Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal was puzzled when people who came to see him when he was making his rounds in Malaysia many years back, saying that life was difficult in Malaysia. He turned to me and quipped, "What do they know about hardship?"
For a man who had everything going well for him, being a successful mill owner and a film producer, life changed overnight. Certain new policies introduced by the government of the day, affected his business and caused him to wind up. Hit with poverty later, he also lost his eyesight. But he kept going on with faith on Agathiyar. A year later he regained his eyesight and revived his business. He vowed to give his life in service to Agathiyar.
At fifty years of age, he left his family and business voluntarily as promised, to roam India. He learnt and gained much experience as a traveling mendicant. Finally after numerous encounters with the Divine he took up the life of a hermit at Kallar.
For a man who had seen much hardship in his life, the problems that people brought to him were nothing worth worrying about and that could not be resolved with wise thinking and taking wise decisions.
For a man who had everything going well for him, being a successful mill owner and a film producer, life changed overnight. Certain new policies introduced by the government of the day, affected his business and caused him to wind up. Hit with poverty later, he also lost his eyesight. But he kept going on with faith on Agathiyar. A year later he regained his eyesight and revived his business. He vowed to give his life in service to Agathiyar.
At fifty years of age, he left his family and business voluntarily as promised, to roam India. He learnt and gained much experience as a traveling mendicant. Finally after numerous encounters with the Divine he took up the life of a hermit at Kallar.
For a man who had seen much hardship in his life, the problems that people brought to him were nothing worth worrying about and that could not be resolved with wise thinking and taking wise decisions.
In a speech at Kallar he says things like poverty and an incurable illness are cause to be concerned and in the true sense can be considered as hardship. The rests are problems, that can be solved by our intelligence or arivu. With effort on our part, working hard (and smart), and a little help and divine intervention from him, we can sail through life's rapid waters. He gave hope to many who came to him, asking them to return to their daily lifes, and asking them to face their problems without fear and with renewed energy.
Similarly when I was with Supramania Swami, a lady came with her uncle, to vent out her sorrows, and troubles and to seek solace from Swami. Her husband was ill treating her. I thought that Swami would ask the lady to be patient and pray that her husband change for the better, as was the normal advise always given by the elders. To our surprise, Swami told her to leave him and find a new life for herself. The moment she heard those words spoken by Swami, she burst into laughter and cries of joy. All the pent up worries and sufferings left her that very moment. She returned home smiling. I realized that she very much wanted to hear those words that day and Swami spoke it.
Similarly when I was with Supramania Swami, a lady came with her uncle, to vent out her sorrows, and troubles and to seek solace from Swami. Her husband was ill treating her. I thought that Swami would ask the lady to be patient and pray that her husband change for the better, as was the normal advise always given by the elders. To our surprise, Swami told her to leave him and find a new life for herself. The moment she heard those words spoken by Swami, she burst into laughter and cries of joy. All the pent up worries and sufferings left her that very moment. She returned home smiling. I realized that she very much wanted to hear those words that day and Swami spoke it.
Whenever we ask Agathiyar for an answer to life's many puzzling queries, he would answer of what use was the knowledge to us? But yet he would explain briefly and stop at that. I began to realize that he is educating us to drop all learning. Instead he is teaching us by giving us experience, that we can claim is ours.
For instance he watches us go through pain and suffering first. He explains the reasons for it later. I had a re-occurrence of the excruciating pain in my lower back and right thighs again after a similar occurrence in 2011 and two milder occurrences in 2016 and a month back. At all times the Siddhas had a different reason for these occurrences that took place. Physically the cause was due to a cough and sneeze. But he revealed otherwise.
He leaves us on our own to put in all effort towards overcoming the resistance, obstacle, problems, misery, confusion etc. If the need is there he gives us a solution. He comes to our aid when we have exhausted all resources and put in a prayer. If he has not come to help you yet, it does not mean that he has not heard you, but that there was still an avenue left to be explored by you where he would be waiting to give you a hand and lift you up.
He leaves us on our own to put in all effort towards overcoming the resistance, obstacle, problems, misery, confusion etc. If the need is there he gives us a solution. He comes to our aid when we have exhausted all resources and put in a prayer. If he has not come to help you yet, it does not mean that he has not heard you, but that there was still an avenue left to be explored by you where he would be waiting to give you a hand and lift you up.
These days, I begin to realize that no amount of knowledge would show us to Erai, although we might get to understand the concept. None of our great saints from the past gained their divine experiences through schooling in institutions. They came to write and sing about their divine experiences, having walked the path.
No amount of explanation on the divine would show Erai. Erai is sensed, felt, experienced. Occasionally he takes a form. Seeing this, man created many forms for him to adore externally.
The Siddhas assembled a perfect set of various practices so that we could walk the path and realize for ourselves the truth and the false, the gains and losses, the care and the danger that lurks, etc. They organized these as four stages on the path: Sariyai, Kriyai, Yogam and Gnanam.
