forms and names. In reciting a specific mantra we tend to invoke a particular deity. In chanting the names of Siddhas and deities we capture their attention. It is said that the mere mention of the name Agathiyar brings all the Siddhas to look in our direction. Agathiyar too revealed that he was all the Siddhas you can name. They are one. But for the purpose of fulfilling certain purposes and tasks, they took on various names and forms. The bridge is then drawn where they make frequent visitations. Then they take up residence in our homes and hearts too. Eventually, they reside in our blood and breath as Agathiyar says of him, Lord Muruga and Vaalai. All traces of Karma are wiped clean and our destiny is slowly changed. A change takes place in our blood. A transformation takes place in our bodies. They begin to move our breath and all our thoughts and actions that are driven by it. We are renewed in all manner.
Puja or Pusai in essence has to move on from leaving external rituals to sitting in silence and contemplating as was originally intended. Observing the breath is on its own a form of internal worship. Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras brings us there once we have run the mile doing all external puja and activities. So did Agathiyar have us arrive there. Swami Vivekananda reminds us that the aim, the end, the goal of all this training is the liberation of the soul and absolute control of nature. Man alone attains perfection, not even the Devas says the Swami. The human birth is necessary to free oneself. The body is the best instrument we have to achieve this purpose. Hence he like the Siddhas says the body has to be kept fit.
Surfing the net we learn that she grants Siddhis. Hence I understand when Agathiyar says Siddhis will come by later. It is amazing that he has brought us to the worship of Vaalai too and again.
We find a very informative article on her at https://mrpuyal.com/spiritual-aanmeegam/siddhas-secret-goddess-pooja-2/ The following extracts from it are of interest as it was mentioned by Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal to us.
"பாலா திரிபுரசுந்தரியை அக கண்ணினாலே கண்டு தான் சித்தர்கள் பூஜித்தனர். எனவே பாலாம்பிகை கோயில்கள் குறைவாகும்."
As Vaalai was the breath, the Siddhas contemplated on their breath and worshipped her within. Hence we find very few temples for her.
"பாலா பரபிரம்மத்தை காண நம்மை கைப்பிடித்து அழைத்து செல்பவள். யோக முதிர்ச்சி, சித்துக்களில் கைதேர்ந்த சித்தர்கள் அனைவரும் வாலையின்றி அந்நிலையை அடைய இயலாது. இந்தக் குழந்தையை வழிபட்டு தான் சித்தர்கள் சித்திகளை பெற்றனர் என்பது நமக்கு தெளிவாகிறது."
Once we have her Darshan within she shall lead us on. It was only possible for the Siddhas to master Yoga and attain the Siddhis with her leading them. Ramalinga Adigal told me that they too held on to her and attained the Siddha state, "நாங்களும் அவளை பிடித்துத்தான் சித்தன் ஆனோம்"