BRINGING BACK LOVE

I used to stand outside my home at night and look at the stars and the moon. I always admired the moon and its luminance in the night sky. As a child I would lay my head on my mother's lap as the whole family would gather on the verandah of our home in Taiping, looking at the moon and talking about almost anything, while the radio would blast away. Not that we were at loss of hearing but that the volume control knob on our radio had broken. It was fine to have the radio blasting in the day but at night I would stuff a pillow on its face (the speaker) to quieten it down. Sadly nobody looks at the moon these days. We are glued either to cable television or the internet.

Marianne Williamson in the opening paragraph of her piece, "Only Light Can Cast Out Darkness", from the book "The Shadow Effect", HarperOne, 2010, brings back our attention to everyday things that are in fact amazing and beautiful but hardly noticed by us these days. 

"In a world so filled with tender magic - from sleeping infants to children playing, to lovers smiling, to friendship that last, to flowers blooming, to the violet hope of sunrise, to the fiery magnificence of sunset, to the brilliance of the body, to the fragile glories of nature, to the wonder of animals, to our capacity to forgive, to the mercy of God, to the kindness of strangers, and a list that could go on and on until its clear that there really is no end to the manifold expression of love on earth."

from sleeping infants... 

to children playing... 

to lovers smiling ...

to friendship that last...

to flowers blooming...

to the violet hope of sunrise....

to the fiery magnificence of sunset....

to the brilliance of the body...

to the fragile glories of nature....

to the wonder of animals....

How is it that we have missed all these? Why is our life bogged down with work, stress, anger, pain, suffering and misery? What has gone wrong? Both light and darkness coexist. When light shines darkness vanishes. When darkness takes the upper hand light goes into hiding. We have a choice to see and follow either the light or darkness. Let us chose to see the bright side of things. Let us speak about the good side of people. Let us delve in the present moment. Let us delve in positive thoughts and with positive action that shapes our future making it more brilliant. A child is the perfect example of cheer and joy for he or she has not been tainted by the by-products of man. Sooner or later he or she will lose his/ her innocence having taken in all the world's activities as a sponge would.

We need to make choices in our lives so that we do not fall victim to the actions of man that are detrimental to the upliftment of his soul. Just as we have shadow governments, we need to shadow or follow our senses. An extra eye for detail giving the job at hand our best, a forethought of the consequences of our speech, a choice to shut off disturbing talks, a conscience that ticks us off, etc works towards saving our day.

Marianne Williamson goes on to ask "Why if God is love, does evil exist?" She says we're living at a time when a contest between the good and evil is both intense and continues to intensify. Whatever it is that is bent on destroying humanity, has taken a collective force like never before she continues. There is an urgent need to dismantle this force that is intent on destroying us all. This force is dark. It survives in the absence of light. Bring in the light and it disappears. We yearn to come to a state as in a stage and yearn for a state as in a country where peace and paradise prevail respectively. As Marianne Williamson says of this state and place "It was our spiritual beginnings, a dimension of pure love whence we come and to which we passionately long to return", so do all our sacred texts and scriptures decipher.

We need to bring back a long lost component of life - love. She says a loss of love justifies anger, justifies blame, and justifies an attack. Bringing ourselves aligned to God brings back love into our heart and soul. We then receive love constantly and extend it outwards, hence living in the light always. Withholding love for another is, in fact, equal to being separated from God. Agathiyar too has asked his devotees to join ranks and to come together in peace, forgiving each other or he shall depart from their homes and their hearts, exactly what Marianne Williamson says. She also says that how we deal with human imperfections is what decides whether we dwell in light or darkness. Agathiyar too tells us to cultivate the act of being patient with people and develop sagippu tanmai. She says that "God does not look at a person who has made a mistake the same way we do."  This is a lovely message for me too. Agathiyar knew what I did in all the births. Yet he was prepared to forgive. He asked that I forgive myself too. Then he asked that I forgive others too. 

Betty J Eadie in her book "Embraced by the Light", Bantam Books 1994, one that she wrote after having a near death experience writes,

"I saw my sins and shortcomings as tools to learning. Although the sin is blotted out the educational part of the experience remains." These were the exact words Agathiyar used too. He said all that had taken place was his doing too and that I needed the experience.

Betty writes that "The forgiven sin helps me to grow and increases my ability to help others."

She repeats what Agathiyar said, "If I am unable to forgive myself, it is impossible for me to truly forgive others."

His love is in us, we only needed to let it shine.

Agathiyar renewed my ticket. I boarded his train. Soon he picked up my family too. Bala Chandran followed and with him came a cabin full of devotees of Agathiyar. The ATM family is growing.

Looking at the worlds saints we tend to accept this as it is not much about discourses or teachings but the show of love. Tirumular says Love evolves into Sivam.

அன்பு சிவம் இரண்டு என்பர் அறிவிலார்

அன்பே சிவமாவது ஆரும் அறிகிலார்

அன்பே சிவமாவது ஆரும் அறிந்தபின்

அன்பே சிவமாய் அமர்ந்திருந் தாரே.

 to the kindness of strangers...

Marianne Williamson says we are a tool placed on the face of this earth to help transform it through our higher thought forms, lifting the frequency of the planet. The great saints of days gone by have all regarded the human birth as rare and that which can be transformed into the essence of Erai. Besides bringing transformation in us, we can also transform the earth either into paradise or into a dungeon. The choice is in our hands.