Looking back at the number of ashrams and peedhams that hosted the recent puja for Agathiyar, we cannot ignore the fact that they find it difficult to sustain what's more to hold an event just with the monetary and financial contributions from devotees who occasionally drop by. Hence we know the reason why some establishments begin to venture into selling products to help sustain the management and maintenance of the movement's premises and host their programs, events, and activities. These places of worship need a huge chunk of money for paying the utility bills and to upkeep their facilities and maintain them. When I was the chairperson of the Parent-Teachers Association in my daughter's school, I sanctioned money towards the maintenance of the fittings in the school as they needed to be replaced regularly. It is understandable that everything breaks down due to extensive usage and high traffic. Unlike the individual homes that only accommodate a handful of family members, these schools see a continuous flow and parade of students using the facilities both in the morning and evening sessions. It was a priority to us at the school as we did not want any untoward accident taking place and our students injured. For whatever needs that were not critical nor were in urgent need of replacement or were not dangerous in nature, the school applied through the normal means and process that usually takes time. So too these missions, establishments, peedhams, and ashrams are in dire need of immediate repairs. Someone who learned about me going over to Kallar ashram in 2005, told me "You shall have free food and lodging right?" I had to enlighten her that these establishments survive on donations from people like us. Just as we are served food and given lodging during our duration of stay because a good samaritan or someone had already paid for our stay by giving donations much earlier, so too should we donate a sum upon leaving the premises so that another could stay "free" and "enjoy the free food" as a result of our donation.
Besides this, these movements find a shortage of volunteers too. As they cannot possibly employ people and pay them wages on the meager donations that slip in from time to time, they depend on volunteers to spruce up the place, make preparations for their in-house events, and help bring their activities and events to fruition and the subsequent cleaning up later. The advantage that established monasteries have over these small peedhams and ashrams is that there is a dedicated workforce in the form of monks who resign to stay and live in these monasteries all their lives. They are available and assigned daily chores to keep the monastery running as opposed to the occasional volunteers who drop by to help out at the ashrams. I am glad I never ventured to establish one. I settled for my home to house the Siddhas. Today after coming one full cycle my home is still my home. I can safely close the doors and go on a vacation without the fear that someone might drop in or be tied down and attached to a peedham or ashram. I was not attached to any other peedham either. My relationship with them was purely professional. When every Tom, Dick, and Harry walked up to Tavayogi and asked that he officiate a peedham in their homes or rented premises, I never had the inkling to start one. Neither did Tavayogi initiate it. But it all fell into place when Agathiyar began to sent seekers over. We came together as a loose WhatsApp group and a family calling ourselves Agathiyan Pillaigal and our home Agathiyar Vanam and the charity arm as Amudha Surabhi which officially was registered as directed by Agathiyar with the Registrar of Societies later as Persatuan Teman Setia. All this made it easier to let go when the time came for me to do so. Agathiyar dissolved all the former groups except keeping the latter intact to continue aiding the needy.
These days after bringing all the rituals and charity to a stop the divine has asked us to go within. In sitting alone and attempting to look within nothing seemed to happen. Initially, there were many times I gave up and got up and left. But soon there were times when I just wanted to sit and continue forever. These moments of quietness soon came on spontaneously during puja, while playing with my grandchildren, and even in the marketplace. We are told to try and extend these moments. Now that is a challenge.
Looking back at the path that we took to arrive at where we are today we realized that though we had not placed much effort into our practice the divine reciprocated our love for them. Each work or task we did we did will love. It was never a routine but each event was done with care and concern as if it was our very first. We took up rituals and charity with love and compassion. We followed every task assigned to us and saw it through. Most of the time we also saw the hidden hand of the divine in all these works.
Similarly, Mahindran took the lead, and with assistance from Malarvathy, Sahalini and Suren prepared the stage to carry out a simple puja for Agathiyar as ordained by him to us to carry out once a year, to coincide with Thaipusam, switching the puja from Agathiyar's Jayanthi date as in previous years. This was an exception, amidst the current restrictions and his directive to refrain from all activities be it rituals or charity. We started the puja by lighting the homam and a prayer to Lord Vinayagar to create an avenue for us to be solely with the "Birthday Boy" and this was accompanied by a string of "Kaappu" songs invoking Lord Vinayagar and the Siddhas to see through the puja without any hindrance or obstacles.
