Transforming oneself
The formless spirit that desires an experience takes the soul. It then takes on the experience as programmed ahead that is imprinted in the soul. Over time as it collects merits and demerit points along the way, the law of cause and effect determines the subsequent experiences the soul would have to undergo besides materializing its own desires. Coming along with a baggage of past karma a portion that is already exhausted by taking the birth and a body, the parents, the place of birth and nation, race and religion, all that is specifically picked or chosen by the soul, and with new desires waiting to be fulfilled, we begin yet another journey along the beaten track, not realizing that we have been coming and going for ages. This is what has to stop. How do we go about it?
In phase one when material and mundane desires that are carried in the soul are replaced by noble thoughts and deeds of serving humanity coupled with spiritually elevating acts, practices and desires of that of merging with Erai, these will transform the soul to become divine. The divine soul and the spirit becomes Kandhan or divinity itself. With Erai's grace there is neither “uyir pini” nor “udal pini”, meaning neither the soul nor the body is affected by illness and disease.
Next as we progress on, working now on rebuilding the thoughts and reviewing the desires to be aligned with the thoughts and desires of Erai, brings on a renewed soul that then acts the role of the divine, bringing peace and bliss to all those who it comes upon. Bringing the divine to stay in us forever through an extended period of tavam, one becomes divine carrying the very nature of Erai. Eventually acting out its role, the spirit helps the divine soul end the need to come back again.
The journey ends.
Seeing the Divine everywhere.
To be able to see the Divine in all things we need to bring a big and radical transformation within us. But it all has to start from seeing the divine outside, either in a picture, idol, or any other related symbol.
From http://greenmesg.org/swami_vivekananda_sayings_quotes/religion-concept_of_image_worship.php we learn about the concept of image worship by Swami Vivekananda.
We may worship a picture as God, but not God as the picture. God in the picture is right, but the picture as God is wrong. God in the image is perfectly right. There is no danger there. This is the real worship of God.
This is the start of the journey. Here is where the belief and concept of god is instilled in the young. It is easy for a child to accept that god is in the idol and picture. One grows up to worship god at the altar in his home and temples. He serves god in both these places. We are amazed to see the majesty of him, bringing admiration and respect and often fear too. This is the path of the servant.
Next we shall come to see him in all of his creation beginning from the nearest, our body. Sri Swami Sivananda brings us to wake up to the reality and look upon this body of ours with respect through these words of his.
Are you not struck with awe and wonder, my dear friends, when you think for a moment seriously about the Divine Grandeur and Divine Glory, that are exhibited in the structure of these miraculous mechanisms, heart, lungs, brain, etc? How harmoniously do they work! Who converts food into blood? Who pumps the blood into the arteries? It is He. Feel His indwelling presence. Pay your silent homage to Him. Glory, Glory, unto the Lord, the Creator of this wonderful body, His own image, His own dwelling house, the Navadvarapuri, the nine-gated city!
(Source: "The Science of Pranayama" by Sri Swami Sivananda, A Divine Life Society Publication, 1935)
Hence the concept of a creator arises. We are amazed to see the vastness of his creation and all in it. This is the path of the son who speaks proudly of the father.
Then we have to move within, learning to see him within us. Yoga and meditation help us move inwards. The tranquility when one holds the pose in an asana and when he holds the single thought leads him within. Merging in stillness he begets the form and nature of god.
Then we shall come to see his expansive form everywhere and in everything. Then divinity is everywhere. Swami Vishnudevananda writes on this facet of his master, Swami Shivananda who saw the divine in river Ganga and all around him.
The first time I saw Swami Shivananda he was sitting with about 30 or 40 people around him. He looked like an ordinary man among them. The look on his face and manner of speech were simple and straightforward. Each word came from his heart. There was no kind of religious hypocrisy, no sitting on a tiger skin with ashes smeared all over his body. He had an extraordinary spiritual glow.
Before leaving, I went down the Ganga where it was the custom of the Ashram to do Arati (waving of lights) every evening. All the devotees and inmates of the Ashram assembled by the banks of the Ganga to watch Master perform this evening worship. I was skeptical. I was of a scientific temperament and knew that a river is only water, H2O-imagine worshipping H2O! But as I stood there and watched Master waving the lights, I saw the river become a mass of flowing lights. At that instant, the river assumed a divine flow, a manifestation of the Grace of the Lord. Master turned and looked at me and in my mind I heard his message, God pervades everything; this too is His Special Form. This entirely changed my outlook on life.
When Agathiyar brought me to his natural abodes that were the hills, jungles and caves and those that man built like temples and samadhis, led by Tavayogi, he showed me his presence and many miracles. He told me many more shall be shown back home in Malaysia. I believed him. He did as told.
