The 2 1/2 years starting in December of 2019 when the dreaded virus was detected first, shut all businesses and affected the livelihood of many, crippling our freedom to move around. A couple of months before in September of 2019, Agathiyar had me wind up AVM and had me go within. When the lockdowns and other restrictions were lifted, and we began to move around as usual but with caution, I told myself that I had wasted some precious time doing nothing worthwhile during this period staying indoors for we had been used to carrying out puja and dharma all the years. But it turned out that I had time to turn in and let go of everything as pointed out by Mahindren later. It was a lesson in letting go.
Then I watch how people find it difficult to let go. An uncle of a colleague back then in my working days tugged his hands into his pant pockets crying out that someone was picking his pocket lying on his deathbed. My mother was ready to leave having lived until the ripe old age of 96. She had kept aside money that her children gave and it was used to cover her funeral cost. She told us that she wanted to sleep on her deathbed. My father found a cozy spot to sit in a meditative pose and leave his body while my mother prepared him the coffee that he asked for. I guess some souls are ready to depart while many hold on to their lives and possessions. Even some among the religious and spiritual are not spared from this pull and the lure of worldly possessions and life I guess. A head of a Brindavan tells me that he finds it difficult to find another to take up his work. Another head tells me she too cannot find someone to take up the job. Another head of an Agasthiyar ashram tells me he cannot bring changes to the 300-year-old tradition.
The Yogis tell us that we come with a certain number of breaths that we exhale during our lives engaging in various activities. Once it is exhausted and the breath that is expelled never returns death befalls. Science tells us that "Invitro experiments indicate that the body’s cells are programmed to undergo a finite number of divisions, after which time they lose their reproductive capacity." (Source: https://www.britannica.com/science/human-body/Basic-form-and-development).
It is said that the saints know when they are to depart and prepare for that day. Jeganatha Swamigal was one. Supramania Swami too had informed me that we would leave the mortal frame when he was 76 when I saw him last in 2005 when he was 74. His son later told me that they located his diary where he had noted the exact day he passed on. I guess if we practice letting go, eventually in the face of death we would slip into that state easily.
Agathiyar has this to say. He asks us what use is it to extend a person's life breath when his body can no longer contain the soul. Death is another doorway to another journey says Agathiyar. One who faces death boldly is indeed a Siddha he says.
"மரணம் ஒன்றும் அல்ல. மற்றொரு பயணத்தின் கதவு. மரணபயம் வேண்டாம். எவன் ஒருவன் மரணத்தை அன்போடு வரவேற்கின்றானோ அவன் சித்தன் ஆகின்றான்."