I had told Mahindren when he came over last Tuesday that henceforth I shall not be taking on any further tasks, zip up, and be quiet, even stop writing. I have to change my stand today after watching the movie "Karuppu" on a streaming platform just moments ago. One might wonder why I did not catch it in the cinemas earlier, while the rest of my family went to watch. As my senses are enhanced, for instance, I could hear the soft hum of my neighbor's refrigerator in the middle of the night while I am asleep in my bedroom upstairs, the enhanced sound system in the theatres is a bit too loud for me. We learn from a search on the net that "sound in movie theaters typically ranges from 74 to 104 decibels (dB), with action scenes and explosions frequently peaking between 110 and 130 dB. This is comparable to the sound of a food processor or motorcycle (at the lower end), up to a jet taking off (at the peak). From the YouTube channel "Acoustic Fields," we hear Dennis Foley explain "how this is all going to work. It's part science. It's part subjectivity, because everybody's preferences are different. I mean, I used to go to the theaters all the time in L.A. The Dolby theaters, the Atmos theaters, huge pressure 120. I'd take my phone, have my app 120 one time 128 huge pressure."
So I opted to bring together a modest home theatre in my living room, where I have control over its volume.
This movie, like RJ Balaji's previous movie, "Mookuthi Amman," which also carried many messages, made me cry, seeing the torment people go through. It made me understand how the hands of Gods too are tied. It made me understand why Lord Brahma told Agathiyar, "It would take not less than 10 years to seek out their Nadi or Olai Suvadi and make changes to their fate." When the deity Karuppu is questioned, why does he not come to save people, he answers that that was the reason we are placed here. It made me understand our purpose here was not to feed and care for ourselves but to extend a hand to others, too. We are the limbs and senses of God while here. We then become proxies of God. I learned that though the state of Light was out of reach to us, the state of God and the Siddhas, Rishis too, are equally difficult to achieve; at least we can serve as Munis, who were respected and looked up to as village deities, looking after the community and society besides our family. Mahindren made an AI image of me as Karuppu.
Besides the whole pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, our forefathers brought with them their ancestral worship when they migrated to Malaya. My father was from the Mathur Kovil, one of the nine temples associated with the Chettiar community in Sivagangai. I understood that Aiyanar was worshiped back home. I had always stayed away from the worship of ancestral gods, or Kula Deivam, the lineage of souls who took care of the souls who came later; the village deities, or Yellai Deivam, who took care of the community and society living in a place; and the guardian angels, or Kaval Deivam, who stood guard over the individual soul. As a kid, I used to watch many prayers conducted at small temples, shrines, and in many individuals' homes, where the deities came down and blessed their devotees, obliged them by fulfilling their requests, and at other times, took the whip if they were angered. I stayed away as a kid, as the manner in which these deities come on within devotees frightened me.
Besides Lord Muruga, whom my parents worshipped, I came to receive the protection of the Chinese deities, too. As my parents had lost two children as an infant earlier to diarrhea at the hospital, when I too succumbed to it, my parents rushed me to a Chinese medium, who was a friend and a neighbor. I was spared my life with the condition that I had to be given up for adoption to them.
I was blessed to have the protection of Madurai Veeran at the same time as I grew up, placing flowers and worshiping him at the small shrine the landlord had at the back of the house we rented. Moving into another home, a neighbor used to worship Muniandisamy. They frequently hosted these events. Someone would conduct some rituals before raising the sword high that terrified the goat (and me too). The bleating would stop the moment the sword fell. Someone would go into a trance, and people would queue up for his blessings and relate their problems to which he would provide an answer or solution. Of course, I would stay my distance, watching from afar for fear of being struck by the whip he held.
When my brother-in-law built new temples or renovated existing ones in the Krian and Kinta districts, where he served in the Public Works Department, a fest would be held on completion of the works. Then they also used to have annual fests too. Someone would go into a trance during the fest. Again, the public stood in line to seek guidance from the "divine" through these energies that came through them. On one such occasion at the Macha Muneeswarar temple in Simpang Ampat, Semanggol, to our surprise, my brother too became a vessel and conductor for these energies to work through. He surprised us further by speaking the Chinese dialect when addressing Chinese devotees. He never spoke Chinese before that. Soon, the deities themselves revealed that they would stop coming through him. And it stopped. My brother-in-law moved on to guru worship and built the Jeganthguru Sri Raghavendra Mritiga Brindavanam in Buntong, Ipoh, in later years.
Taking on a career, I met Maniraju, who used to share how the deities came in a trance and gave advice, guidance, healed, and cured many devotees at the temple in his estate home. As almost all of them were fierce and came with lots of anger, I was surprised to hear that Lord Muruga was gentle and kept on laughing. Although I had asked him to inform me when they summoned Lord Muruga, I never had an opportunity to be there during my eight-year stay.