As I put in more hours into my devotion, my wife used to have dreams almost daily. When she questioned Tavayogi as to why she was having so many dreams in which she saw Gods, Goddesses and saints, I put it to Tavayogi candidly, that it was not fair that I put in the effort and she was receiving the fruits of my efforts. We all laughed over it. Tavayogi then told me that they need not come to me in my dreams as I believed in them. They came in my wife's dream so that she too would take up the Siddha path. Today she and my children are ardent devotees and fans of Agathiyar. Agathiyar blessed her for devoting her time in looking after him in the bronze statue of his at our home, by gifting her, her very first Nadi reading without the need of giving the thumb print and birth details. This was a very rare occurrence as I soon found out from the Nadi reader who himself was taken aback and surprised.
Commissioning a bronze statue of his through a directive, Agathiyar asked us to give “uru”, that is bring the spirit of Erai; and “uyir”, the soul of Agathiyar within the metal. The Divine began to reside in it. Then he showed us his play through this metal piece. The metal became alive, opening its eyes to grant wishes and pour its grace. Originally 18 kilos in weight, each time the libation is done both at home and in the temple grounds, he became heavier. Imagine Bala Chandran, Dyalen, Shanga and Sugu who initially carried his carrier or pallaakku with one hand had to use both as they struggled to bring him around the Sri Mayuranathar/ Pamban Swamigal temple in Dengkil. Similarly Dyalen who easily carried him from the car to Balachander Aiya’s home, struggled to send him back to the car after the libation.
The mystery of the Divine coming into a person or what we commonly know as going into a trance is interesting. For instance if the divine wants to come down to our plane and address us, it needs to enter physical matter like a body. The moment it enters the body of a person, the soul of the person vacates his body and leaves to temporarily enter the metal or granite statue or any other vessel. This momentary exchange of place is what transmutes during this mystical moments. The divine and soul switch places, the Divine using the body to serve the purpose it came for. Here his soul is a partial witness to whatever takes place. The divine comes and leaves without harming the person. This trance like phenomena is initiated by the Divine.
There are times when the divine is invoked to come and one is required to be revived from his unconscious state upon the divine leaving him. Here his soul is not a witness to whatever takes place during his absence. This trance is initiated by man.
With the coming of Agathiyar, what we read and saw in the movies began to happen in real time. Many interesting phenomena began to take place in our circle. We were witness to the play of Erai and his apostles the Siddhas. From fearing them we became accustomed to it, learning to step aside for the Divine to play its lilas.
We have come to realize the Divine in every minute things these days. If we saw how the automatic closing of the eyes during prayer initiates Kevala Kumbam in an earlier post, similarly we are told that an ordinary song that is sang in front of the idol of Lord Ganesa, carries many interpretations.
The first time I heard it mentioned was when Dr Sarangapani, popularly known as Vaithiyar Bhani, addressed us at the Agathiyar Gnana Peedham in Batu Caves in 2005. He sang a song on Lord Ganesa and told us that while in school he was told that it was a song of praise to Lord Ganesa to be sang in front of him. Later when he took up the study of Siddha medicine, he was told by his master that the verses pertained to herbs and the preparation of a herbal concoction. Then when he came to Yogi S.A.A. Ramaiah, his Guru told him that this song reflected Gnanam. We were amazed that one song could carry so many dimensions and have different meaning and inference to so many people at different times. This song covered devotion or Bhakti; was a medicine or Ausadham and finally a subject of Gnanam too.
The song is by Auvaiyaar, one that we have heard often.
வாக்குண்டாம் நல்ல மனமுண்டாம் மாமலராள்
நோக்குண்டாம் மேனி நுடங்காது பூக்கொண்டு
துப்பார் திருமேனி தும்பிக்கையான் பாதம்
தப்பாமல் சார்வார் தமக்கு
CS Murugesan in his "Sittargalin Saagaakalai" mentions the same song and explains the same.
The ordinary devotee is told that,
"Singing this song of devotion and praise, invoking Lord Ganesa with flowers daily, one will possess good speech, talent, knowledge and the blessings of Goddess Laxmi. He will have clear conscience, and his body will never succumb to illness or disease."
When the same song is seen through the eyes of a Siddha practitioner or Vaidyar, it becomes a Sutra to formulate and prepare a herbal preparation, Kaya Kalpha.
வாக்குண்டாம் நல்ல மனமுண்டாம் மாமலராள்
நோக்குண்டாம் மேனி நுடங்காது பூக்கொண்டு
துப்பார் (ghee) திரு (tulasi) மேனி (kuppaimeni) தும்பிக் (thumbai) கையான் (karisalai) பாதம் தப்பாமல் சார்வார் தமக்கு
It is all in the eyes of the beholder. How one sees something in the present is a result of past vasanas and experience. Hence the reason why some can come to accept the concept of god and others brush it off; the reason why some belief in miracles and others don't; and the reason why some can hold on to a path and make progress while others struggle to stay on.
But then life would not be interesting if we had everyone come out of the factory from a same mould and similar in all aspects. All these variations add to our experience here, sometimes good and at times bad. But understanding that it is all a play of Erai let us join in his game. Let us have some fun too.