Speaking to someone whose family reestablished the lost years of paying homage to their chosen form of what is normally labeled as "lesser deities" that began with their grandfather but was not carried out by the father due to logistic restraints as the family stayed in government quarters throughout his working career, he told me that the deity came in a dream asking him to revive the worship again. Consulting his mother after the dream she filled him in on what had taken place and why the worship had stalled. They have an altar for the deity on the porch of their homes now. Like him, I have come to see many take up this path.
Then we see others who are comfortable visiting the temples on Tuesdays and Fridays and on other auspicious days such as today. There was a good turnup this morning at a Mariamman temple in Rinching 6 where devotees paid homage to Lord Vinayagar. As today is Vinayagar Chaturthi and as I was with my grandchildren the past few days, I took them over to the temple in their locality and the kids asked to light the ghee lamps. When I asked my three-year-old to sing, he sang the "Happy Birthday Song and Old MacDonald Had a Farm" nursery rhyme before Lord Ganapathy, screaming his heart out. I let him be. Since we told him it was Lord Ganapathy's birthday I guess he thought it was right to wish him by singing him the Birthday Song. His sisters aged seven and four though, who used to sing at home became reserved in public and chose not to sing. Some turn up on other days too if they are told to light lamps and offer prayers to the ruling Gods of the planets. Agathiyar told my daughter recently to light a lamp every Thursday for nine consecutive weeks for my grandson and they have started doing it.
Then there are those who take a living guru or one who has passed on and worship him or her, attending Satsangs and pujas at centers that are noted for their worship. They leave to come back the following Thursday as it is the day for the guru. It goes on and on.
Then a rare few worship the Siddhas creating a following and a center to accommodate them. They keep adding on to the puja and their activities thinking that it shall please the Siddhas. This too keeps going on and on.
People just kept doing things that either were started by their ancestors and parents, their gurus, or followed their peers and comrades on the path. They are joined by many others. They pass these on to the next generation.
Tavayogi upon arriving on our shores told me that people here were hooked to Bakthi and asked when they are going to come to Gnanam. He personally told me that I was living in Maya thinking that the saffron-clad mendicant or Turavi had something up his sleeves. He told me that he was a nobody and not a holy man and not to be deceived by the attire, looks, and talk. He asked that I look within myself for the Jothi or Light that resides as our inner Self. He chose to hashtag it Agathiyar. Agathiyar has come to acknowledge this truth through giving us his latest memo last Guru Purnima. We are one and the One he says. We need not look further. He resides in us and we in him. That is the nature of the Prapanjam too. He is the Prapanjam and the Prapanjam is in him too.
But to the public and at public forums where Tavayogi took the stage, he spoke the same elementary things that prompted me to ask him why he was repeating them. As usual, he replied with another question, "Are you (the public) listening to what I have been saying all this while. It is only if you listen adopt and follow that I can move on to the next stage", reminding us that it is only if we understand and comprehend the subject taught that the teacher moves on to the next topic or syllabus. After years of puja and showering praises on him, Agathiyar too told me to stop praising him and instead share my experiences in traveling within with readers some time back.
When I was with Tavayogi I told him that I wanted to see Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal. He replied telling me that they would easily come but continued with a question asking if that was what I wanted. I did not understand back then his question as I did not understand many other statements, he made in passing too. Today I understand that it is not important to see them, expecting visions, and encounters with them. We should ask ourselves "What after that?" We would share it with others and speak about it for life. But is that what we came for, to have a Darshan of God? Or should we become God? Acharya Gurudasan whom we call fondly Master Gowri Varadhan says the same.
When then do we take the next bus to the next destination? It is time to move on from the external as with Sariyai and Kriyai to Yoga which brings us on the internal journey of realization or attaining Gnanam. Agathiyar is indeed desperate and adamant that we should claim our birthright or rather soul right to head back to our Lord's kingdom within us. But who is listening, he laments to us. People settle for the norm of the day and are not willing to go further. We are glad that Agathiyar brought a halt to all our practices and activities and left us doing nothing for otherwise we too would carry on endlessly thinking that this was what is expected of us. Only the courageous like Bharathi and Ramalinga Adigal shall walk the terrain and seek to know his purpose here.