Recently someone told me that Lord Siva and Agathiyar had failed him. I was shocked by hearing this statement. Another complained some time back that things were not going the way he wanted it and to his liking, although he had heavily invested in Agathiyar. They stayed away from worshiping him. Both had consulted Agathiyar and his Nadi before venturing into the business.
Another soul came out of the bitter experience of engaging in business abroad and having made loses, but surprisingly took it in his stride and accepted it as a learning process, believing it to be a much-needed experience. He is still an ardent and staunch devotee of Agathiyar not having lost his hold on him. He too had consulted Agathiyar and his Nadi before venturing into the business.
I sat back and pondered. What do we owe to Agathiyar that he should accommodate all our asking? Aren't we actually at his mercy?
It is rather unreasonable of us to brag that we worship him with flowers and sing his praise, for instance, when the very flowers he had given us, in the first place, are from him. He has also given us the voice and above that, the breath so that we can sing his praises. We forget that nothing is ours to offer to him. The very body is on loan. All else that we strive to attain too is given by him. We believe we have donated much towards his cause failing to realize that it is he who showers us all so that we shall part with some amount for his cause and use the rest for our needs.
How devoted are you to him that he should shower his grace upon you? How devoted are you to a practice or to a path for that matter? To succeed on the spiritual path we are told that we need vairagya or determination. Sogyal Rinpoche in his book "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, shares the story of Asanga, a famous Indian Buddhist saint, who lived in the fourth century, that puts us to shame on our lack of dedication for the cause.
Retreating into the mountains to meditate in the hope of having a vision of Buddha Maitreya and to receive his teachings, Asanga was saddened and disheartened that he did not get the vision he aspired for, having not had even a glimpse of Maitreya in even his dream, even after putting in six years of meditation in the harshest conditions. He thought that he would never succeed in his dream to have the vision of the Buddha and learn from him, hence he left his hermitage abandoning the noble venture. He had not gone far down the road when he sees a man rubbing an enormous iron bar with a strip of silk cloth. Asanga asked him what he was doing to which he received the reply, "I haven't got a needle, so I am going to make one out of this iron bar." Asanga was stunned and told himself "Look at the trouble people give themselves over things that are totally absurd. You are doing a really valuable spiritual practice and you're not nearly so dedicated." He turned around and went back to his retreat to continue his meditation.
Another three years went by and there was no positive sign that he would have a vision of the Buddha. He told himself, "Now I know for certain I am never going to succeed" and so saying he left his practice again. Coming down the road, at the foot of a huge rock stood a man busily rubbing the rock with a feather soaked in water. When questioned about his action, the man replied that the rock was stopping the sun from shining onto his home thus he was getting rid of the rock. Asanga could only revel at the faith and indefatigable energy he carried in him, and ashamed at his own lack of dedication he returned back to his retreat.
Three more years passed by and still, he had not even had a single good dream. He told himself that it was utterly useless and hopeless for him to pursue further, and left again. This time he came across a dog lying in the path of the villagers, snarling at all those who passed by, ready to sink its teeth into them although it had only its front legs and the hind legs were rotting away. Compassion came over Asanga. He cut a piece of flesh from his body and fed the dog. He knelt beside the dog, closed his eyes and began to stick his tongue out to remove the maggots that had infested its flesh. But his tongue touched the ground. Opening his eyes he saw no dog. In its place was the Buddha Maitreya, envelope in a shimmering aura of light. Asanga asked him why he did not appear earlier.
Maitreya replied, "It is not true that I never appeared to you before. I was with you all the time, but your negative karma and obscurations prevented you from seeing me. Your twelve years of practice dissolved them slightly so that you were at last able to see the dog. Thanks to your compassion all the obscurations were completely swept away and you can see me before you with your very own eyes. If you do not believe that this is what happened put me on your shoulders and try and see if anyone else can see me."
Asanga put Maitreya on over his shoulder and went to the marketplace. He began to ask the people there what was it that he carried on his shoulders. None saw Maitreya seated on his shoulder. Surprisingly one woman told him that he was carrying the rotting corpse of a dog on his shoulder. Maitreya told him her karma was slightly purified hence she was the only one able to see the dog. No one saw the Buddha Maitreya.
Sogyal Rinpoche writes that finally, it dawned on Asanga that "the power of compassion had purified and transformed his karma and so made him a vessel fit to receive the vision and instruction of Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya took him to heaven and gave him further teachings.
Supramania Swami and Tavayogi too had told me that we shall polish and keep on polishing till we shine. They told me, "Even if we miss the boat, no harm, we can always come back in the next birth to continue from where we left."
