Friday 29 December 2023

DESIRES

Many come to Agathiyar for his blessings be it to solemnize a relationship with a particular person of their choice or to start a business venture that they have entered into. Agathiyar or for that matter, any guru would give their blessings. Someone even had the business contract made out and signed before coming over and placing it at his feet. Similarly is it when they seek his approval in his Nadi. As they come with the desire for a positive answer the reading tends to favor their desires. But when things go wrong they tend to question why the relationship turned sour or their business failed as Agathiyar had blessed them. If in the former the partnership turned sour in the abovementioned devotee. She had lived out her karma, exhausted the desire, had the experience, and learned a lesson by burning her fingers, in the latter he had his shipment sent overseas frozen that wrapped up his new venture. They fail to understand that we already had the said desire arise in us before we came for their blessings. The desire has to be lived out. They shall have to learn from the experiences that come along with acting out these desires. God and the Siddhas do not interfere. We are well equipped to journey on our own on this earth. Though there is no need for them to come into the picture unless called for, they answer the calls of the man who does not desire a thing a life. To others who live in their own world, ignorant of his existence, if and when he needs them for his purposes he comes a calling on them ringing their doorbell. 

It is only in doing his work that there is no desire attached. Neither does it earn karma. All other work is bound to step on another's feet or infiltrate another's airspace and bring on karma be it good or bad. This is the reason Saint Arunagiri of Tiruvannamalai who is said to sought the pleasures of the flesh was saved as he jumped from the temple towers by Lord Murugan and kept in solitude for some 12 years before he was tasked to spread the word of the Lord. As he had suffered and worked out his karma that came as the dreaded leprosy, the divine killed his desires further and made sure that no new ones arose keeping him away from actively participating in society. 

It is desires, that fuel our journey here, feeding on the given count of breath that we brought with us. Once we exhaust this count of breath we have to leave this shed, though the doctors might intervene and extend a few hours or days of life by giving us medical attention. 

A piece from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1124925/ mentions, 

"In a hospital setting, where the culture is often focused on “cure,” continuation of invasive procedures, investigations, and treatments may be pursued at the expense of the comfort of the patient. There is sometimes a reluctance to make the diagnosis of dying if any hope of improvement exists and even more so if no definitive diagnosis has been made. When recovery is uncertain it is better to discuss this rather than giving false hope to the patient and family. This is generally perceived as a strength in the doctor-patient relationship and helps to build trust."

The hospital did not want to be invasive and carry on any procedure on my late mother seeing that she was 96 years of age. Even when I used to bring her for her medical checkup on one such particular occasion when I asked the doctor if we should carry out some test, he told me the following. "Fine. We shall have her go through several tests. But in the event we find something wrong with her are you willing to have her go through further tests and procedures deemed necessary? Do you think her fragile body would take it?" He asks that I let her be as long as she never complained. It was only many years later in 2022 that she complained and was brought to the hospital where she passed away peacefully telling each one of us that she wanted to sleep. Agathiyar came and told us to let her go as another birth was already waiting for her.