When I accompanied Tavayogi on his morning walk after I arrived at his Kallar ashram a day before in 2005, he told me that Agathiyar had come the night before. I asked him how he came (appeared). He told me in the form of a light. When he sent me and my family to worship Agathiyar in a granite statue that he had placed in the Kallar hills behind his ashram, he told me that he had installed the statue in the exact spot where Agathiyar appeared to him as light. Whenever he gives his speeches preaching about the Siddhas he mentions that they are still with us in the form of light, quoting several Siddha songs. We are told that Ramalinga Adigal and his disciple Jeganatha Swamigal too attained the said state. Days before Supramania Swami went into Samadhi in 2007, he told me over the phone that he had seen the light. When Tavayogi went into Samadhi in 2018, Dhavanthri came to us through a devotee and told us that Tavayogi was now in the form of light too.
What is Light? Oxford Languages defines light as similar to illumination, brightness, luminescence, luminosity, shining, gleaming, gleam, brilliance, radiance, lustre, glowing, glow, blaze, glare, dazzle, incandescence, phosphorescence, sunlight, moonlight, starlight, lamplight, firelight, electric light, gaslight, ray of light, shaft of light, beam of light, effulgence, refulgence, lambency, fulguration, daylight, light of day, natural light, daylight hours, daytime, day, hours of sunlight. Its opposite or lack of it brings on darkness, night-time. Light too is "an expression in someone's eyes indicating a particular emotion or mood." Light is also an "understanding of a problem or mystery; enlightenment." Light is "an area of something brighter or paler than its surroundings." Light is also "a device used to produce a flame or spark." Light is "a window or opening to let light in." Light is also "a person eminent in a particular sphere of activity." Light is to "provide with light or lighting; illuminate." Light means to "make (something) start burning; ignite." Light is to "have a considerable or sufficient amount of natural light; not dark." Light is also (of a colour) pale.
What is this light in religious and spiritual terms? When I had a doubt if the fire from the sun, a forest fire, a matchstick, a gas burner or stove, or a homam were all one and could be worshipped as light, Tavayogi took me to my prayer room and closed the door and drew the curtains close. There was the oil lamp that I had kept lit and burning 24/7. He told me that the fire at the end of the wick was Sudar. The light or Jothi was the orange-red light that filled and lit up the entire room.
How then do these Siddhas transform their gross bodies into light particles? Ramalinga Adigal in attaining the state came back to reveal the mystery in his songs the Arutpa. The final closure to his life chapter was shown in meditation to Mother Mira Alfassa who related it to Gangadharan. The article "A Vision of Dematerialization of Ramalinga's Living Body" was carried in the now-defunct website http://www.ramalinga.com.
Even before he attained the state on the eve of Thaipusam on 30.1.1874, his guru knew Ramalingam's state as Gnana Bharathi writes in his “Tamil Mannin Thanthai”. Drawn by the divine and having worshiped him since young, at 12 years of age Ramalingam followed a guru and traveled the hills and the plains to the abodes of the Siddhas. Coming to know that there was indeed a way to remain immortal he sat in tapas for 12 years under the tutelage of his guru. At the end of the 12-year tapas, his body glittered like gold and his guru himself could not bring himself to see Ramalingam as he shone with a blinding brightness. Could this be the reason Ramalinga Adigal covered himself or rather draped himself in cloth from head to toe in later years? This reminds me of Supramani Swami who left a window and opening so that he could watch the Arunachala hill sitting in the living area of his kudil, soon was forced to close the opening as he said that he could not bring himself to look at the fiery hill where Siddhas and Rishis went on with their chores.
Gnana Bharathi writes that Ramalingam had attained a body that could not be affected by the five elements and could not be brought down by any other factors. His body was to know no hunger and thirst too, said his guru. His guru blessed him to teach the path to others so that they too could defeat death. Ramalingam was 24 then.
