When Suren came back to Malaysia after a short stint in Perth, Australia, the first thing he asked me after all the formalities were whether I had written another book. I replied that I did not write any in his absence although I had posted an observation on my blog AGATHIYAN recently (http://www.tavayogi.webs.com).
I had received an e-mail where a newfound friend wanted to know why the Agathiyar mantra I had received from Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal of the Sri Agathiyar Gnana Peedham Thirukovil in Kallar, Coimbatore which I had mentioned in one of my books was different from the one he had received from a Siddha in Coimbatore.
Agathiyar had revealed another mantra of his to be chanted and shared with others too in the last Nadi reading of his Aasi Kaandam lately. I also came to know Maran’s brother had received a similar mantra from Agathiyar through the Nadi but this time with a slight variation. My nephew Thayalan calls me up to enquire why there was a variation in the mantra and which was he to follow.
This question from my nephew and the e-mail from my new found friend made me recall a story I had read some time back. The story goes as follows:
A young monk after years of tutelage under his master finally was told by his master that he (the young monk) needed to leave the monastery to get to see the rest of the world and to preach the teachings he had acquired as a monk. Upon reaching the foothill, the young monk came across an old man chanting on a riverbank. The old man was chanting the mantra he (the monk) had mastered at the monastery but with a variation. So he apprehended the old man telling him that he was going about the wrong way of reciting the mantra and taught the old man what he had learned at the monastery. The old man listened attentively. The young monk was proud that he had passed on what he was taught and that he had found his first candidate to whom he had started to preach.
Now the young lad had to hire a boatman to take him across the river to the nearby village where he could continue preaching. About halfway through the journey across the river, the young monk noticed that the boatman had gone all pale and was looking over his (the monk) shoulder with his mouth wide open. The young monk turned around. What he saw shocked him too. The old man that he had met at the shores was now standing beside the boat. He was standing on the surface of the water. The old man approached the lad and whispered to him that he had forgotten the mantra he was taught and requested that the lad repeat it. The young lad held the old man’s hand and asked that he pardon him for being egoistic and begged to follow the old man back and be taken in as his disciple.
Suren’s question has prompted me to write again.