This was followed by the song "Tirupalli Yeluchi" by Ramalinga Adigal as it was seen appropriate for the moment as it was 8 am in the morning. We woke up Agathiyar from his sleep, to say.
This was then followed by a song penned by Thavathiru Rengaraj Desigar that invited Agathiyar to take his seat among us.
I then sang Ramalinga Adigal's "Arutpa". If I could only go until line 305 "நாயினுங் கடையே னீயினு மிழிந்தேன் ஆயினு மருளிய வருட்பெருஞ் ஜோதி", but struggled to continue further and stopped at line 336 when Ramalinga Adigal came to continue the song adding on new lines the last time I sang it, on this day I chose to stop on line 95 of the total 1596 this time, "Embalam Enat Tozhudhu Ettinorkku Arul Puri, Ambalattu Adal Sei Arutperunjoti" "எம்பல மெனத்தொழு தேத்தினோர்க் கருள்புரி, அம்பலத் தாடல்செய் யருட்பெருஞ் ஜோதி. After a brief moment of silence, Ramalinga Adigal came and asked us to continue with another song of his "Ambalattu Arasay Arumarunthey". It was such an appropriate transition from the line "Ambalattu Adal Sei" from the Arutpa to "Ambalattu Arasay Arumarunthey." Amazing!
After the homam was over we took a brief break to have our breakfast and continued with libation or abhisegam to Agathiyar's statue. Once he was adorned and garlanded, we began to sing Bhogar's salutation or "Potri" to all his fellow Siddhas.
This was followed by "Adiya Paatham" another song from Ramalinga Adigal upon the request of Malarvathy. We praised the Holy Feet of Agathiyar.
All these songs are available for free download at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QMY5ycQRGlVKoHRweTbD1bHYCfkHoH5A/view?usp=sharing
The devotee who frequents the temples as in Sariyai derives the energy that is prevalent at the temples, a result of the constant daily puja and rituals done by the priests. With the touch of healers, shamans, medicine-men, and the occasional visiting godmen who come by it intensifies further. With the puja and rituals that we perform personally, as in Kriyai, these energies grow in intensity. By engaging in yoga this energy expanse expands and is further strengthened. Bringing the Siddhas and rishis into our lives and our homes intensifies the energy within both the body and the home. The frequency of the divine and the Siddhas coming to address us has increased these days. If those days when they came, they blessed us by applying the sacred ash and addressed the petty and worldly issues brought to their attention by devotees, ignorant that he knows all and is the one who allows it to take place in the very first place, later the Siddhas came by and spoke a few pertinent words of guidance. Later they spoke about heavyweight stuff or rather I should say they spoke on the finer and subtler things rather than the gross and material. With it came their touch and transmission of their energies. Soon they helped us to become independent of them and showed us the ways to tap the energies from the primordial source for ourselves. Just like Tavayogi showed us to Agathiyar, they showed us to the Prapanjam, the storehouse of energy all around us and in everything. While the commoner competes with others to survive on a minute portion of this energy that is made available to all, sharing the cake with others, the Siddhas are immersed completely in this energy. They come to elevate our energy levels to become at par with theirs. Their hugs energize and bring the energy within opening up the remaining chakras and clearing the blockages that would not give way with our prior practice and efforts. They keep bringing down these energies within us each time they come. Just as the lightning arises out of the movements and brushing together of the positive and negative ions in the clouds producing lightning that is then met from the ground a quarter way, the energy that we learned to build up with practice and some effort is met by a bigger energy source from the "skies". We have become antennas to these energies and transmitters and conductors. We are witness to the immense joy and bliss of the Siddhas and the divine forces parting with their energy to us to do their will. Now they want us to become vessels and deploy these energies to others too. When Mahindren asked that he wanted only the Param and not these Siddhis or powers, he was told that the Param had already come to reside in all of us. The puja ended with a discourse on the nature of Atma from Agathiyar, an apt topic as Agathiyar wants us to know our Atma. These days they come often to enlighten us on the Atma. Ramalinga Adigal went a step further and linked us with our Atma just as he helped us link with the Light or Jothi and Arutperunjothi Aandavar earlier.