Agathiyar says that through simple acts of us it brings us relieve from our past karma.
A simple act of feeding the birds, fish, dogs, cows, monkeys and other animals goes a long way in clearing one’s karma.
A simple act of prayer at home, bringing oneself to chant the name of the Deity, Siddha or Erai in any other form, brings countless blessings from them, that helps one sail through the sea of life and overcome its numerous rapids and obstacles.
A simple act of buying someone else food and drinks to ease his hunger and quench his thirst brings merits in multi-fold, that helps offset one's past karma. Agathiyar tells us that the food we serve will turn to medicine and cure the illnesses of those who partake it.
A simple act of performing the fire ritual or Homa has far reaching benefits for the person and the universe too. We understand that lighting the Homa in one’s home brings relieve from sufferings to the entire family, calms and quietens the surroundings and helps prevent major calamities and disasters.
A simple act of feeding the birds, fish, dogs, cows, monkeys and other animals goes a long way in clearing one’s karma.
A simple act of prayer at home, bringing oneself to chant the name of the Deity, Siddha or Erai in any other form, brings countless blessings from them, that helps one sail through the sea of life and overcome its numerous rapids and obstacles.
A simple act of buying someone else food and drinks to ease his hunger and quench his thirst brings merits in multi-fold, that helps offset one's past karma. Agathiyar tells us that the food we serve will turn to medicine and cure the illnesses of those who partake it.
A simple act of performing the fire ritual or Homa has far reaching benefits for the person and the universe too. We understand that lighting the Homa in one’s home brings relieve from sufferings to the entire family, calms and quietens the surroundings and helps prevent major calamities and disasters.
The great masters too have always advised mankind to carry out these small acts of devotion and charity.
Ramana says, "Till you reach the state of jnana and thus wake out of Maya, you must do social service by relieving suffering whenever you see it." Ramana himself is said to love cooking and served the devotees who frequent his ashram.
Ramana says, "Till you reach the state of jnana and thus wake out of Maya, you must do social service by relieving suffering whenever you see it." Ramana himself is said to love cooking and served the devotees who frequent his ashram.
When Neem Karoli Baba was approached and asked to raise the kundalini, his answer to Ram Dass of "Love Serve Remember Foundation", was simple. "When I asked my guru to raise my kundalini, he said, "feed people." That summarizes the benefits gained in feeding people.
From an excerpt from "The Divine Reality of Sri Baba Neeb Karoli Ji Maharaj" by Ravi Prakash Pande “Rajida” posted on https://www.ramdass.org/mystery-miracles/, we understand that the masters took to feeding the devotees as a priority.
Fewer visitors were coming to Kainchi Ashram, for it was October and getting cold in the hills. One day at about 2 p.m. Kundanlal Sah, an engineer, was going from Ranikhet to his home in Bareilly. On his way he stopped his car at the ashram and went in to have Maharaji’s darshan. There were only four people with Baba. After some time many elderly lady devotees arrived from Nainital, and Baba asked all of them to prepare puris in the kitchen. Sah said that he could not understand why so many ladies would be preparing so much food when there were only four people with Baba and all the inmates of the ashram had already taken prasad. It came to his mind that there must be some other reason for preparing large quantities of puris and vegetables.
At about 7 p.m. two buses full of scouts from Rajasthan arrived unexpectedly at the gates of the temple. They were touring the hills and arrived at the ashram via Dwarahat and Ranikhet. Baba was very happy to see the children and made them eat to their heart’s content.
From another excerpt from the "Near and the Dear" by Dada Mukerjee posted also on https://www.ramdass.org/mystery-miracles/, we realize the inner meaning of feeding.
In a saint, the divine person is encased in the human frame but is not entirely identical. The bottom of the human and the top of the divine stand far apart from each other. There is a co-mingling in the inner space, and in noble human beings, some of the divine qualities merge entirely with their human qualities, destroying all distinction between human and divine. I am saying this about Baba from my own experience of him. I have never seen him wearing his divine crown, but I have always seen his divine qualities of love and compassion. He was always ready and alert to mitigate the sufferings of the helpless by taking their pains upon himself. His body became a honeycomb of diseases. This was the price he had to pay for his compassion and his readiness to help.
Every individual suffers from some kind of physical and mental pain. But with many, hunger or disease of body or mind become acute. One of Babaji’s visible methods of helping people was by feeding the hungry, arranging medical treatment for the sick, and giving money and materials to the helpless. The brief interlude of his life in the ashrams was spent in caring for the hungry and curing the sick, like the head of a household busy with his large family.
Those who visited his ashrams, especially Kainchi, saw how prasad was being served throughout the day to all and sundry without any discrimination. For some it was prasad, an auspicious token of spiritual elevation, but for many more it was a whole meal for the stomach.
Seeing that food was being given in such large amounts, some persons complained that the food was being wasted. Babaji was unrelenting and continued to ask us to give in plenty. “Give more, give more, Dada.” No doubt Babaji would never allow food to be wasted or abused, but his idea of abuse and waste was different from ours, so the bhandara continued, giving food to the needy.
From Anya El-Wattar at https://www.ramdass.org/prabhav/,
Ram Dass gave me so much loving guidance while we were together on that retreat, and I wanted to pay him back for his kindness. The best way I know to do that is to offer food cooked with love. Anything offered with love is pure medicine, as he has taught me. This lesson is from his guru, Maharaji, who used to say, “Love people, feed people.”
“I feed people with my books and lectures,” he once shared with me.
Agathiyar also extols the benefits in doing charity especially feeding the poor (Annadhanam). We understand in simple terms, that if a person feeds another just once, his (the one fed) life span extends. The person being fed lives to see another day. We are told that by doing charity and feeding others our karma will lessen. We will gain merits. Agathiyar goes further to explain that besides the donors karma having removed or lessen, the karma of the person aided or fed is lessen too by ones charity.
Agathiyar in his revelation to Dr VM Jayapalan during his meditation extols the immense benefits of feeding others. This episode and others were published as an audio CD titled AGATHIYAR THIRUVILAIYADAL by Dr VM Jayapalan of Bangalore.
Agathiyar in his revelation to Dr VM Jayapalan during his meditation extols the immense benefits of feeding others. This episode and others were published as an audio CD titled AGATHIYAR THIRUVILAIYADAL by Dr VM Jayapalan of Bangalore.