When Agathiyar asked me to come to the worship of the Siddhas through my first Nadi reading the very first name that came to my mind was the Agathiyar Sanmarga Sangam in Dengkil as I had seen volunteers from this movement collect donations from the public in public places. I went over and brought back volumes of books and VCDs to learn further about the path.
When Agathiyar coming through devotees in later years lamented that no one was following their teachings and the way of life "Siddhar Vazhkai Neri Muraigal" I invited Siddha Physician Thiru Arivananthan Aiya over to AVM to give us a talk on this subject.
Agathiyar had recently told us to include the retelling of the stories of the Nayanmars either before or after the puja. He added that the stories of the Nayanmars would be very much appropriate for current times. So when Agathiyar asked me to go through one particular Pathigam "Manthira Aavathu Neeru" and write on it Siddha Heartbeat: THE SACRED ASH (agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com) I did as told but could only write so much as four songs and was lost about the meanings of the rest of the six songs. When I was schooling I picked up some Thevaram songs from a teacher of Ceylonese origin who home tutored me and my pals. I attended the class partly because my friends' parents had arranged it, and I joined them wanting to spend more time together. We had more fun than paying attention to the master then. When I started my home puja as a bachelor in the eighties, I used to sing the songs of the saints at my altar, my favorite being the Vinayagar Agaval by Avvai, Sivapuranam by Manikavasagar, Kandar Sasti Kavasam by Devaraya Swamigal and Sakalakala Valli Maalai by Kumaragurupara Swamigal, having memorized the verses by heart. Today I rejoice at seeing my seven-year-old granddaughter pick it up in school.
So when I chanced to meet an old friend Thiru Sri Jegan Aiya who with a Thiru Chandran was the force behind establishing the Sri Bala Subramaniar Temple that stands proudly in an adjacent neighborhood of Taman Sri Timah today while having breakfast at a restaurant, I took the opportunity to learn from him the meaning to the rest of the Pathigam as he holds Thevaram classes. Speaking to him he tells me that he and another devotee Dr Vicky have revived the counseling sessions for inmates of a prison that was put on hold after the onset of the Covid pandemic.
Listening to Thiru Rajnikant speak in a video, I guess I am like Arjuna too for I only know how to follow whatever is dictated by Agathiyar. Unlike some who start out to investigate the Nadi reader rather than take the message given by the Siddhas in the Nadi, others who investigate the mantra given comparing it with others who have received it too, and postpone reciting it till they have the answers, I start all things immediately. I guess that is the reason I have come this far. There might be a tone of ego in these words but it is alright for one needs to have either one, two, or all three of the Malas with him to remain in this material and gross body. The saints who left their mortal frames a clean slate, choose not to come back taking birth in the human form for it would require that the soul carry at least one of the three abovementioned Malam or impurities again namely Karma, Maya, and Anavam. But they do transmigrate momentarily into others' bodies to speak, hear us out, heal, or bless us. So it was that Agathiyar and the other Siddhas and Gods and deities came within devotees for brief moments using their bodies for their purposes.