When Agathiyar asked me to come to the worship of the Siddhas in my first Nadi reading in 2002 I went looking for someone or a movement that did it but found none. While one was engrossed and fully committed to doing charity another had moved on to the worship of Arutperunjothi which was even more alien to me then. Armed with Agathiyar's painting and a booklet of a compilation of the names of Siddhas that I was given at the end of my Nadi reading, I began on my own. Besides reciting these names I sang the many other songs of praises to the Siddhas that I had compiled along the way. Agathiyar sent me Tavayogi who brought me to places and temples associated with the Siddhas in 2005. Tavayogi introduced me to doing charity at his Ashram. On one of his subsequent visits in 2007, he showed me and several others Yoga Asanas and Pranayama that I began to practice. Tavayogi who initiated me into lighting the Homam, came personally to fine-tune it in 2010. Agathiyar too came as a bronze statue that he had me commission and made in Swamimalai. Mataji passed me several appropriate songs to accompany each item that was used in the libation or Abhisegam. In having me open the doors to my home to a group of youths from Thondu Seivom in 2013, Agathiyar had me share the worship of the Siddhas and associated rituals that I carried out at home with my family. My home became Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM). The same year I and my family visited Kallar ashram. Agathiyar introduced us to giving alms and doing charity at children's and old folks' homes and later sent Sri Krishna of Pothihai Tharma Chakram (PTC) to bring us to street feeding. In 2016 the AVM family visited Kallar ashram. All went well until Agathiyar foresaw that we would stagnate in rituals and charity which were the first two phases of Sariyai and Kriyai terminated them by bringing the shutters on AVM promptly as the dreaded virus emerged in 2019. He had me go within and watch my breath while he armed the rest with the techniques and practice of Yoga and waited eagerly for each of their homes to turn into AVM too. As if to identify them to me, after the pandemic cleared, Agathiyar made several visits to the homes of his devotees who invited him over. Years went by and except for this handful, nothing moved in the rest of the circle. What moved was the energies within me that began to take hold of me after their awakening as a result of the Asanas and Pranayama practices I had diligently carried out beginning in 2007. The Muladhara was awakened a year later in 2008 and made its way without my knowledge until it took stock of my life crippling me from carrying out even the basic daily routines between 2010 and 2012. I had to live with it not knowing when it would surface again as it did in 2016 and later in 2018 though it was blissful and painful at the same time. The years beginning in 2019 when the virus took the upper hand and froze all our movements and freedom, I spent my time in solitude and in continuing to write this blog. In 2022 Agathiyar felt it was time I was given a hand and released the energies that had ponded in Manipuraka. It brought great relief and bliss. This bliss is felt even as I pen these worlds as Ramalinga Adigal's Agaval plays in the background and the breeze caresses me coming in through the open window where I am sitting at my desk. My home took on rightfully the name Gnana Kottam as given by Agathiyar back then where the Gods, Agathiyar, and the other Siddhas began to address devotees both in person and virtually.
Just as Agathiyar had me open my home to others to participate and partake in the nectar of bliss that came on with worship, this time around he had me gather the kids that have come into the AVM family and enjoy these moments in the company of these children. AVM Kids took shape. If Goddess Vaalai is depicted as a child, she is also the breath that traverses through us. As such Agathiyar has forcefully come down on the devotees who had been honeymooning and postponing the agenda of reaching the Siddha state to carry out the Yoga practices given in 2019. Though it was delayed, my home now has truly taken on the name Agathiyar Tapovanam Malaysia (ATM) that Lord Muruga had conferred in a Nadi reading in 2018. I guess just as Ramalinga Adigal came too soon and too early for his time, Gnana Kottam and ATM were established when devotees were not ready to listen and practice.
If in these mere 22 years of traveling and following the Siddha path I have seen many seekers, aspirants, and sadhakas, imagine how many Agathiyar must have seen and seen again and again as we came, again and again, standing before him in each birth? He must lament, "Oh! not you again? I had taught you all there was to it. You never listened and followed nor practiced and achieved." Imagine if he were to say, "Now what are you standing before me for? What I will give you now will go down the drain too. Leave. There is no salvation for you!" Where would we turn to? He is our only solution, way, and path. He is the way and the path. Walking with him, carrying out the worship, rituals, and practice, and sitting with him is living the Siddha path. When many seek him outside, in form, name, and figure, he is also the rocks, plants, animals, and fellow humans. He is very much living in us as our breath, the warmth, the water content, the salts, and minerals, and the electricity, in the body.
In school, we are left alone and unsupervised but when the critical years arrive where they determine our course of life, we burn the midnight oil. Similarly, Agathiyar left us alone to immerse in the pleasures of life only to wake us up from our dream and rush us to leave the danger zone and reach out to safety. The safety net is now Yoga. If Sariyai rids us of our past baggage of Karma and balances the merits of good and bad deeds, Kriyai draws the bridge down for the divine to come to visit us, and love and compassion to blossom and bloom within, Yoga will have the divine effulgence come to stay within us and prolong extent and keep us alive for as long as we choose.
If in Sariyai we were dependant on our parents, in Kriyai on our gurus, in coming to Yogam we take charge of both our body and life that resides within. Eventually, Yogam will bring us to know our Soul or Atma. Knowing the Atma is Gnanam where if in Yogam the ambrosia oozes, in Gnanam spiritual and divine knowledge dawns.
Hence the emphasis has shifted to Yogam now at Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM). We can justify taking on the name Agathiyar Tapovanam Malaysia (ATM) now. Vaalai shall bring us to merge in Sivam. This is where he is bringing us to.