Later in life, though I had belief and respect for what many called them as lesser deities, I always told them, "Let us go our way and not cross paths". All these changed when I came to the Siddha path. Soon these deities arrived and showed their presence during the many Puja we carried out for the Siddhas. Agathiyar often summoned them and directed them to attend to certain tasks that would ease the pain and suffering of his devotees. Agathiyar had me receive them in my home, telling me that they, too, were his creation. My perspective of these deities has changed from one of fear to one of inclusiveness when Agathiyar brought them into my world and vice versa, bringing me to a new understanding.
When Agathiyar came in the form of a statue, I began to bring Agathiyar's statue around to others' homes. Asokhan, a Military Police personnel at the Ministry in Kuala Lumpur, invited us to his home too. But as he was staying in the military quarters, he switched the venue, asking me to bring Agathiyar some 247 kilometers to his hometown in Karai in Kuala Kangsar district. When my family and I arrived with Agathiyar, he made another switch in the venue. Asokhan told me that we shall perform the puja at a shrine temple of Muneeswarar under a tree some distance away from his childhood home. As we were told that the former priest at the temple had had a dispute with the temple committee and left the night before, we conducted the Homam and Abhisegam. That is when a priest appeared. After we performed the Homam, I went up to the priest who was sitting quietly watching us, and invited him to perform the Abhisegam for Agathiyar. He readily accepted. But before beginning the Abhisegam, the "visiting priest" conducted the Nitya or daily puja for all the deities placed at the temple grounds. That was the very first Abhisegam for Agathiyar conducted by a temple priest on our shores, after the initial Abhisegam at the Adi Kumbeshwarar temple in Kumbakonam in 2009. Till this day, I do not know why Agathiyar chose to go all the way to Karai, and who was the "accidental priest" who came along to do his Abhisegam.
I got acquainted with Mrs Molly Menon from the USA, who was originally from Kerala, and who came to be known as Jnana Jothiamma later, through an email she sent after reading this blog. Shortly after returning to the USA in April of 2011, after participating in the inauguration prayers for a temple she jointly built for the seven-foot-tall Karuppu in Chennai, she returned to India, in November the same year, to visit the Kallar Ashram to know more about Agathiyar from Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal after reading the blog. Her guardian angels, Karuppu and Goddess Kali, led her and left her at the doorstep of Kallar Ashram in the custody and care of Agathiyar. Her life changed after that momentous visit to Kallar, and she devoted herself completely to Agathiyar and his Seva. She used to share her encounters with these deities with me. I began to understand them better.
Walking the path of Siddha, I could not help but notice that these deities were in the forefront on each path and track we took, especially during the hike up into the jungles, hills, and mountains.
Soon, my home, Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM), became a venue where we had many unexpected visitations and where the divine could work most discreetly. These were quite different from the modus operandi we were previously familiar with, in other places, where offerings are made, and the deity was summoned to come onto an individual, who was often a regular medium or channel for them. With the Siddhas and in their presence, these deities came on their own, to pay their homage to Agathiyar and left on their own, hardly turning to look at us. They came discreetly, engaged with Agathiyar, and left as discreetly as they came, without bringing attention to their arrival and presence in my neighborhood.
Some regulars at AVM, who also sought guidance from Karuppu at other temples, shrines, and homes of worship, were surprised to find that as they stood before Karuppu, he only spoke to them about Agathiyar and Siddha worship, and often guided them before they embarked on pilgrimages to Siddha abodes, caves, and temples.
I now realize that there is a well-worked-out, greased, and oiled machinery put in place by the divine to help guide and care for us and every sector of the community. All is well and in its proper place. The divine had mutual respect for the other and knew its boundaries, as we come to know in the movie "Karuppu" too. They are basically there, waiting to serve mankind and help it rise up the spiritual ladder. We only need to know how to harness their energy for our upliftment. It all boils down to faith and belief, puja and prayers, and respect and surrender.
If my perspective of these deities had changed from one of fear to one of inclusiveness, with Agathiyar bringing them into my world and vice versa, and I had become accustomed to their presence after Agathiyar had Karuppu stand guard at my door, after watching the movie "Karuppu", I have even a higher regard and respect for him.
Just as I could relate to the messages conveyed in the movie "Karuppu" I could relate to Pa Vijay's lyrics in the song "Vaa Endrathum" from the movie Charukesi.
அண்டம் படைத்து அகிலம் படைத்துசர்வம் நிரம்பி சகலம் கலந்து
வா என்றதும் வருவான் தருவான்
மாயா உலகில் மெய்ஞானத்தின்
அன்பின் மொழியால் நான் கூப்பிட்ட குரலுக்கு
அன்பே உலகம்
இருக்கும் அனைத்து உயிர்கும்
அவன் குரல் கேட்பதற்கு முடியாது
அவனிடம் பேச அன்பை விட
எனும் எண்ணத்தை தாண்டும் வரை
அன்பை ஆசகம் கேட்கின்றார்
காட்சி தருகின்றேன்
This line expresses it all, that our work is in coming and leaving later, while the rest is all his play or Lila. வந்து போவதே நம் வேலை, வழி நடத்துவதெல்லாம் அவன் லீலை.