Then there is the story of the monk who upon being offered a place in one of the realms of the buddhas, asked to go to hell instead, so that he could help those in need there. Geshe Chekhawa who lived in the 11th century happened to come across a verse, "Give all profit and gains to others, take all loss and defeat on yourself" from a page of a book left open in his teacher's room. This line astounded him and he left to find our the author of the book. But a leper told him that the master had died. Geshe, however, came to meet the master's principle disciple. His perseverance on adopting, upholding and in the practice of the teachings contained in these 2 lines was so intense that within 6 years he had completely eradicated all self-grasping and self-cherishing thoughts. He became filled with compassion. Geshe stayed with his master for 12 years. He in turn, taught the practical application of the verse at first to only a few close disciples. Then he taught it to some lepers. They were cured and the news spread. His home seemed like a hospital with lepers flocking over to be cured. His initial thought that people had to have great faith in it for it to work changed once his brother who was a skeptic took up the practice without his knowledge after eavesdropping in on his lessons. Geshe knew that the teaching worked when his brother's character softened. He began teaching it far more widely. When he had many clear dreams that he would be reborn in one of the realms of the buddhas, he was bitterly disappointed and begged his students to pray to the buddhas that he shall be born in hell so that his passionate wish to help the beings in that realm would be fulfilled.
We can never come close to these great souls who take it upon themselves to see through the journey that they have chosen, even if death awaits them. Some astrologers go on to predict if vairagya is well placed in one's charts for one to unceasingly pursue the path chosen. JN Bhasin studied the birth charts of prominent people including saints and wrote about the expressed need to have vairagya in one's charts, in his book "Events and Nativities Explained", Sagar Publications, 1974, reminding us of Agathiyar's 1st Tenet, that of knowing our purpose and mission and taking up a life that was attuned to the desires and wishes of the divine as charted in the stars and horoscope.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa had all the signs that pointed to or denoted a high type of vairagya in the mind. It was written that he would attain sainthood and rise to great spiritual heights, Arvind Ghosh or Aurobindo Ghosh too took to a saintly life as it was in the chart showing a mind full of vairagya. Swami Yogananda too had all the right ingredients for sanyas. Buddhist have a practice of identifying potential souls and past gurus taking rebirth and work on these children from a very young age leading them along so that the soul can continue its work and not become deviated from its mission. This is where the Siddha's Nadi revelation can come in handy, identifying our path for us on the onset itself.
When one sits before a Nadi revelation, and for instance, Agathiyar says that one will be a rogue, Agathiyar is only revealing what he sees as been written or fated for that individual. Nothing more, nothing less. Since each of us has a free will to determine what is best for us or rather what we desire most, we are given the liberty to chose and act accordingly. If he chooses to end up a rogue or otherwise, it is entirely his choice and his doing. The Siddha does not interfere with our decision. He only states the prospects available. The decision is still ours.
Another soul came out of the bitter experience of engaging in business abroad and having made loses, but surprisingly took it in his stride and accepted it as a learning process, believing it to be a much-needed experience. He is still an ardent and staunch devotee of Agathiyar not having lost his hold on him. He too had consulted Agathiyar and his Nadi before venturing into the business.
I sat back and pondered. What do we owe to Agathiyar that he should accommodate all our asking? Aren't we actually at his mercy?
It is rather unreasonable of us to brag that we worship him with flowers and sing his praise, for instance, when the very flowers he had given us, in the first place, are from him. He has also given us the voice and above that, the breath so that we can sing his praises. We forget that nothing is ours to offer to him. The very body is on loan. All else that we strive to attain too is given by him. We believe we have donated much towards his cause failing to realize that it is he who showers us all so that we shall part with some amount for his cause and use the rest for our needs.
How devoted are you to him that he should shower his grace upon you? How devoted are you to a practice or to a path for that matter? To succeed on the spiritual path we are told that we need vairagya or determination. Sogyal Rinpoche in his book "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, shares the story of Asanga, a famous Indian Buddhist saint, who lived in the fourth century, that puts us to shame on our lack of dedication for the cause.
Retreating into the mountains to meditate in the hope of having a vision of Buddha Maitreya and to receive his teachings, Asanga was saddened and disheartened that he did not get the vision he aspired for, having not had even a glimpse of Maitreya in even his dream, even after putting in six years of meditation in the harshest conditions. He thought that he would never succeed in his dream to have the vision of the Buddha and learn from him, hence he left his hermitage abandoning the noble venture. He had not gone far down the road when he sees a man rubbing an enormous iron bar with a strip of silk cloth. Asanga asked him what he was doing to which he received the reply, "I haven't got a needle, so I am going to make one out of this iron bar." Asanga was stunned and told himself "Look at the trouble people give themselves over things that are totally absurd. You are doing a really valuable spiritual practice and you're not nearly so dedicated." He turned around and went back to his retreat to continue his meditation.
