When my sciatic nerve was pinched due to a sudden sneeze that came on as I was crossing the street a month ago, Lord Muruga simply and bluntly said, "Do not invite Death!", meaning not to meet Yama, the lord of Death, willingly. I took it as a reminder to care for the body well and to live life to the fullest. He recommended a Siddha medicine to take internally and an ointment for external use in his Nadi. Agathiyar suggested five. I was blessed to have Siddha practitioner and guru of Arulguru Aghathiyar Arulsithar Peedam in Bandar Botanic, Klang, prepare these in the most strictest manner and according to the Siddha text and have Suren delivered to me during that period of my immobility and forced solitude.
The Siddhas have given us all the means and mechanism to live longer and keep Yama at bay. Their priority was to keep, maintain and sustain the body, in the peak of health; to ensure only enriching experiences were recorded onto the soul and eventually merge the spirit within with the source. Thus with a healthy body, they worked towards carrying out the given mission for the spiritual advancement and good of humanity.
In simple terms if the body can be compared to the mobile phone; the soul is the subscriber identity module (SIM); spirit then is the power source that drives the phone to function optimally. Just as the SIM stores the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number which are used to identify and authenticate subscribers on mobile telephony, the soul holds on all the imprints from lives experience with it. Just as the phones functionality is dependent on the life span of the battery, our body's functionality is determined by the life span of the spirit. The spirit that energizes the body returns to its source once the physical body worn out and exhausted loses its functionality.
Lord Muruga stresses the need to maintain the physical body extend its battery life through connecting with the life force and charging it frequently. Hence the need to do rituals, tapas, Yogasanas and meditation arises, which energizes the body which then heals from within and is in top form to perform the work of the Siddhas.
In simple terms if the body can be compared to the mobile phone; the soul is the subscriber identity module (SIM); spirit then is the power source that drives the phone to function optimally. Just as the SIM stores the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number which are used to identify and authenticate subscribers on mobile telephony, the soul holds on all the imprints from lives experience with it. Just as the phones functionality is dependent on the life span of the battery, our body's functionality is determined by the life span of the spirit. The spirit that energizes the body returns to its source once the physical body worn out and exhausted loses its functionality.
Lord Muruga stresses the need to maintain the physical body extend its battery life through connecting with the life force and charging it frequently. Hence the need to do rituals, tapas, Yogasanas and meditation arises, which energizes the body which then heals from within and is in top form to perform the work of the Siddhas.
A friend narrated his close call with death and how Lord Shiva saved him from the noose of Lord Yama. He had succumbed a second time to the dreaded dengue fever. As he was losing consciousness he saw himself in a space where there was a golden light in the distance. As the light approached him he understood it to be the form and figure of Yama the Lord of Death. But surprisingly Yama was not how he has been depicted or described to us as before. He was not dark tanned, huge and menacing, ferocious looking and mounted on a Buffalo but was instead of a gold complexion and seated on a golden lion. Yama was with an attitude though, had indicated that he follow him. That moment my friend chanted Lord Shiva's name almost spontaneously. Shiva arrived immediately with his long tresses flowing over his shoulders and back, and with a blue hued body, huge and encompassing. Shiva who was way much bigger and majestic in comparison with Yama who was midget in size now, placed his hand on Yama's chest and shoved him away, driving him towards the direction from whence he came. Shiva led my friend by his hand and showed him all the worlds. When my friend came around he realized on seeing the clock on the wall of his hospital ward, that he had been gone some two hours.
His story reminds us of Markandeyan and how "Shiva protected Markandeya from the clutches of death, personified as Yama." The story goes as follows, sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markandeya
Mrikandu Rishi and his wife Marudmati worshiped Shiva and sought from him the boon of begetting a son. As a result, he was given the choice of either a righteous son, but with a short life on earth or a child of low intelligence but with a long life. Mrikandu Rishi chose the former, and was blessed with Markandeya, an exemplary son, destined to die at the age of 16.
Markandeya grew up to be a great devotee of Shiva and on the day of his destined death he continued his worship of Shiva in his aniconic form of Shivalingam. The messengers of Yama, the god of death were unable to take away his life because of his great devotion and continual worship of Shiva. Yama then came in person to take away Markandeya's life, and sprung his noose around the young sage's neck. By accident or fate the noose mistakenly landed around the Shivalingam, and out of it, Shiva emerged in all his fury attacking Yama for his act of aggression. After defeating Yama in battle to the point of death, Shiva then revived him, under the condition that the devout youth would live forever. For this act, Shiva was thereafter also known as Kalantaka ("Ender of Death").
When the relative of a man who was bedridden for some five years consulted the Nadi several times, Agathiyar gave several severe remedies to be carried out on behave of the sick person, with a reminder each time that the man remain strong and continue fighting his illness, never giving up even for a moment.
But sadly the man died. All the other relatives came done hard on the sincere follower of Agathiyar who had sought the guidance of Agathiyar and the Nadi for some hope in reviving his relative to his previous healthy state, accusing Agathiyar of giving false hopes and wasting their time and money in carrying out the numerous remedies handed out. There is never a Nadi reading for a dead man but an exception was made that day. Agathiyar called in his follower and told him, "What am I to do? On one hand you had approached me to help revive your kin. I did give you remedies to be carried out and you had faithfully done them too. I had also insisted that the deceased keep his spirits up and alive. Only if he kept fighting to live on, can all the remedies work in his favour. But sadly he gave up on me and my words. He had asked to take his life for he could not bring himself to see his wife, son and daughter suffer in anguish and pain seeing his condition and attending to his vegetable state. I had to comply and give in to his wishes to leave his body!"
All these stories remind us of how sacred this birth is and that given a wonderful body that performs with exact precision, we ought not bring it to fall in disgrace succumbing it to illness and disease.
Thank you Lord Muruga and Agathiya for reminding me of the greatness of this body and birth by giving me pain in the form of sciatica; coming to reveal the subtle messages through the Nadi or oracle; coming to my aid in the form of medicine and its practitioners; and consoling me through family and friends.