One can go on and on asking questions thinking that he shall be enlightened. The other would vomit all that he or she had read or heard or digested from both. It would make him look intellectual and studious. But he is nowhere near the truth. The truth is rather simple and pretty near. But Maya creates an illusion of layers and distance that shifts the truth farther and farther from us. I guess this is why Lord Siva came into my dream telling me to keep my doubts and questions to another moment back then when I was loaded to the brim on the verge of exploding.
Just as Srinath Raghavan posted the following on FB, we are living in a bubble. The secrets are not in the pages of the sacred texts or books but at the feet of the guru, one who has walked the path and experienced it.
We all live in a personal bubble of our own,
A bubble which is highly colorful but opaque,
So nothing outside it's purview is ever seen by us,
We live and die our life, inside this fantastic bubble,
Thinking and believing whatever in it is the only truth,
Nothing outside can ever exist and it should not too,
We can very well break it's brittle wall from inside,
But we choose not to, for the fear of being exposed to uncertainty,
When with the touch of the Master from outside, the bubble breaks,
That's when we will finally realize, how foolish and limited we were,
To have accepted the truth that's known to us, as the Final Truth...~ Freedom is breaking the bubble and seeing and feeling the reality beyond your own.
With the touch of the Master from outside, the bubble breaks, and reality dawns. If Bhagawan Ramana Maharishi says, "... the spiritual energy of a master transforms the consciousness of men", Swami Muktananda mentions in his book ‘SECRET OF THE SIDDHAS’, Siddha Yoga Publication, 1980, that his master gave him one word that completely transformed him. Muktananda says,
"That word (Guru Om), which I received after so many years, spread through my body from head to toe like wildfire carried by the wind. It produced in me both inner heat and the coolness of joy. Before meeting my guru I had practiced many different kinds of yoga, but it was I who had practiced them. However, that word activated a spontaneous yoga within me. I was filled with amazement."
He says everything - postures, Mudras, and breathing processes - all happened on their own. He became ecstatic.
This is the reason one soughts out an initiation from a proper and genuine guru. It would be even better if the divine brought us to him, as I arrived in Tiruvannamalai at Supramnia Swami's feet, or the divine brought him to us, as with Tavayogi reaching our shores, rather than we go searching for one and become disappointed. Prapanjam is never wrong. If Supramania Swami left behind the merits of his 40 years of austerities to me, Agathiyar tells me that Tavayogi left me his very nature or Guru Tanmai. These helped transform me I believe with minimum effort on my part. It skyrocketed me to where I am today. I am indebted to my gurus. What else could a growing student expect from his master's?
When I took heed of the call from Agathiyar to come to the path and worshipped him and the Siddhas beside the pantheon of Hindu Gods and Goddesses and followed all his advice, dictates, instructions, tasks, and practices given, coming as updates through the Nadi and later through his devotees, an internal transformation began flowering in me without my knowledge. This culminated in the river bursting its banks. A spontaneous flow of energy traveled to higher Chakras reaching the crown Chakra within days. There the dance began and goes on till this moment even as I pen these words at 4 in the morning.
Swami Muktananda continues explaining the transformation, something I am going through.
After the awakening of the Shakti, this process of yogic movements began to take place within my entire body. The pulsation of his ecstasy pervades my entire body like the movement of the wind. The Kriyas were his, the yoga was his, and meditation took place because of him. The final message that I received was from him. The power of his word permeates each of my blood cells; the fluids of my entire body are his. That is why I am joyful. Gurudev entered me and replaced all my bodily fluids with his. He evicted me and took up residence in me. He annihilated my ego. By making my individuality his, he became me. This is the guru’s compassion. Only when I lost myself in the ecstasy of Bhagawan Nithyananda did I realize who he was.
He adds "Only the guru can know that delight and taste the elixir that arises in every pore of the body", which Ramalinga Adigal too mentions.
Just as a seeker yearns for a guru to lead him, a guru looks out for a seeker whom he can groom to realize all that he saw and felt too. But just as gurus are rare to come by so are the students.
When Ramakrishna met Naren, who later came to be known as Swami Vivekananda, for the very first time, he told him, "My ears are nearly burnt off listening to the talk of these worldly people. I thought I would burst not having anyone to tell how I really felt!"1
Today Agathiyar tells me the same. He laments about "listening to the talk of these worldly people too." People think that by coming to the Siddhas they shall save them and keep them safe, solve their problems and troubles, dish out goodies, and fulfill their dreams. Though the Siddha is known to do all these, their prime purpose and role in coming to us is to make us another Siddha. But sadly no one wants to become a Siddha. They would rather stay under their shadows, serve them, pray to them, and wait for their blessings and grace forever. No one wants to step into the shoes or rather sandals of a Siddha.
Just as "An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water"2 we too are subjected to the Tattvas and its nature. Knowing them and tackling them by not responding to their wants, we settle in the bliss of silence. The guru brings us to know and be this silence, thus returning back to the source.
The first encounters of gurus with their masters had always amazed me. These precious and prized moments where the guru identifies the disciple and the disciple accepts the teachings of the guru are always exciting to read again and again. I have compiled these sacred moments when the master meets the disciple and vice versa in a book entitled ‘FIRST ENCOUNTERS WITH THE MASTERS’. Read further at
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zrx_4OZnF7ss8754vh6W6r5afD6P_Sew/view?usp=drive_link
1. Richard Schiffman in ‘SRI RAMAKRISHNA – A PROPHET FOR THE NEW AGE’, Paragon House, 1989
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_current