Would a developer, lawyer, and a representative from a bank come over to the home of a new home purchaser to sign the Sales and Purchase Agreement (S & P) and Loan Agreement? Well, it did happen. My daughter was looking for a place to buy that was close to her office and in the vicinity of public transport services as she doesn't drive. She finally found one close to our home. Originally she was supposed to sign the S & P at the developer's site office but as the slots were taken up the developer arranged for the signing to take place at my home. We knew that instant that Agathiyar wanted it to take place before him and Lobama at AVM.
My home too, which took on the name Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM) later, fell in my lap. I did not have any idea of purchasing a house back then in 1991. But an office college Roslan Md Isa told me that there was much housing development taking place in Cheras and invited me along to view the houses. On the day of the appointment, he did not turn up. Apparently, I came to know later that his wife was impressed upon seeing a house in another scheme and they decided to book it. As me and my wife and daughter were already on site we viewed the plans and the area and my wife nudged me to take up the offer. The house was delivered to us in 1994 and we moved in.
Even the scholarship and my job too fell onto my lap. I was told that we could apply for a scholarship when I entered college in 1977. I attended the interview empty-handed. When the interviewer asked for my papers and certs I told him that I had left them behind in my hometown. He then sarcastically told me to return home and stay there. But behind that stern face was a kind heart. I got the scholarship.
After completing college as I was a scholarship holder I was tied to a contract. When all my friends were offered a job I was puzzled as to why I did not receive the appointment letter. The postman was the most important person in my life at that period in time. I would look out for him each day hoping that he would bring me some good news. Time went by but there was no mail. I came over to Kuala Lumpur and met an officer who was equally surprised as she told me my name was on their list of postings. She did not waste any time further and offered me a post in another Ministry. I took it. I spent some 36 years in service before I retired in January of 2016.
Even my soulmate and children were picked by the divine, I came to know later. When my sister and brother-in-law went around looking for a bride for me, I was rejected some 15 times. Finally, she happened to be a close family friend that we had forgotten. We were married. Many years later when we read the Nadi for my second daughter, Agathiyar spelled out the reason for all of us to come together again after our last birth in Papanasam, India. She had requested that we be her parents again in this birth too.
So did the Gods save my life as an infant. Since my mother had lost two children due to diarrhea, she rushed me to a neighbor's home where the Chinese man was known to heal people. He asked if my parents were willing to give me to the Gods. They agreed. I was saved. Only later as I grew up and frequented his home for all my ailments did I come to see how he connected with divinity and healed us. He was a man of a large frame and was always shirtless. He would take a sword and hit his back with the blunt edge. As he was fair red stripes of bloodshot marks would appear on his back. He would keep chanting in Chinese and write Chinese characters on a yellow strip of rice paper with a brush dipped in red ink. He would then burn that and collect the ashes in a glass of water and have me drink it. I would be healed. It was only after a dog bit me when I was 13, fearing rabies, I went to the hospital for the very first time.
Now after all these years, even if we have all the medical facilities available, Lord Murugan coming in the Nadi and through a devotee in 2018 simultaneously had all those gathered recite the Arutperunjothi mantra in a glass of water and have me drink that to bring relief to my excruciating lower back pain that paralyzed me back then while fanning me with peacock feathers. How do we explain all these?
I had many kind and compassionate souls help me and save me from numerous situations along the way. So when life was so generous and kind to me I was taken aback when someone asked me what was my problem when I used to frequent the Peedham or center that Tavayogi had officiated in Malaysia back then in 2005. Apparently, all those who came had problems. I soon got to see for myself as I spent time sitting with Tavayogi whenever he came over.
So how do I repay the divine for its blessings? I guess by doing his work, I shall settle my dues. If the divine has kept me and others well, it brings tears and sadness looking out of the window to the other countries devastated and destroyed by men in power. What can we do but just watch. Sadness arises when we see the nature of gurus these days too. When an interviewer addresses a guru by his name he hits back asking him why he cannot address him as everyone else does. What is in a name? When I am standing in line at a Government department I am going to be called up by my name registered on my birth certificate and identity card and not by the name conferred by the gurus or even by Agathiyar. When faced with danger the cry that emits from me shall be Muruga or Agatheesa or Siva or Amma. I won't be calling them with their honorary titles would I? By the time I finish I would be hit and dead. Another guru waits for someone to perform the ritual of washing his legs before he walks into the temple amid a puja for the Siddhas and deities. The puja is disrupted momentarily by his arrival and expectation. Another visiting guru who expected the same, walked into our family home with his sandals when my brother who invited him to our home did not do the same back then when I was a teen. Another guru comes down hard through his threatening voice and body language on a visually impaired elderly. This only shows their arrogance and that they are very much caught in names and forms, and hiding behind the cover of tradition yearning for respect and attention. All these inflate their Ego and show that they are not letting go but instead building an empire. Then we are shown the true nature of the gurus who are exposed, sending them behind bars or into hiding. I am beginning to wonder what am I doing here amidst all these gurus and their faithful followers. They have tainted religion and spiritualism. They must understand that they are being watched by their followers and the public. Their speech and actions are closely monitored by the living and the subtle beings.
Then on the other hand, we have heavenly and saintly gurus like Bhagawan Ramana and Yogi Ramsuratkumar who hold back and console their followers from reacting to the situation when both masters are bashed up, the former in his ashram and the latter in the streets by trouble makers, telling the followers to let it be for they have come to do their work and let us do ours. Tavayogi forbids us to wash his feet or touch it.
Where have the good men gone? Where and to whom do we turn now in our moments of distress and pain? I guess this is what Agathiyar says the day will come when we shall see all this. The day has arrived. It is we who create monsters out of them when we begin to worship them. Tavayogi on the onset knowing that I too shall do the same horror, directed me straight to Agathiyar asking me to hold to him. Agathiyar in coming as the bronze statue to my home in 2010 asked that I give this piece of metal that carried his image as that in Agasthiyampalli, "life" or "Uyir" or breath. He asked to chant his name some 100,000 times. Today with all the years of worship he stands alive and energized opening his eyes to watch and bless us in 2013 just as he did at Agasthiyampalli in 2005. Supramania Swami told me that the disciple's prayer shall elevate the guru to greater heights just as a genuine guru elevates his student to the state of a guru too. It is we who keep both the deities and gurus alive with our continuous patronage and worship. Just as the world is shut off when we close our eyes and ears, stop patronizing and they never exist too. What then exists is solely the 'being" in us that is in a state of being, in peace with itself and in existence forever.