Another three years went by and there was no positive sign that he would have a vision of the Buddha. He told himself, "Now I know for certain I am never going to succeed" and so saying he left his practice again. Coming down the road, at the foot of a huge rock stood a man busily rubbing the rock with a feather soaked in water. When questioned about his action, the man replied that the rock was stopping the sun from shining onto his home thus he was getting rid of the rock. Asanga could only revel at the faith and indefatigable energy he carried in him, and ashamed at his own lack of dedication he returned back to his retreat.
Three more years passed by and still, he had not even had a single good dream. He told himself that it was utterly useless and hopeless for him to pursue further, and left again. This time he came across a dog lying in the path of the villagers, snarling at all those who passed by, ready to sink its teeth into them although it had only its front legs and the hind legs were rotting away. Compassion came over Asanga. He cut a piece of flesh from his body and fed the dog. He knelt beside the dog, closed his eyes and began to stick his tongue out to remove the maggots that had infested its flesh. But his tongue touched the ground. Opening his eyes he saw no dog. In its place was the Buddha Maitreya, envelope in a shimmering aura of light. Asanga asked him why he did not appear earlier.
Maitreya replied, "It is not true that I never appeared to you before. I was with you all the time, but your negative karma and obscurations prevented you from seeing me. Your twelve years of practice dissolved them slightly so that you were at last able to see the dog. Thanks to your compassion all the obscurations were completely swept away and you can see me before you with your very own eyes. If you do not believe that this is what happened put me on your shoulders and try and see if anyone else can see me."
Asanga put Maitreya on over his shoulder and went to the marketplace. He began to ask the people there what was it that he carried on his shoulders. None saw Maitreya seated on his shoulder. Surprisingly one woman told him that he was carrying the rotting corpse of a dog on his shoulder. Maitreya told him her karma was slightly purified hence she was the only one able to see the dog. No one saw the Buddha Maitreya.
Sogyal Rinpoche writes that finally, it dawned on Asanga that "the power of compassion had purified and transformed his karma and so made him a vessel fit to receive the vision and instruction of Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya took him to heaven and gave him further teachings.
Supramania Swami and Tavayogi too had told me that we shall polish and keep on polishing till we shine. They told me, "Even if we miss the boat, no harm, we can always come back in the next birth to continue from where we left."
Then there is the story of the monk who upon being offered a place in one of the realms of the buddhas, asked to go to hell instead, so that he could help those in need there. Geshe Chekhawa who lived in the 11th century happened to come across a verse, "Give all profit and gains to others, take all loss and defeat on yourself" from a page of a book left open in his teacher's room. This line astounded him and he left to find our the author of the book. But a leper told him that the master had died. Geshe, however, came to meet the master's principle disciple. His perseverance on adopting, upholding and in the practice of the teachings contained in these 2 lines was so intense that within 6 years he had completely eradicated all self-grasping and self-cherishing thoughts. He became filled with compassion. Geshe stayed with his master for 12 years. He in turn, taught the practical application of the verse at first to only a few close disciples. Then he taught it to some lepers. They were cured and the news spread. His home seemed like a hospital with lepers flocking over to be cured. His initial thought that people had to have great faith in it for it to work changed once his brother who was a skeptic took up the practice without his knowledge after eavesdropping in on his lessons. Geshe knew that the teaching worked when his brother's character softened. He began teaching it far more widely. When he had many clear dreams that he would be reborn in one of the realms of the buddhas, he was bitterly disappointed and begged his students to pray to the buddhas that he shall be born in hell so that his passionate wish to help the beings in that realm would be fulfilled.
We can never come close to these great souls who take it upon themselves to see through the journey that they have chosen, even if death awaits them. Some astrologers go on to predict if vairagya is well placed in one's charts for one to unceasingly pursue the path chosen. JN Bhasin studied the birth charts of prominent people including saints and wrote about the expressed need to have vairagya in one's charts, in his book "Events and Nativities Explained", Sagar Publications, 1974, reminding us of Agathiyar's 1st Tenet, that of knowing our purpose and mission and taking up a life that was attuned to the desires and wishes of the divine as charted in the stars and horoscope.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa had all the signs that pointed to or denoted a high type of vairagya in the mind. It was written that he would attain sainthood and rise to great spiritual heights, Arvind Ghosh or Aurobindo Ghosh too took to a saintly life as it was in the chart showing a mind full of vairagya. Swami Yogananda too had all the right ingredients for sanyas. Buddhist have a practice of identifying potential souls and past gurus taking rebirth and work on these children from a very young age leading them along so that the soul can continue its work and not become deviated from its mission. This is where the Siddha's Nadi revelation can come in handy, identifying our path for us on the onset itself.
