I was a film buff, having started in my school days. I listened to songs too. My daughter has taken up this passion too. She keeps herself informed about the local cinema and other movies through a group she is moving with.
https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/living/2026/09/25/bringing-it-off-screen-malaysian-film-club-fosters-local-cinema-culture
These days, it has all changed for me. Not that I do not watch or listen, but the degree to which the movies and songs impact me is bewildering and puzzling.
These days, I can't bring myself to watch some movies tearing down, and while I'm listening to songs and eating food, I have tears of joy and bliss roll down my cheeks again.
If I were hearing them back then, now I have begun to feel the vibration from the string instruments too. Just as taste and eating reaches the inner core of my body and system, sight and hearing are now truly and literally touching my insides. Watching the following video just did that.
When I mysteriously received the Vasudeva mantra from Agathiyar, when I had no inkling about Siddhas back then in 2001, coming through Paramaguru Gopal Pillai, who was in his Samadhi, bringing me the message and mantra through my nephew, I looked up the significance of this mantra that was to change my life. It was given to clear the knots and blocks and to have me come to read the Nadi and meet my Guru Agathiyar a year later. Agathiyar, on his part, told me I shall meet my guru in physical form. And so it was that I "chanced" upon Supramania Swami on the pretext of charting my daughter's horoscope in 2003. Then Agathiyar brought Tavayogi to our shores in 2005. Agathiyar gave me a treasure in the form of Yoga Asanas and Pranayama techniques through Tavayogi that did wonders within. Diligently following it, I saw immense results that Agathiyar came to confirm of its happenings in the numerous Nadi readings I had during those years beginning in 2007. This further actuated my existing condition, where I could tune to the higher frequencies, especially in the following places.
- I heard the walls of Agathiyar's sanctum at Agasthiyampalli resonate with the Pranavam AUM as I chanted the mantra.
- I felt the walls of Dhakshanamurthy's shrine at the top of the flight of small steps at the Big temple in Tanjore resonate as I sat in the tight space before him, chanting the Pranavam AUM.
- I felt these intense vibrations that overcame me, fell me, leaving me crying in ecstasy at the Dhakshanamurthy shrine in the corridors of the Madurai Meenakshi temple and again at his sannadhi at the Ekambareswarar temple.
The beat of drums, musical notes, and Kavadi Chindhu songs can bring those who are susceptible to the drum beats and vibrations to dance spontaneously, while in others, its vibrations could open up heaven and bring deities down to vocalize and bless those gathered. Underlying all these are vibrations.
If I teared up for no reason as I stepped into temples and holy spots in the past, I could engage with nature by just looking out of my window or stepping outdoors in recent times. The smell, sight, and touch of things were just too intense. Space resonated. The whole of nature resonated in wonder and beauty and sang a different song and a tune, only for my ears, just as certain miracles and sights were only for my eyes too. With the breeze blowing gently as in a Bansuri flute, the rustle of the leaves as in tapping a Kanjira, the flowing waters trying to keep up with the tala, or rhythmic cycle. Even when it rained, it sounded musical, with the thunderclaps in the distance adding drum beats to the melody of the rain.
Both Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal had helped me connect to the Prapanjam.
With many changes taking place, I can attest to what Henry Wei wrote in his book "The Guiding Light of Lao Tzu, Synergy Books International, that their scale of values changes radically; their attitude towards life changes too; their health improves; they have a sharper and deeper understanding and a clear spiritual vision.
If Agathiyar had spoken about the Kundalini as early as 2007, that it had awakened in a manner that they had expected and wished for, unfortunately (or as is always the case), the Kundalini energy that arose after the opening of the Muladhara stagnated at Svadishtana. It was only in 2022 that Agathiyar broke the bund and let her make her way through the rest of the chakras, reaching Sahasrara. Telling me that she would do her work and that I need not worry or interfere or carry out any further practice, he spoke about her in the latest reading last Sivarathri. He was pleased to see her arrive safely home eventually.
Although there was recurring and, at times, fresh pain and discomfort, which might be cause for fear in others, as I was given a clean slate of health by the doctors during a recent checkup, I understood that it was Kundalini doing her work.
