Life is a large canvas on which we write our story and paint scenes. Then others come along to either enhance and beautify it or throw blobs of ink on it, ruining it. As kids, although we may not have much choice or freedom, we still throw tantrums when we want something. Later in life, we are on our own to decide our future and design our destiny. Although certain aspects and moments in life seem fated, there are moments where we are given the freedom to exercise our choices, too. Except for the wife, our parents, siblings, nationality, race, and color are beyond our choice, or so I thought. We have a choice in determining who we want as a husband or wife, still, though this too is said to be fated and a result of Karma. Is marriage and our spouse then a choice, or made in heaven? I must have vetted through around fifteen marriage proposals. While most were dropped during the stage of comparing our horoscopes for a lack of a match, the rest slipped away from my hands after a meeting between both families. I guess, as they say, marriages are made in heaven, I eventually tied the knot in 1989 with someone from a family I knew as a kid. Many years later in 2002, when the Nadi reader patiently shifted through a whole three stacks of bundles of dried treated palm leaves to help me to locate and identify the leaf that might possibly carry any description about me, there was one where my name and the names of my parents, the number of siblings, and my career were all true, except that the wife's name was mentioned as Manohari. We left it at that, and I left his place. A week later, we located a leaf in a fresh bundle where every detail about me was true. Then again, we are told that our soul had decided to live this life as it pleased, even before we took birth. We are told that at times, as a child, spouse, or another soul from a past birth would ask that we are born and come together again. Agathiyar told us that our daughter wanted both my wife and me as parents in this birth too in her Nadi reading. So, is life a result of chance or one that was carefully planned?
I was told about fate, destiny, and Karma the very first time when I read my Nadi in 2002. Agathiyar, in running through my past Karma, indirectly answered and cleared all my doubts and made me understand why people had to suffer, something that angered me and prompted me back then, in my bachelor days, to ask if God, who was said to be most compassionate and loving, existed. I understood the reason Lord Siva came in a dream back then, when I was in a state of confusion, and asked me to shelve all my questions to a later date. That day dawned after 13 years when I read the Nadi in 2002. If Lord Siva wiped out all my knowledge accumulated from the books as a youth in my twenties back then in the eighties, Agathiyar has wiped out all the contents on my hard disk, leaving me only with vague memories that are slowly fading away too. He has removed everybody I knew and interacted with in the past from my life. The schoolmates, collegemates, office mates, relatives, and even fellow devotees who came by and participated in our home pujas, and with whom we carried out numerous activities, including charity. Obviously in keeping with his directives to me to do nothing and keep quiet he is clearly moving the chess pieces.
A Siddha physician whom I invited to give a talk at my home some time back surprised me when he told all those gathered that there was no Karma and rebirth. When I called him up later and enquired about his reason for saying that, he acknowledged having to tell a white lie for many who come to him, spoke nothing but only about Karma, and found it difficult to escape from its grip. Agathiyar, in highlighting my Karma in my first Nadi reading, telling me that it was my doing, also took part of the blame, telling me that there were moments when he pushed me to sin, for I had to have those experiences too. After that, he never spoke about Karma ever again. Knowing Karma and the reason for this birth, and given the remedies, we have to move on with life. If we brood and fear it, we cannot dare to take another step. God is not biased. Knowing I am a sinner, yet Agathiyar came to save me. I can now either change my ways or continue with my arrogance and my old ways. A sinner can either repent or become more arrogant and continue doing more mischief. It is wholly our choice. It is we who decide. We can either slide down further into the dark pit or rise and walk into the light. If each birth provides us with an opportunity to undo the past from a past birth, here is a tool given to us to combat and defeat Karma done in the past and present birth. It is the act of lighting the sacrificial fire or Yagna, Yagam, or its smaller version, Homam.
Tavayogi, one day in the beginning years of my coming to him, out of the blue, told me over the phone to light this sacred fire. I was hesitant, as I knew it to be a ritual undertaken only by temple priests. But he insisted that I do it, telling me that it was no big deal. I did, but knowing that I had sinned much, I dragged my feet, fearing that I would offend the Gods in carrying out such a pure act. Just as Agathiyar later came in the Nadi and assured me that I was not doing it for myself but for all of creation, both Professor Anil Kumar and Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya mention that the Yagna is never personal and is for the collective good of mankind. To bring me to do these rituals with commitment and understanding, Agathiyar also clarified to me that it was done for the well-being of all, and not for me or my personal gains. On his visit to Malaysia again later, Tavayogi himself fine-tuned the ritual.
Although Agathiyar ended all the rituals at my home in late 2019, he told us that we could take it up if the need arose. While all this while we carried out the Homam to please and praise the Gods, at the height of the pandemic, Lord Siva moved a devotee to sit with paper and pen while he dictated to him. He asked us to carry out the Homam to help Prapanjam contain it. We did as told. Then, fearing a resurgence of the deadly virus in 2022, Prapanjam herself came through another devotee and asked her to convey the message to me to carry out another Homam to prevent the virus from raising its head again. We did as told. From an article on the net, the author whom I could not trace the source, but will name him the Author henceforth, we read that ‘Prajaapati or world creator is performing Yagna in the form of sun/ moon sending rays to earth, sun sends heat and light, wind circulates life force and a group of Demigods join forces to obstruct ‘demons’ in the form of virus/germs/bacteria from making us ill or warding off imminent death by them.’ The Author quotes from the Bhagavadgita where Prajapati created human beings and Yagna simultaneously and instructed that they work together for mutual gain.
Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya too, in his book, ‘FORM AND SPIRIT OF VEDIC RITUAL WORSHIP - PROCEDURE OF YAGNA’ reveals that Prajapati or Parameswara created man in his own likeness through a Yagna and ordained that both man and the Yagna had to contribute to the growth of each other, which all the more stresses the necessity of each individual conducting it.
In ancient India, it was a practice to conduct massive Yagna by Rishis, Kings, and householders. Besides conducting these rituals for material and spiritual gains, certain rituals like the Kaareerishta Yagna were done to create monsoon seasons; Bhaishajya Yagna to eradicate germs and bacteria; Putreshti Yagna to bless childless couples with a child; Balivaishwa Yajna to bring good fortunes to the householder; Vaajpeya Yajna to awaken latent soul forces; and the Rajasuya Yagna to solve problems in politics and governance. The Brihad Narada Purana states that one who performs the Yagna tends to ‘transport’ twenty-one generations before him to Lord Vishnu’s temple; and the Matsya Purana states that Yagna helps one to attain salvation or Mukti, where he/ she shall not take rebirth for thousands and millions of Kalpas.
If Lord Siva and Mother Prapanjam dictated to us to carry out the Homam to help her combat and contain the dreaded virus, Agathiyar told me in the Nadi that the Siddhas themselves had carried out a Yagam so that Tavayogi could live longer, giving him sufficient time to hand over the running of his Kallar ashram and pass on the technique of reading the Jeeva Nadi in his possession to his aid, Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar. Mataji on her part advised a lady from Malaysia to go over to the ashram and sit in on a Yagam when her husband, who had lent out his car to a couple of his friends, found himself dragged in and embroiled in a drug case when his friends who were driving his car were caught red-handed with drugs during a police roadblock. Upon completing the Yagam, her husband was freed. He was spared his life. A government servant who was suspended from work while a departmental investigation was underway, contacted Mataji too. Again, she asked him to go over to the ashram and sit in on the Yagam. But as his passport was withheld and he could not travel overseas, Mataji redirected him to my home, knowing that I was conducting the regular monthly Homam at my home. He came with his family and sat in on the ritual. He resumed his duties, and the case was dropped shortly after. A devotee and bachelor friend from Bangalore, who used to email me, lamented that he faced numerous obstacles in getting a bride. Likewise, I told him to carry out a Homam in his home. He did as told and was happily married. Recently, when a mysterious caller contacted me by phone and asked to come over, she shared her story, which I found interestingly had all the components for a full-length movie. I, who was initially reluctant, gave in finally when she told me that her younger daughter was always speaking about taking her life after taking up a practice that she saw online. Fearing that if she did, I would have to carry the burden of guilt for the rest of my life, I asked them over. As they sat conducting the Homam, Agathiyar came through a devotee. He asked me to ask them why they were there and instructed them to offer that that they had come for into the fire. Once the fire consumed it, he asked them not to think or speak about it further. Agathiyar that day showed me how to shed all our past Karma and worries, sufferings, pain, and fears by verbally pronouncing and placing our troubles into the sacrificial fire. This reminded me of Tavayogi inviting devotees to sit and conduct Homams at individual fire pits laid out on the ashram grounds during the annual Jayanthi celebrations for Agathiyar while he lit and maintained the fire at the main pit. I understood why Tavayogi had named the event "Sarva Dosa Maha Nivarana Yagam" or "Mother of all Sacrifices". It reminded me too of the time Agathiyar gave a message through a devotee, asking us to pack up our kit and leave for my wife's hometown to conduct a Homam in her parents' house. Agathiyar came through the devotee and conducted it personally in Lord Muruga's presence.
As Professor Anil Kumar wrote "to experience joy and bliss in this ritual aspect of the activity the inner significance of the ritual or Gnana has to be understood", the Siddhas, men who became Divine through performing rituals and severe austerities, and realized God and became one with him, knew that not everybody could realize God in themselves immediately. For one to attain Gnana on the onset is a difficult task, so besides tapping into the Akashic records and bringing us Divine revelations; through deliverance of the numerous Scriptures; and drawing up a systematic approach to Yoga and Agamas, the wise men paved the way where one would have to go through the four divisions of Yoga in an orderly manner. The most compassionate Siddhas take us through these four stages, from the most rudimentary and elementary level to the highest level of achievement or attainment of Gnana. The Siddhas devised these paths so that every individual could get on the bandwagon to Godhead and made sure no one was left out of the mainstream. The first path is Taatamaargam (Sariyai), or Living in the World of Siva, also known as the Path of the Servant. Next is Sarputramaargam (Kriyai) or the Ritual Worship of Siva, known as the Path of the Son. The third path, Sagamaargam (Yogam) or Attaining the Form of Siva, is also known as the Path of Companionship. The final path is Sanmaargam (Gnanam), also known as the True Path.
Keeping alive the sacrificial fire Yagna and performing with ardor the religious acts associated with the sacrificial fire is categorized as the Path of Kriyai. The Yajur Veda says that the very Vedas originated from the Yagna. The Vedas mention Yagna as a means to fulfill man’s needs, and again, a means to keep away obstacles on the path of his material and spiritual progress. We are told that the Homam burns various Karmas that are creating various layers of conditioning and obstructing spiritual progress.
Read further these amazing revelations on Yagna that I compiled and published online, as "FEEDING THE FLAME".
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