Siddha Heartbeat: IN THE COMPANY OF THE GURU PART 2

Thursday 16 October 2014

IN THE COMPANY OF THE GURU PART 2

Tavayogi at the Sri Agathiyar Gnana Peedham in Malaysia in 2005

Tavayogi arrived in Malaysia to officiate a branch of the Sri Agathiyar Gnana Peedham at Batu Caves in 2005. This movement advertised extensively the event in the local Tamil language dailies. I never subscribed to any Tamil daily but during this period my neighbor Augustine George used to pass a copy to me everyday. I read the adverts and realized that the name Thangarasan was familiar. I searched through my 'treasure' of old newspaper cuttings and bits of notes and found the leaflet that Nadi Guru Sentilkumar of Avinashi had passed to me way back in 2002 when I went for my very first Nadi reading. The leaflet mentioned Tavayogi as Thaai Veedu Thangarasan and he was building an ashram at Kallar. That leaflet was me first link to Tavayogi who was to become my guru later in 2005.

The advert in one of the papers

The leaflet from Thaaiveedu Thangarasan

I wanted to confirm in person whether he was the one mentioned in the leaflet, so I called the number of the organization in the advert. I got an appointment to see Tavayogi. He confirmed it was his leaflet and he listened to me talk about my Nadi reading and Agathiyar's instruction to me to follow this path. He told me I had come to the right place and explained to me the activities that he was carrying out at his ashram in Kallar. Tavayogi decided to initiate me and called Perumal from the organization to arrange for it. Tavayogi invited me to bring my family over for his talk later that evening. That evening he initiated me, my wife and 8 others. The first step I took brought me for a Nadi reading. The second brought me to my guru.

Tavayogi at the Agathiyar Gnana Peedham at Batu Caves

Tavayogi at Agathiyar Vanam in Malaysia in 2010

Agathiyar had just arrived in the form of a bronze statue to our home and my family and I were conducting libation or abhisegam with whatever little knowledge we had then. Tavayogi too had instructed us to start the fire ritual or homam although we had no prior knowledge nor experience doing both these rituals. But he gave us the confidence and urged us on. Later in one of his visit's, Tavayogi showed us the proper way to conduct both these rituals, helping us to fine tune the procedures. He performed the homam, a smaller version of the yagam, and libation or abhisegam on Agathiyar's murthy or statue at Agathiyar Vanam. It was a learning process for my family and me as Tavayogi and his able aid Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyaar made the necessary preparations and conducted these rituals. We watched carefully every gesture and recorded them mentally.