Wednesday 13 March 2024

THE DIVINE PLAY

In the beginning years of my worship of the Siddhas, from 2002, it was rather quiet on the front with me reciting their names and singing a couple of songs in praise of them while adopting the usual rituals in worship of the Gods and deities. My family came after Tavayogi in 2005 asked that I include them too. He started us by lighting the Homam or oblation. Agathiyar started us with an Abhisegam or libation to his bronze statue that he had me commission and make in Swamimalai and delivered in 2010. A small group of family and friends gathered to usher his arrival and he began to visit their homes too where puja was conducted. Tavayogi would come by and fine-tune the rituals further whenever he visited Malaysia. It was during one of his visits that a seeker whom I was soon to discover was lost turned up for puja. But he chose to stay out of the puja and the conversations with Tavayogi. Soon he frequented my place and revealed his life story beginning with his search that took him to America and several other masters and places in Malaysia. He seemed badly bruised and hurt by his experiences. As me and my wife were new to the worship and were only too eager to listen and help out, we got bitten when his wife accused us asking, "What did you do to him?" for he ended up leaving the doors and windows of his home open all night long and staring at the moon. 

Turning to Tavayogi and asking him over the phone why was all this happening, we got a scolding from him. He asked me why I had to involve? Rather he said I should have pointed him to Agathiyar. It was Agathiyar's game we came to know eventually. Though Agathiyar had told me that he would come in me and my soul would transmigrate into his bronze statue for some time the day after he arrived from India for his Jayanthi puja at my home, and would walk and speak to those gathered in my physical form, this was our very first encounter in seeing Agathiyar in action coming through a person in flesh to heal. He "exorcised" him and freed him from the blockages within that were a result of his visitation and practices picked up from the numerous centers and masters. Though he had gone back to work since then and they lived happily ever after, we were terrified and begged that it should stop. Agathiyar listened at least for that moment. But he kept sending over strangers who stood at our door. He dealt with their problems and sent them back without any harm to me and my family. With the coming of many more seekers and curious onlookers who turned devotees, the divine energies continued to stage their play in my home. He made me realize and accept that he was only using me and others and our venues to help those whom he had summoned over for various reasons only he knew. Once he asked me where would I go if he were to turn a deaf ear to my problems. It was an awakening of sorts for me then. Lord Murugan coming through the Nadi asked that I step aside and let them carry on their divine play or Leela. Indeed the moment I took heed of his requests and opened up both my heart and my home, all heaven broke loose. At the end of the day, there were no casualties but only bliss in some and satisfaction in others.

The Siddha path has been made to look like a religious institution by many. It is contrary to that. Testing me if I would build a temple too for the Siddhas like others, Agathiyar seeing my reluctance tells me that the temple that he and Lord Murugan requested in respective Nadi readings in 2002 and in 2018 was in reality my home AVM. They have brought out the real image of the Siddhas and the path that has been shrouded in mystery and kept aloft and difficult to come by to the masses by some. Today Agathiyar tells us that the path is accessible to all and that there are no gatekeepers to stop those who want to gatecrash and take on the journey while living with their family, children, and relatives, and living in the community and society. Their divine play still goes on. We are asked to just watch.