Saturday, 25 July 2020

TAKING A FIRM RESOLVE 1

Life is full of possibilities and probabilities. Accept life for the choices we made and traveled. Do not regret our decision, for it was the best at that moment in time given the little resources we had in hand and without any prior knowledge of the future and what is to happen. For if we were to know or see into the future we would have joined the ranks of the Siddhas too. We somehow seek assurances in life whether beginning a venture, a business, or marriage. We want everything to go smoothly and well. No one wants to see his business fail and incur losses, or end up with a broken marriage. Here is where we seek to look into the future for guidance via the horoscope, palmistry, Nadi etc. For example, we learn that in the past the criteria for an ideal match in matrimony were as many as 23, that over the years dwindled to 10 main matches. Similarly of the 96 tatwas 36 are said to be of importance. The chakras too are said to be 114 in number (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-7-chakras-and-their-s_b_844268) but the most commonly referred chakras are 7.

So too we are told in the Shiva Samhita treatise on yoga that out of the total  350,000 nadis in our body, while some texts mention 72,000 of which 10 are particularly important, and among them, three are vital: ida, pingala, and sushumna. Agathiyar always speaks about triangles that we are to visualize while trying to meditate. We learn today the reason for it is that "when the nadis meet at different points in the body, they form a triangle." With continued practice of the breathing techniques or pranayama these chakras are pierced through and the knots formed by the nadis are cleared. After 5 years of practicing the Yogasanas and pranayama given by Tavayogi, I felt a sharp pain in the right buttocks that shot down to my toe while clearing my throat and spitting out one day. Since then I had extreme pain in my lower back. It was cleared after my physiotherapist asked me to show him how I did the 5 exercises he had given me. As I stretched my back going into the posture, I felt a knot give way in the small of my back that brought instant relief. I guess I had cleared the Brahma Granthi in the pelvic region accidentally then. "The Vishnu Granthi in the center region, extending from navel to the heart and throat" of devotees was opened by Lord Muruga after getting them to promise him of their total surrender. This was gifted to them without having the need to take up Yogasanas or pranayama. The devotion to him and the service to fellow humans and animals was sufficient to bring down his grace. The means was through an initiation. I was blessed to receive an initiation into the Vasudeva mantra that balances the Vishnu Granthi in 2001. The source I came to know later was from Agathiyar who instructed the guru Gopal Pillai to pass it on to me through my nephew. Later Ramalinga Adigal came to open the final knot "the Rudra Granthi in the head, including the third eye and crown" by a further initiation to several devotees who were masters in their own fields. At http://www.nsyoga.com/ we are told that the "Vishnu Granthi is in the central region, extending from navel to the heart and throat and the Rudra Granthi in the head, including the third eye and crown." The Brahma Granthi is said to be in the pelvic region. There is some confusion as to the existence and location of these granthis when compared to the information we obtained from other text that I have shared in the previous few post, but nevertheless for our purpose let us focus on the subject rather than its location. The above site identifies further the bandhas and chakras that are associated with each Granthi.

The First Granthi is associated with Muladhara Bandha (root valve) and the following chakras: Muladhara Chakra, Swadhistana, and Manipura Chakra.

The Second Granthi is associated with Uddiyana Bandha (Abdominal valve) and the Anahata Chakra and Vishuddi Chakra.

The Third Granthi is associated with Jalandhara Bandha (Throat valve) and the Ajna Chakra and Bindu "the point at the back of the head that is the passageway to infinite wisdom."

We are told that it is imperative "to loosen these knots and clear the ida and the pingala for the free flow of prana."

Although the pain in the back was gone it reemerged in 2016 again as I was preparing for my daughter's wedding. Dhanvantri came to heal my back with his vibhuthi prasad. In 2018 I had another bout of pain when I started jumping around with my granddaughter blowing soap bubbles.  I felt "a locked sense in the hips and the area below the waist in the region of the first granthi." Lord Muruga came to heal me stroking my back with peacock feathers and giving me water energized with the Arutperunjhoti mantra to drink. 

Slowly they dawn on me the facts and knowledge after we go through the experience. I never imagined we could get so close up to know the Siddhas. From being a servant, they adopted us as their son and daughters, then came to guide us as a guru and finally came as a companion on the path sharing secrets with us. Their objective and mission is to make us Siddhas too like them and they shall wait eagerly for us to spread their teachings that came to us through the numerous experiences we have had, to others too, bringing every single man until the last man on the face of this earth to the state of Mukti as Swami Vivekananda pledged.

Coming to the Siddhas they tell us that life is a combination of many possibilities and probabilities. Life has so many options, choices, routes, and paths. The choice is ours to choose. At times karma forces us to pick a path that we regret later. But it was meant to serve us as a lesson and teaching, something we wanted to experience at the soul level. Pain, suffering, and misery are choices we made too, although unknowing to us it was what our soul wanted to experience. Not knowing this we blame others for our misery including God. Not knowing this we shut ourselves up and sulk in the corner. Not knowing this we take our own lives. If we take everything as an experience that the soul asked for we can come to terms with life and all that it has to offer. Patience, acceptance, and tolerance is then reinforced in us. 

The Tamil movie "12 B" is a classic exploration of how life can take a different route when one either catches the bus or misses it. When the lead character boards the bus the future changes with a new set of experiences gained from the travel. When he misses it is an entirely different set of experiences. The beauty is that these two probabilities are shown running parallel. Of course, this movie is based on the Hollywood movie "Sliding Doors" that shows lives infinite possibilities. The trailer goes "Have you ever wondered what might have been? Would things be different if you caught the train instead of missing it? How much would your life change if you were 10 minutes early instead of 10 minutes late? Two lives, two chances, and a destiny that lies behind two sliding doors. Its a story of one woman and lives infinite possibilities. Her life is about to go down two different tracks."