Swami Muktananda sheds some light in his book "Kundalini - The Secret of Life," published by Siddha Yoga Publication, 1994. He writes that when the chakras of the sense organs are purified, the physical senses become sharpened and refined.
"On her journey to the Sahasrara, Kundalini passes through all the sense organs, purifying them and investing them with new powers. As Kundalini rises to the ocular center, she purifies the eyes. As the Kundalini purifies the sense of touch, one begins to feel thrilled of love through every pore and hair of the body. One becomes immersed in the joy of touch. When kundalini reaches the center of smell it purifies that, and one comes into direct contact with the essence of smell. When the Shakti moves to the auditory center, she purifies this too. When a shower of nectar is released and begins to fall dropping onto the root of the tongue, the taste buds become extremely refined. Even the simplest food is relished."
Swami Muktananda writes further,
"The basis of all disease and pain is the impurities that block the flow of Prana in the Nadis. These blockages are caused by imbalances and disorders in the three bodily humors - wind, bile, and phlegm. She (Kundalini) penetrates all 720 million Nadis, consumes all the old decaying fluids, then releases vital energy into them all. The Nadis become filled with Prana. It is only after the body has been purified that the Shakti can work with full force."
G. Valmikanathan, in his book "Makers of Indian Literature - Ramalingam", published by Sahitya Akademi (e-book at http://www.vallalar.org), in tracing Ramalinga Adigal’s journey on the Pathway to God, divides it into three portions: Journey on the Purgative way, Journey on the Illuminative way, and Journey on the Unitive way. I guess I am at the threshold of the third.
1. The purgative way is that part of the long path which one treads towards the Godhead and in which one purges oneself of all desires and attachments, of all imperfections, of all acts of commission and omission of shortcomings in renunciation, of shortcomings in the total love of God in the passion for the apprehension of the Godhead.
This saw me take responsibility for my past actions both in this birth and the previous one by carrying out remedies, doing Puja, and charity after Agathiyar looked into my past and revealed it in the Nadi.
2. The illuminative way is that part of the path, which comes after the purgative way, and in which one gains illumination, knowledge, and gnosis.
This was when Tavayogi, and after his demise, Agathiyar continued to shower learnings in real time by giving me experiences that he figured were vital for my soul's advancement.
After sailing through the previous two with Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal holding my hands, I am left free to soar the skies and sail the ocean. He has projected what was in store for me by giving me my latest Nadi reading last Sivarathri.
3. The unitive way is that part of the pathway in which the pilgrim marches on with buoyant and joyous steps, filled with hope and freed from doubt or misconception. The journey is characterized by a sense of urgency. The pilgrim, in this part of his journey, begins to walk fast, then breaks into a loping trot, finally, gallops on with increasing tempo towards the beckoning smile and the outstretched arms, and is soon locked in an eternal embrace with the beloved, the eternal being, the Godhead, the ground of all being. The journey on the unitive way is composed of several factors of experience. Recollection and quiet, contemplation, ecstasy and rapture, dark night of the soul, and unitive life.
Valmikanathan compares the experiences gained or endured in each of these stages,
Of these three sections of the pathway, the first is painful and dolorous; the second a strange mixture of sorrow and joy, the joy increasing in intensity as ignorance is slowly replaced by illumination; and the last section of sheer delight, of mounting bliss.
Indeed, as G. Valmikanathan wrote, the feeling is that of buoyancy and joy and delight and sheer bliss.
So I turned to all the literature I read and shared on this blog again, when I could feel the gentle vibration of the desk I was working on and the couch I am sitting on. I sense the floor of my home vibrating too as I pen these words. It is not as in earth-shattering moments or as in earthquakes, as we are told, but a gentle and subtle energy is felt. I guess this is what Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar felt the day she and Tavayogi arrived to grace our home and watch us conduct the homam on a Thursday in 2016. She asked me the following day if I had felt the ground move or shake, as we carried out another puja and Homam in my nephew's home. No one felt it. Then Agathiyar, coming in the Nadi for a devotee on Saturday, revealed that it was true that only Mataji felt it and that the Siddhas arrived to sit in on our Puja.