Ramalingam came back to the society. What he saw disturbed him a lot. He felt the sufferings of the innocent people who were being manipulated by certain quarters in all ways possible. Ramalingam began to teach people to worship the Jothi. If before these we were shown god as having many forms, he brought us to the worship of light. From form to no form. For one who had abstained from naming his guru, he abstained from giving God a form too. It is said that numerous attempts were made to take his photo but surprisingly his image could never be caught on film. Could the reason his photo could not be taken - be to ensure that no one would deviate and be sidetracked in worshiping him instead of the formless God he was talking about?
Coming back to the society of the day, he fought the problems that had cropped up and infiltrated society during his absence and years of seclusion. Besides discrimination based on caste and the multitude of religions that had arisen, he saw other faiths moving in and encroaching on the locals who were in a dire state of disarray. He began a journey of propagating his newfound path, the worship of light. Beginning from Chennai his journey brought him to Thiruvotriyur and Tirutani. Moving to Pondicherry and then later to Chidambaram, Sirgazhi, and Vaitheeswaram, he moved south to Madurai, Thiruvathavur, Thiruperunturai, and Karunkuzhi. He briefly goes back to Madurai, before settling at Karunkuzhi from where he used to frequent Chidambaram. The locals at Vadalur donated a piece of land some 80 acres in size. He started the Dharma Salai to feed the hungry; the Sanmarga Sangam to bring together his followers and the Sanmarga Bhotini Padasalai to educate them in divine knowledge or jnanam. Staying at Karunguzhi he began to supervise and direct the construction of all these buildings.
Before he entered the room at Sittivalagam Thirumaligai in 1874 and merged with God he told those who had gathered that although he would be out of sight, he would be around another 42,000 years as a Gnana Siddhar and after that take on the form of a Pranava Degi or the Pranava Degam. Gnana Bharathi ends his book by mentioning that Ramalinga Adigal went into a Peranandha Nittirai or the sleep of joy.
The rest is told by Mother Mira Alfassa.
He was verily a supreme form of the divine. A flood of light radiated from his pure and luminous body in all directions. The intensity of the flood of light that radiated from his whole body was very powerful and one shall have the strength and capacity to bear and receive it. My (Mother Mira Alfassa) whole body vibrated with joy and pleasantness because of the vision of the light of his body.
After some time of concentration, he rose up and saw the physical sky. The full moon was shedding its blissful cool rays over the earth. A little distance away from the moon was seen a very bright dazzling star of light. Vallalar poured his concentrated gaze at it for some time. He became enraptured with blissful joy in his heart, which radiated on his face. A little time thereafter, he again sat on the white seat of the plank and entered into deep concentration.
Though Vallalar was inside the closed and bolted room, he could see clearly the whole universe with its tiers of many worlds of mind, life, and the physical including the physical earth and sky with its moon, stars, and clouds.
When he was thus absorbed in deep concentration, an effulgent truth-light of grace broke out from his heart and with its unique heat began to burn his radiant physical body very slowly, as at a snail's speed, and that in an upward direction, from the heart towards the head. The burning of the body may be somewhat likened to that of an incense stick which however burns downwards by its inner heat of fire, forming ash covering but without the falling down of the ash-form.
When the upper part of his radiant body was burnt completely from heart to head, there was left in its place a form of pure white substance, which also radiated its light of consciousness. The burnt part, however, showed all its features intact and clearly, and even the burnt hair of his head was seen distinctly as luminous white hair.
Then the heat of the pure light of grace descended to burn the lower part.
After the whole body was thus burnt, Vallalar was seen as a bodily form of pure white substance from head to foot, radiating its light. The white form kept intact all the different kinds of cells of his body and all the distinctive features and formations of his interior and exterior body. His bodily form did not shrink in size after the burning. I saw no visible flame nor sensed its heat during the burning of his living body, nor smoke, nor any bad smell as of burnt tissues, nor heard any cracking noise as of burnt bones. Instead, there was a sweet fragrance since the time his body began to burn and it spread everywhere. I sensed in my heart an ineffable calmness and silence, which gave me in turn a state of bliss.
