Yesterday my daughter asked me to accompany her to a warehouse sale of a publishing company in the industrial area adjacent to our neighborhood. We had stopped going to these fairs for some time now as we needed more space to store additional books. Only when we began to give away many books some time back did we have space to stock more. I picked up a couple of books for myself and my grandchildren, the Holy Bible for my neighbor, and some Gospel stories for his grandchildren, while my daughter bought some for herself. Speaking to a friend from Slovenia some time back, he tells me that he too has a huge collection of books as he is an academician. He keeps learning more languages including Mandarin, Indonesian, and Tamil. A relative of mine too is obsessed with learning. Having done his general degree, master's, and doctorate he took up a Diploma too. If these academic subjects boost our status and standing in our careers and society, on the other hand reading autobiographies and biographies of achievers both in the material and spiritual world is uplifting for the soul. These success stories boost our drive to engage similarly. Then there comes a time when you tend to place these books down and seek these said experiences for yourself. You yearn to know about yourself and your purpose here, often asking what am I doing here? Here then the search begins to know oneself. We are told that in knowing oneself everything else is known. This search brings us to numerous paths and masters and their teachings. But only one shall sync with our soul. From then the soul takes flight. There is no looking back. While for some the journey is smooth sailing, the seas are pretty rough for others. But at the end of the day or rather the end of the journey it is all about gathering experiences and learning from them. I too was shown the many faces of humanity traveling a short distance on the path of the Siddhas. Agathiyar wanted me to learn from these experiences.
Just as others left a legacy we too need to leave something behind, a mark of our existence here. If generally, the ordinary man leaves behind his children and property and a name that he had carved for himself in society, a Siddha goes beyond worldly existence and looks to means and ways to save all souls. Hence they tirelessly work to get man to wake up from their dream state and take up the means and methods to eventually reckon with the soul that delivers him back home. Many have tried but the hold of Maya is too strong for many to break through the veil and see the light. We understand the Siddhas sadness and worries about humanity once we step into their shoes too. The Siddhas are the bridge between man and God only until, walking on it he eventually finds that he and the bridge are no different. At that instance, he realizes that there is no destination but only a moment-to-moment in existence. We live and die the very next moment only to become alive again and to die in the next, for life follows the breath and the Prana within and without. For those trained in Yoga, they tend to prolong both moments. This is what Tavayogi told us that we should attempt to do. But beyond life and death, there is still this existence of the Self or soul. Knowing this he begins to lose his hold on the gross for he knows that he is the very existence. He knows that he is both the part and the whole. Knowing this he begins to awaken others to this truth. He then is a guru, a light, a beacon. He is a Jeevan Mukta. He starts to bring others to the fold, not to worship him but to transform themselves into his state or rather the state of the very source. They rejoice in this union.