Tavayogi quotes Thirumular in his speech at Kallar regarding how these stages are to be approached.
பக்தன் கிரியை சரியை பயில்வுற்றுச்
சுத்த அருளால் துரிசற்ற யோகத்தில்
உய்த்த நெறியுற் றுணர்கின்ற ஞானத்தாற்
சித்தங் குருவரு ளாற்சிவ மாகுமே
Both Thirumular and Tavayogi put it beautifully. Pursuing the practice of both Sariyai and Kriyai, and when the Divine showers his grace, he brings the devotee to the state of Yogam (Union). With the Gnana that is experienced as a result, together with the grace of the Guru, the Sittam becomes Shivam then. For all these to happen one needs to be a devotee or bhakta first. Tavayogi had mentioned to us that our efforts was two stages, then the divine comes to take us to the higher stages.
Ramalinga Adigal sings of himself in these progressive states in his Thiruarutpa.
அடியனாக்கிப் பிள்ளையாக்கி நெயனாக்கியே
அடிகளாக்கிக் கொண்டாய் என்னை அவலம் நீக்கியே
Ramalinga Adigal sings of himself in these progressive states in his Thiruarutpa.
அடியனாக்கிப் பிள்ளையாக்கி நெயனாக்கியே
அடிகளாக்கிக் கொண்டாய் என்னை அவலம் நீக்கியே
We at AVM too took to this formula given by the Siddhas, in seeking spiritual development and advancement. We took the cue from Sri Krishna of Pothihai Tharmma Chakkram and started feeding the homeless and unfortunate, distributing toiletries and other essentials.
We were blessed with apprenticeship under wonderful Gurus, Supramania Swami, Thavathiru Rengaraja Desigar, and Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal.
Tavayogi and Agathiyar started us off with doing rituals that included lighting the sacrificial fire or Homam and doing libation or abhisegam respectively. After they initiated us into these practices in 2005 and 2010 respectively, I had continued doing these rituals every Thursdays, Full Moon days, and Amavasai nights and during other auspicious days too. Later, the AVM family gathered together to carry out these puja. Soon they began to do it in their own homes.
We were blessed to have Tavayogi, Acharya Gurudasan, Master Arunan and Master Uva teach us yoga asanas and breathing techniques.
To make us understand the concept of Erai, the Siddhas had us serve others, help alleviate their hunger pangs, at least for that moment in time and for the few we met.
Agathiyar made me commission his statue and made us give it life through the mantras chanted and the rituals that were performed. He engaged us in doing these puja in our homes, by ourselves, without the need of middlemen.
The Siddhas brought us to undertake several pilgrimages to Holy spots that were linked to them including temples, samadhis, and caves.
They brought us to literally walk the path, trekking into the jungles, and scaling hills, bringing us closer to nature, bringing us to spent nights with nature, and bringing us rare moments of intimacy with Mother Nature.
While we took up the physical aspects of all these practices, services, rituals, and yoga, the Siddhas began to work on our heart and soul, in subtle ways. They brought Divinity within us. It began to work from within bringing an internal transformation that was rather subtle and silent.
We began to see the Divine in the faces of the hungry, deserted, and ignored in the streets.
We began to see the Divine in Agathiyar's statue.
The Siddhas and Erai, showed their presence in the temples, in the people we met, and in the statues at these temples.
They showed their presence in the breeze, the scent, and in the calm that came on after long exhaustive hikes. They showed their presence as a blanket that enveloped us keeping us both warm and out of danger in the wild.
The Divine showed himself in all forms of his creation. We began to see the Divine in every single thing: in the food that we had when we were truly hungry, in the smile of the elderly, in the laughter and gibberish talk of the child, and in the teary eyes of the sick and helpless. We began to experience him.
As a koan goes, "First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is", we will come a full circle, from external to internal and back to external. We we taught to see him in the granite statues, then we began to see him within and finally we shall see him even in the rock.
I was surprised to notice that Supramania Swami had hung a gunny sack over a window opening that he purposely left in his kudil so that he could continuously look at Annamalaiyar, the Holy hill. I asked him the reason for doing so. He told me he could not see the hill no more for it was fiery. Tiruvannamalai represents the fire element. Although he had stayed on the hill for a long span of time, seventeen years, off his forty years of austerities, he eventually saw Annamalaiyar as fire when he was in his seventies.
Swami Rama after leaving Kerala and upon visiting Bhagawan Ramana, adjoined to taking up meditation in the hills of Tiruvannamalai. Coming out of the meditative state he saw the Divine in all, hugging the man on the street and the tree alike.
From external worship, Agathiyar came to dwell in our homes. Soon he came within us. Once inside our homes, our hearts and our minds, he brought the changes required to attain his very state. The Divine made us divine. Man becomes divine.