Now a second stage of burning began. The unique heat of grace light began to burn slowly Valalalar's luminous form of white substance from head to foot downwards. When his white substance full of its radiating light, was thus burnt completely, the white substance became very fine sub-atomic conscious particles, which permeated and pervaded the entire universe and the farther pure worlds of consciousness beyond. The fine, white, and conscious particles with their radiating light also entered into and got distributed everywhere on the earth and even in matter. After the universal pervasive distribution of the particles, they could be seen no more and disappeared from my sight. Now there pervaded everywhere the sweet, soft, and fine fragrance of camphor which gave my body a blissful sensation and enraptured my heart as well.
Then I had the rare vision of Vallalar's universal luminous golden form. In fact, the immensity of his golden form is contained in the whole universe. This form too disappeared from my view and was replaced by another vision in which I saw the golden light of truth-knowledge and grace entering into all the directions more speedily than the lightning. It permeated and pervaded the whole universe and the farther pure worlds of consciousness. It entered into our earth and all its crores of the physical forms of beings and objects and in the apparently insensible matter and even in the very dark realm of the vast in conscience. All the forms that were permeated by the golden light of truth changed into golden forms of beings and objects. The golden light entered my whole Adhara including the physical body. My body felt in all the cells vibrations of ease and pleasantness. Then I heard some words of grace. However, they were indistinctly heard and could not be deciphered, as I was absorbed in a rapture of bliss due to the sublime vision and experiences. Thus, the vision lasted an hour and ended.
Agathiyar in coming to bless the couple who are playing host to Agathiyar's statue formally at AVM, for their tireless efforts walking the path told them that it was easy to join the Pantheon of Siddhas but there could only be one Ramalinga Adigal. He told them that walking the path, adoring the paintings and idols of Siddhas, and worshipping them, they now have to reach out to the Prapanjam and show them the way too just as Ramalinga Adigal came to show us back then. He said that eventually they shall be led towards the light. This is the light that Tavayogi reveals of the Siddhas' appearance and the vibration that accompanies it as Agathiyar tells us was his true form. In asking me to share the internal changes and transformation taking place in me Agathiyar said that it would be a guide to others wanting to take on the journey in reaching this state. Stopping over at the morning market to buy breakfast this morning after sending my daughter to work, I met a fishmonger after many years. He too must have noticed the change in me for he kept telling me I had gone through a transformation. An elderly devotee at a recent prayer highlighted this too to me. Agathiyar himself came and brushed my hair telling me "This is the result of the internal transformation". My hair was turning black something that I had noticed but was unsure of. Yesterday looking into the mirror to comb my hair, I saw new black hair growth in my beard too.
Mahatma Gandhi was known to walk briskly. So did I in all my days except during the 2 1/2 year period when a pain in my lower back that ran through to my toes held me back and I had to keep pace with my family. When Agathiyar sent the youths over to my home in 2013 to watch our home puja, participate in it, and carry out charity I was equally energetic going to the ground and participating in all the activities that we drew up. The company of these youths kept me alive. When I asked my grandchildren why they wanted me around, they told me it was because I played with them. I go down to their level and engage in play as a kid of 6, 4, and 3 would. The company of these children keeps me alive. And so when Agathiyar asked that we start back our annual puja that coincides with the Thaipusam festivities held all over, and since he, Ramalinga Adigal, and Vaalai herself asked to invite her, I decided to invite all the children and their parents to come together and celebrate with the 10-year-old Vaalai this time around.
In calling me to the path, through my very first Nadi reading, the option and choice were there for me to take up the call or look the other way. I took up the call. I was given a painting of Agathiyar and a book containing the names of the Siddhas immediately. I dread to think how my life would have turned up if I had turned a deaf ear then and walked out. Worshipping solo initially, Agathiyar sent me Tavayogi to refine and fine-tune the worship. Tavayogi had me open up my puja to include my family too. Agathiyar had me open my doors to youths who came in droves after learning about the puja held in my home, from reading the Nadi, and from their friends who frequented my home. The time has come to open our doors to the children too and have them worship the Siddhas and carry out the rituals. I guess if I had named my home Agathiyar's Garden or Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM) back then for easy identification, sharing of location and to carry updates on puja and charity, this time around it would be named AVM Kids.