If in the last post, I wrote about how the Siddhas get us to carry out activities without looking towards its fruit or results and without attachment initially and finally have us drop our hold and let go of these too, they kept breaking further our hold on things. I arrived at Tavayogi's ashram three days after the Pournami puja in 2005. Three devotees had stayed back. When one brought a Rudraksha seed and asked Tavayogi if he could wear it, Tavayogi gave him the green light but cautioned him about the sacredness of the seed and to respect it. After he left he turned to me and said we do not need these. He then saw the Navarathna or gem-studded ring on my finger and told me we do not need these too. I told him that I wore a Rasamani on me too to which he said we do not need that again. The next day the ring went missing in Tavayogi's closet where I had stashed my valuables, money, and passport before following him to have a bath in the river running nearby. Soon Tavayogi located it in the deep recesses of the angle-iron frame of his steel cabinet. It came as a relief for me. But visiting Supramania Swami later in Tiruvannamalai I discover one of the nine stones had dropped somewhere. I removed the ring from my finger.
I was watching the videos that I had saved to my watch later playlist earlier. Although I had heard the song several times suddenly the opening lyrics hit me so hard that it dawned on me how we are carried away by praises and compliments that build our ego further.
After the launch of our album "Agathiyar Geetham" many congratulated us. We too gave ourselves a pat on our backs for the well-researched content and a job well done. After listening to Ilaiyaraaja's lyrics, "How can any song reveal that which the Vedas could not? (Vedhamum Vilakaatha Unnai Yentha (Agathiyar) Geethamum Vilakiduma?" it dawned on us that no amount of research on the Siddhas could justify or reveal the truth. He broke us again.
Today my wife shares a song that broke us again. The question now arises, "Who are we cheating?"