Whenever Agathiyar comes within me, I can sense a surge of energy that is calm and soothing. But when he came at the shrine of Karupansamy through me in a relative's home the last time around, I felt a vibration within and moving outwards rapidly, making waveforms that extended beyond. I thought it was my body, shaking violently. But my daughters told me nothing of that sort happened. I was just standing there and later asked for a seat. Just like in terms of electricity for domestic, industrial, and other uses, I guess that they have connected me to another phase in the journey, that of connecting with the subtle vibrations around me. Recalling that Agathiyar asked me to share the bodily changes and internal transformation that at times jolted me, as in receiving electrical shocks, and at other times never captured my attention, I delved further into the experiences of the previous saints to get a better understanding of what was taking place. I understood that this Atma, or soul, is basically vibration. The intensity of this vibration varies from person to person. Man or Manithan, in working towards dropping his "I" moves to become Punithan, a state that Ramalinga Adigal mentions he attained, and that which Agathiyar recently told me I have reached, too. Man then progressively makes his way up to higher states of being. In doing so, his Atma's state of vibration intensifies. This was mentioned by Agathiyar in charting the journey from man to becoming a Jeevan Mukta. It is said that the whole village could sense the arrival of Gautama Buddha. Such was the intensity of his Atma. When a devotee asked Agathiyar what his true form was, he questioned her back, asking what she felt during puja and while doing charity. She told him it was a feeling of vibration or an Athirvu of an Unarvu. Agathiyar acknowledged himself as the very vibration that they felt in chanting his name, the vibration that everything around was emitting.
In the documentary series "Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds - Part 1 - Akasha," we are told that
"The ancient Vedic teachers taught Nada Brahma, the universe is vibration. The word Nada means sound or vibration. The vibratory field is at the root of all true spiritual experiences and scientific investigations. It is the same field of energy that saints, Buddhas, yogis, mystics, priests, shamans, and seers have observed by looking within themselves. It has been called Akasha, the Primordial Om, .. and a thousand other names throughout history...... In the ancient traditions of the East, it has been understood for thousands of years that all is vibration....You never see anything in its totality because it is made up of layer upon layer of vibration and it is constantly changing, exchanging information with Akasha.... everything is connected to the one vibratory source. ..."
A man seeking spiritual elevation and emancipation would first have to begin to work on dissolving his past karma and build positive merits and virtues to free himself from the grip of the gross and slowly bring his vibration to a state of purity, subtleness, and fineness. Annie Besant, in her talks on "The Laws of the Higher Life", Theosophical Publishing House, 1903, says,
The brain has to be changed, refined, improved, its connecting links fashioned and manufactured for the purposes of the expression of the higher consciousness... Here we see a consciousness that shapes bodies according to its needs, gradually refining them and bringing them under the control of the higher. Now making the mind steady, holding quiet the powers of the mind, the mind ceases to vibrate, and it becomes still - able to answer the vibrations coming from above".
These are "those who are in the front of evolution and of a subtler nature..." she adds.
As if to reenact the words of Rabindranath Tagore on this mystic union, "The Paramatman, the supreme soul, has himself chosen this soul of ours as his bride and the marriage has been completed", and just as Ramalinga Adigal composed a beautiful song about how his Lord had told him to prepare for this bridal marriage or mystic union an hour before the event took place, which I have included in the following video, Agathiyar had me call family and friends together and came personally through a devotee to carry out my 60th wedding on Guru Purnima of 2024.
G Vanmikanathan writes, "(Ramalinga ) Swaamikal gives expression to his amazement at the manner in which God entered his mind and took abode therein. Maanikkavaachakar too is oftentimes lost in wonderment at his good fortune in the Lord vouchsafing him a grace denied to others."
Henri Wei sums up beautifully, "In all these, man is understood as being capable of attaining union with the mysterious cosmic influence or cosmic spirit or divine being."
We are told that it is not a privilege for a select few that all are entitled to it. But each has to work out his or her Karma and take up the way, the method, and work on changing his fate by rewriting his destiny.