As throughout my career, I worked with the military circle, and with all three forces, I adopted some good values, especially in observing discipline and keeping time. This has helped me in my private life too. It helped me greatly as I took my first step into the Siddha path too. I diligently followed all that Agathiyar laid out in the Nadi, adopting the practices, and doing it on time and at the specified times and the number of times. I guess this was the secret to success for Agathiyar later told us that any task started at the given time shall ensure success. I have seen many delay it, withhold from doing it seeking further explanation and clarification first, doubt it, or go investigating the source rather than get on it. One should learn to jump into it immediately just as the commandos do on command. I took the words of the Siddhas in the Nadi as a command and strictly followed them. I saw results in good time. Doubt and suspicion tend to derail the train. I guess these are what Patanjali says we have to remove before taking another step in Yoga. But these weaknesses are themselves a product of karma says Agathiyar. They come in the way of us wanting to begin a new life in their path. Hence they sent us off to numerous temples and places to work on our karma first and gain some belief and faith seeing the devotion of others, shedding a major portion of the karma in making our way to these places in the first place and finally ridding the remaining karma in carrying out the rituals.
Sogyal Rinpoche in his book "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, shares the story of Asanga, a famous Indian Buddhist saint, who lived in the fourth century, that puts us to shame on our lack of dedication to the cause. Retreating into the mountains to meditate in the hope of having a vision of Buddha Maitreya and receiving his teachings, Asanga was saddened and disheartened that he did not get even a glimpse of Maitreya in even his dream, the vision he aspired for, having put in some six years of meditation in the harshest of conditions. He thought that he would never succeed in his dream to have the vision of the Buddha and learn from him, hence he left his hermitage abandoning the noble venture. He had not gone far down the road when he saw a man rubbing an enormous iron bar with a strip of silk cloth. Asanga asked him what he was doing to which he received the reply, "I haven't got a needle, so I am going to make one out of this iron bar." Asanga was stunned and told himself "Look at the trouble people give themselves over totally absurd things. You are doing a really valuable spiritual practice and you're not nearly so dedicated." He turned around and went back to his retreat to continue his meditation.
Another three years went by and there was no positive sign that he would have a vision of the Buddha. He told himself, "Now I know for certain I am never going to succeed" and so he left his practice again. Coming down the road, at the foot of a huge rock stood a man busily rubbing the rock with a feather soaked in water. When questioned about his action, the man replied that the rock was stopping the sun from shining onto his home thus he was getting rid of the rock. Asanga could only revel at the faith and indefatigable energy he carried in him, and ashamed at his own lack of dedication he returned back to his retreat.
Three more years passed by and still, he had not even had a single good dream. He told himself that it was utterly useless and hopeless for him to pursue further, and left again. This time he came across a dog lying in the path of the villagers, snarling at all those who passed by, ready to sink its teeth into them although it had only its front legs and the hind legs were rotting away. Compassion came over Asanga. He cut a piece of flesh from his body and fed the dog. He knelt beside the dog, closed his eyes, and began to stick his tongue out to remove the maggots that had infested its flesh. But his tongue touched the ground. Opening his eyes he saw no dog. In its place was the Buddha Maitreya, envelope in a shimmering aura of light. Asanga asked him why he did not appear earlier.
Maitreya replied, "It is not true that I never appeared to you before. I was with you all the time, but your negative karma and obscurations prevented you from seeing me. Your twelve years of practice dissolved them slightly so that you were at last able to see the dog. Thanks to your compassion all the obscurations were completely swept away and you can see me before you with your very own eyes. If you do not believe that this is what happened put me on your shoulders and try and see if anyone else can see me."
Asanga put Maitreya on over his shoulder and went to the marketplace. He began to ask the people there what was it that he carried on his shoulders. None saw Maitreya seated on his shoulder. Surprisingly one woman told him that he was carrying the rotting corpse of a dog on his shoulder. Maitreya told him her karma was slightly purified hence she was the only one able to see the dog. No one saw the Buddha Maitreya.
