We tend to bring the manner and approach in which we deal with the material world when walking on the spiritual path too. For instance, we might have gone to numerous doctors but nothing seems right. Finally, we might be cured by one and shall sing his praise. But we forget that all the previous doctors and medication had done some good (or bad) before the last attempt. This last doctor to treat us gets the name. So is it with the spiritual field. We might condemn the earlier masters and praise the one we are with now not acknowledging that they had a hand in our spiritual development. I met a Malaysian who went in search of masters on the path of the Siddhas during my visit to Tavayogi's Kallar ashram in 2013. After 25 years of search, he arrived at Kallar ashram and was singing the praise of Tavayogi. But when he began to open up about his previous stays in numerous other ashrams and about their masters, condemning them, I knew that it would not take long for him to say the same of Tavayogi when relationships were to turn sour. He should have been grateful that the earlier ashrams and masters had given him (free) food and shelter during his travels. True to what I expected, he did not stay long at Kallar but eventually returned to Malaysia. This is the nature of man. He is never grateful for the things in life. Bringing me momentarily to share whatever practices and methods I adopted with others about puja and rituals and Yoga, Agathiyar had me carry out certain drastic measures that might have caught others by surprise and angered them. But I carried on with the directives of Agathiyar who knows best. I would rather please him than others. The master goes on with his work never letting the views and opinions of others deter his journey.
The atheist father of the devotee who passed away several days ago, though he held to his beliefs, never stopped the Siddha puja his daughter arranged to have in their home in 2016. Tavayogi presided over the event. But he excused himself in a gentlemanly manner and went for a walk just as we were about to start.
Knowing that he sang well I requested him to sing when my wife and I visited his home. He had his daughter bring out his harmonium which was stored away for a long time. It had collected dust. He dusted it and began to sing the songs of Ramalinga Adigal. After many years of abstaining from singing in public, he took up our invitation to sing at a temple where we conducted a Siddha puja later. I was truly won over by him for though he held to his beliefs he accommodated our wishes. After his death, the funeral was carried on minus the usual rituals just as he had wished for. When we have Godmen who under the garb of religion and spiritualism harm others, here was a soul who led a decent and honest life, upholding his principles till his last breath, and above all not harming anyone. Agathiyar came in a Nadi reading for one of his daughters later and revealed that he was accepted in the fold of the Siddhas. Agathiyar had accepted the manner his last rites were carried out too. We need to learn a lesson here where events unfolded before us that brings us to compare the devotee who searched high and low for Agathiyar as mentioned earlier and this soul though an atheist who was accepted by the Siddhas. Indeed God and the Siddhas do not differentiate man nor alienate him for his principles and beliefs. God accepts every one. He is all forgiving, unlike man. So we're here to re-learn the traits of God with whom we were once together. Over time, we have forgotten our relationship and bond with him over numerous births. Now we have to be reminded to fit into his mold again. We have to return to him or rather return to become Godly in all manner.