The Divine showers many blessings. It is for us to receive and take it up. Many are not aware of these blessings hence go by with their daily routines and troubles trying to mend them. Some who believe in God seek and knock God's door for answers, solutions and assistance. Some though are aware cannot reach out to it as they face numerous hurdles and obstacles placed in their way. Yet others tend to place those hurdles themselves preferring not to believe in the word of God and not listening to him or being indifferent to it or postponing his will to another moment. Very few receive it without any effort.
If we travel the path of Sariyai holding our parent's hands, the guru comes to hold our hands leading us through the next two phases, Kriyai and Yogam. Gnanam that is next on the list dawns with experience gained from the previous three phases. It is not gifted as commonly made to believe but has to be earned through our efforts according to Agathiyar and Lord Murugan. So too both Supramania Swami and Tavayogi said that we shall work on it till it "shines".
Going by the looks of it, Gnanam seems to be a highly prized commodity that is made available by the divine to all provided they work towards it. If many come to stand before Agathiyar asking him to resolve their daily problems, a few sought Mukti and only a handful asked for Gnanam. I for one though I had heard Tavayogi mention the word on the onset of our meeting, had never understood what it was until Agathiyar and later Lord Murugan began to educate us. When Agathiyar confronted us as to what we wanted, and when some asked Agathiyar to solve their family problems, and others Mukti and never to be born again, I kept quiet not knowing what to ask when he turned to me. I had everything in life. I was satisfied. As he stood waiting for a reply from me, I had to churn my tiny brain to come out with something. Finally, I told him that I would want to be born again and again and serve him as I did now. He replied with a question whether that is what I wanted just in the manner Tavayogi does. Having spent some precious time with Tavayogi, hearing the mode of the question, I knew then that that was not the thing to asks for. Our conversation ended there that day. Hearing the word mentioned often by Tavayogi asking us to come to it, though we never knew what we were asking for, later speaking to Mahindren on the phone about this, I told him maybe we should ask for Gnanam as Tavayogi always says. The next time he came he told me that I had asked for Gnanam and went on to briefly describe what and when it would dawn on us. A couple of weeks back Lord Murugan staged a drama and had us learn many lessons. He came to explain in detail what Gnanam exactly was beginning with asking us and assessing our present knowledge of it.
Calling me to his path in 2002, Agathiyar tells me that I could not benefit fully from all my puja and Yogic practices due to my past karma standing in my way. He asked that I worship Lord Ganesa who is known to remove obstacles. Agathiyar gave me remedies to carry out. The Lady saint Avvai sought Lord Ganesa for Gnanam giving us the Vinayagar Agaval. When the AVM family visited India in 2016, I was initially surprised to find the granite idol of Lord Ganesha instead of Agathiyar at his Sannadhi on the outer fringes of the Adi Kumbeswarar Temple at Kumbakonam until Sankar Aiya, a Siddha practitioner who cares for the Agathiyar (Ganapathy), Ambal and Lord Muruga's Sannadhi and who ushered us, revealed the history of the Sannadhi. He echoed the nature of Agathiyar as what Vashisht Vaid wrote "The Great Sage Agathiyar being a Radiant Embodiment of the Vital Consciousness of "Adi Ganesha", in his blog at https://holysageagathiyar.com/uuw/book-i-spiritual-initiate/chapter-1/.
"இவ்விடமே அகதீசரும் விநாயகரும் பிரளயத்தால் அழிந்த உலகை உயிர்ப்பிக்க இறைவனிடம் பணிந்தார் அதன் பொருட்டு ஈசன் இவ்விடம் தோன்றி அருளினார்."
"The Great Sage Agathiyar being a Radiant Embodiment of the Vital Consciousness of "Adi Ganesha" was also blessed to be partaker of the all the ‘Agamic Wisdom’, which apart from him was shared by the ‘Param Adi Shiva’ only with the Cosmic Mother. Sage Agathiyar based upon his attained knowledge and wisdom, which was bestowed upon him by the Grace of the Great Lord ‘Adi Param Shiva’ then composed a great number of Agamic Texts in the ‘Mother Tamil’"
Now we understand why Agathiyar accepted our worship for Lord Ganesa as him during his Chaturthi festival though we mistakenly celebrated it a day later. We had decorated the statue of Agathiyar as Lord Ganesa that day. He told us that they were one. Coming through a devotee saint Raghavendra told me that Agathiyar and he were one. Today Agathiyar has made it known to us that all forms and names are his as he revealed himself as the all-encompassing Prapanjam.
If our lives experiences are solely related to worldly matters, the lessons we learn along the way teaches us the ethics of life, the virtues to uphold, the essence of living and the principles to adopt living as a good man. Taking the spiritual path as a supplementary card, we learn to enrich the soul and empower it. The soul then begins to dictate the right course for us. Soon we are drawn to its truth completely and bath in its splendor and magic. We take on the bliss it has to offer. The supplementary now becomes our primary goal. Man becomes divine. Treading the path, we went many places and went through many phases. Today we have come back to where we started. We have come one full cycle. The mountain is back to being a mountain.