Sogyal Rinpoche writes that finally, it dawned on Asanga that "the power of compassion had purified and transformed his karma and so made him a vessel fit to receive the vision and instruction of Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya took him to heaven and gave him further teachings.
We understand now why Agathiyar at the onset had us face our karma and deal with it first before having us worship the Siddhas who then helped us shed some more of the karma through performing the rituals, and had us engage in doing charity that brought on compassion towards others and removed more of the karma and finally in showering their grace removed the last remaining remnants of karma. As karma brings on confusion, doubts, and ignorance, it has to be buried for good. Even the good merits one does have to come to a stop once a balance is achieved. I guess this is the balance that Agathiyar brought about in his journey south that is spoken of often. If it is said that he had brought a balance to the earth that had tilted in the absence of the Gods who had all gathered in the north for Lord Shiva's and Goddess Parvathy's matrimony, I guess evil reigned in the south, bad and false practices replaced the good, and the good were at the mercy of the bad, etc. Agathiyar came to rid them and restore order in society and its people. He had them adopt the Siddha way that saw all three dosas coming to a balance hence assuring good health. He showed them that a balance between work and family and spiritual endeavors was possible. He showed them that coexisting with one another and all of creation was possible too. Having set the world in order, he retired to meditate further.
If we cannot allocate some time to the regimes stated by the Siddhas and do not diligently adhere to the disciplines how can we expect to travel the path much less begin the journey? This is the reason very few make it though they claim to follow the Siddha teachings and their path. I could allocate time for the fire ritual or Homam and Abhisegam that Tavayogi and Agathiyar initiated respectively. Tavayogi came by to polish the procedures on his later visit. I could allocate my morning and evening hours of each day to waking up at dawn back then as a bachelor, and carrying out Puja, Pranayama, and Asana practices picked from books first and with Tavayogi arriving later and teaching them officially. These practices were further polished by taking classes from Acharya Gurudasan of Salem who had a short working stint in Malaysia then.
If we can allow ourselves to become slaves to work should not we regain back some freedom to do our own stuff. And so my daughter who left her house at daybreak only to return after dark and hardly had some quality time with her children decided to leave her job and take care of her family. Many ask me what I was doing after retirement. I questioned them whether they knew the meaning of the word retirement. Oxford Languages defines it as "the action or fact of leaving one's job and ceasing to work". It also mentions seclusion. When I opted for early retirement at the age of 56, Agathiyar gave me the green light in the Nadi. I guess he was delighted that now I could spend more time doing his work. It was the period when AVM was at its height receiving visitors and devotees, carrying out charity, and performing puja.
We have to learn to take hold of our lives and decide what we want to make of them rather than being sheep following others into the pen. We have to live a purposeful life. If we are lost for a purpose, that is when we are easily guided into doing things that could eventually endanger our lives. I guess this is the Vairagya in the charts that is said to steer us on course and keep us from deviating and losing sight of the port of call. It is said that to succeed on the spiritual path we need Vairagya or determination. JN Bhasin studied the birth charts of prominent people including saints and wrote about the expressed need to have Vairagya in one's charts in his book "Events and Nativities Explained", Sagar Publications, 1974. Ramakrishna Paramhansa had all the signs that pointed to or denoted a high type of Vairagya in the mind. It was written that he would attain sainthood and rise to great spiritual heights. Arvind Ghosh or Aurobindo Ghosh too took to a saintly life as it was in the chart showing a mind full of Vairagya. Swami Yogananda too had all the right ingredients for Sanyas. Buddhists have a practice of identifying potential souls and past gurus taking rebirth and working on these children from a very young age leading them along so that the soul can continue its work and not become deviated from its mission. This is where the Siddha's Nadi revelation can come in handy identifying our path for us on the onset itself, and Agathiyar's First Tenet to mankind, reminding us of our purpose and mission and taking up a life that was attuned to the desires and wishes of the divine as charted in the stars and horoscope.