When one sits before a Nadi revelation, and for instance, Agathiyar says that one will be a rogue, Agathiyar is only revealing what he sees as been written or fated for that individual. Nothing more, nothing less. Since each of us has a free will to determine what is best for us or rather what we desire most, we are given the liberty to chose and act accordingly. If he chooses to end up a rogue or otherwise, it is entirely his choice and his doing. The Siddha does not interfere with our decision. He only states the prospects available. The decision is still ours.
When one who seeks to engage in a business venture seeks advise through the Nadi, he is given their blessings since he is already carrying the desire and vasanas in him. He would not be there for the reading in the first place if he did not harbor this desire. Then again he could have had decided on his own that he did not want to go ahead with the proposal. But he needed to be sure. He wants to know what the future has in store for him.
When someone wants to know whether it is wise to make a career move, again the Siddha would go with the intention and wishes of the seeker understanding that his desire has brought him to a state where he is not able to make a wise decision. The Siddha would, of course, give him his blessing.
When I put the question to the late Dr. Krishnan why his predictions through the medical astrology for me did not take place as predicted he pointed me to the Siddhas and their Nadi. I was told of the existence of the Nadi, that could tell me if I had erred in the past and reveal if I had gained the curse of the wise and saintly, the ancestors or others, all reasons for a prediction to not take place as prophesized. The year was 1996. I never moved to enquire further back then.
In 2002, a colleague brought up the subject of the Nadi and his visit to a Nadi reader a year earlier. He called up and fixed an appointment for me to see my Nadi upon my request and a renewed interest in knowing about myself. The Kaanda Nadi that included the General Canto, Karma Shanti Parikara Canto, and Dhiksa Canto was read out to me. Sivabalan who brought in and housed the Nadi reader Senthilkumar from India asked me to see if my Gnana Canto, a rare chapter, was available. Luck was on my side. After a brief puja, the Nadi reader continued with my Gnana Canto too, all in the same sitting.
Later in 2005 Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal directed me to have my Gnana Canto read and pointed me to Nadi reader T.Ramesh minutes after we met for the very first time in Malaysia. Agathiyar was so kind and generous to me. He pardoned me for my past mistakes, removed the guilt that I had carried all this while, saying all was his doing and he added that I needed those experiences too. He accepted me into his circle and blessed me for a better future. Agathiyar told me that the Agathiyar Gnana Peedham in Batu Caves is the place for me to learn about spirituality. I was also told to see Tavayogi that night itself for a Dhiksa. Tavayogi had earlier given me Dhiksa together with nine others including my wife at the premises of the above-mentioned organization. Why then was there a necessity to get the Dhiksa again? I was puzzled. I could have brushed aside, ignored or delayed seeing Tavayogi. Instead, when I followed as instructed and got Tavayogi’s blessing and Dhiksa from him again that very night, the Nadi reading recorded on an audiotape was mysteriously ‘erased’.
I went back to Ramesh explaining the mysterious event. When the Nadi was re-read to me, there was no mention of the Agathiyar Gnana Peedham in Batu Caves anymore. I figured that the moment I surrendered to Tavayogi there was no need for me to align with an organization anymore. Besides this major amendment to the Nadi, the re-reading mentioned additional temples and Siddha’s places that I ought to visit - Tiruvannamalai, Vedharanyam, Pothigai, and Courtalam were added on, besides Kallar and Palani, which was mentioned earlier.
Then we were blessed to have Tavayogi himself read out the Jeeva Nadi for us at AVM when he visited us in 2016.
When we stand in front of him with a wish or desire, he gives us his blessings. This does not mean that we shall find success in our new venture, career or whatever we have just asked for. We still have to be fated to receive what we desired for. Then we would have to put in the necessary and right effort. With God's blessings, a couple of obstacles that were earlier placed before us might be removed. With God's blessings, we might face fewer problems and troubles in our venture. Most importantly with God's blessings, we will have the courage to face all eventualities and not crumble under pressure. Having gained the strength to move forward under all circumstances, the desired results will be accomplished in due time. His blessings will come in handy when our desire or wish, our choice and the time is right. It is a supplementary card to turn to in times of need.
Do not expect miracles. Do not expect them to happen overnight. Neither should we expect to see the results immediately. The Siddhas do not in any way interfere or favor something for another because these are all our askings, for our self and selfish needs. But when we surrender our wishes and desires and are prepared to carry out their wishes and desires, the Siddhas shall give us all their blessings, the means, and the network, to successfully carry out the venture for it is then for the good of humanity rather than for the individual self.