More messages of thanks and gratefulness to Agathiyar kept coming.
- No words can talk the heart Agathiyar appa. I really never did anything, I was numb, lot of negative thoughts, confused. U came forward and took over me, guiding me in a unexpected direction. Every second of my life I owe u lots of love. Ur my king. Its a beautiful feeling to b under ur vision.
- Thanking for giving ATM Family. Each n every moment in my life turning as miracle with the blessings of Agathiyar only. What I have in my life is coming from agathiyar blessings only. One & only agathiyar. Thanks.
- நன்றி நவிலவோ நா இல்லையே..! நின்னடியே தொழுது நீங்காது நிற்போமே..!! நுண்ணிய எம் பழவினைகள் நூறாயிரம் தாம் உண்டு.. நெற்றி கொண்ட நேத்திரத்தால் நொடிப்பொழுதும் எமை நோக்கி கண்ணாக காப்பதற்கு நன்றி நவிலவோ நா இல்லையே...!!
- Thank you Agathiar appa for coming into my life. Im indebted for everything.
To those who came to us asking questions first before wanting to step in, I figured that they wanted assurances and expected to learn about the results in coming to devote themselves to the Siddhas. Walking the Siddha path is an adventure in discovery. Nobody can tell us what is in store. Even the most experienced would still be amazed to see the Siddha's approach in elevating the other souls. There is no formula here. A prescription is only prepared the moment you knock the door and step inside. Then you are given the magical pill that transforms your life. You then step out as Shanmugam Avadaiyappa but your perspective of life changes. You see the world anew. You become amazed at Erai's creation. You begin to see things you never saw before, although right under your nose or before you. For Erai is a state. Each has to reach and pass through the numerous states on the path towards the state of Erai or Erai Nilai. No amount of describing these moments will make anyone understand.
When I came out of prayers one day a long time ago I felt so blissful. I looked towards my wife and told her if only I could transfer that feeling by touch to another.... Today we at ATM hold hands and share the bliss among all present.
Although it is never possible to bring these state into words, ecstasy is described as an intense pleasure; A state of emotion so intense that a person is carried beyond rational thought and self-control like a mad prophet in an ecstasy; A trance, frenzy, or rapture associated with mystic or prophetic exaltation. Bliss is described as perfect happiness.
Rick Ellis in his blog https://ricknotes.com/notes-and-articles/bliss-and-ecstasy/ gives us a wonderful description of both these states.
- Bliss – a state of consciousness – direct connection with the divine. The experience of creation – running through, and available to us.
- Ecstasy – a state of consciousness – the trance of navigation. Expanded to see the whole picture, the many ways, where paths lead and end. To navigate to the underworld and back. A whole new perspective on being human.
From what we understand from Rick Ellis, while the experience of creation is seen internally, made available to the individual and running through him bringing about a state of bliss, he then steps out beyond borders to gain insight of the very creation taking place around him, now seen externally, bringing him into a state of ecstasy. From bliss that is internal and personal, we are taken to the next level of ecstasy that goes beyond borders. Sitting long hours in a cave atop mount Arunachala, after having the darshan of Ramana Maharishi and feeling thrills of ecstasy in his presence, Ramdas dived into deep meditation. He held undisturbed communion with Lord Rama. When Ramdas came out of his state of bliss and moved into a state of ecstasy, he saw all as Ram and ran to hug the first tree he saw and the first man he met.
In his early autobiography IN QUEST OF GOD published by Anandaashram, Ramdas describes how he attained the divine vision through the grace of the Maharishi. Ramdas addressed Ramana on his first visit to the Maharishi,
“Maharaj here stands before thee a humble slave. Have pity on him. His only prayer to thee is to give him thy blessing.”
Ramana turned to look at Ramdas and nodded his head. A thrill of inexpressible joy coursed through Ramdas, his whole body quivering like a leaf in the breeze.
Swami Ramdas in VISION, the monthly journal of Anandaashram comments further about his state,
Ramdas went to Ramana in a state of complete obliviousness of the world. He felt thrills of ecstasy in his presence. The Maharishi made the awakening permanent in Ramdas.
In 1947 with a burning desire to realize his innate divinity, Ramsuratkumar set off in search of a master. The search for his spiritual father brought him first to Sri Aurobindo and later to Ramana. Truman Caylor Wadlington in his book YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR - THE GODCHILD OF TIRUVANNAMALAI writes,
Meeting the Maharishi’s (Ramana) gaze he went into a visual rapport with him and completely lost himself in the timeless wonder of that Godly soul. He felt as though he existed during that short while not as his solitary physical body but something far greater, far more glorious and vast. His innermost being underwent a spiritual transfiguration.
After spending three days with Ramana, he moved on to Swami Ramdas. Truman Caylor Wadlington writes,
“However, unlike his meetings with Ramana and Aurobindo he felt no attraction to Ramdas.”
Ramsuratkumar could not bring himself to accept Ramdas’s life of luxury. He returned to his home in Kashi. Ramsuratkumar visited Ramdas repeatedly but he felt the same way towards Ramdas each time he was with Ramdas. Even after several earlier visits to Swami Ramdas, Ramdas did not inspire the Yogi. The Yogi has this to say about his guru.
"Papa (Ramdas) did not allow this beggar to understand Him. The time was not ripe. This beggar had to wait till Papa Himself revealed His Divinity to this beggar, to make this beggar understand that Papa was his Father." – Yogi
Here is a lesson for us to learn too - do not judge the guru. Many turn up at a guru's ashram or abode and begin to study the man rather than his teachings and messages. Eventually, they leave seeing the lifestyle led by the guru, that does not conform to their image of a guru. Some delve into the running of the ashram and administrative and financial matters and seeing flaws leave with disgust, talking ill of the establishment and the guru. But the truth of the matter is either we are not destined to learn from a particular guru or we have gathered too much trash in us that needed to be sorted out and thrown before the initiation begins. Here we now understand why Tavayogi insisted that a student needed to wait some 12 years before he can receive the guru's teaching.
When finally the Yogi accepted and surrendered to Ramdas, surprisingly Ramdas was not willing and did not receive him well. Parthasarathy writes further,
Systematically Swami Ramdas and Mataji Krishnabai made Ram Surat Kunwar behave like a mad man and made the world believe that he had become mad. They drove him out of the ashram forcibly so that he would remember them constantly. They used harsh language whenever he was before them among the crowd of the devotees. By doing so Swami Ramdas and Mataji Krishnabai removed his ego totally. But it took a very long time. In the process, the pain, the sufferings he experienced were acute.
Ram Surat Kunwar again asked Swami Ramdas to allow him and his family to live in the ashram. He said,
“Papa, I have come here with the great faith that you would allow me with my family to live here. I am not able to work anywhere since the initiation. If you drive me away, where shall I go and how can I live?”
Papa vehemently answered,
“Go and beg. You cannot live in the ashram. There are enough people in the ashram to work. Remember, under a big tree, another big tree cannot grow. Only thorny bushes and grass alone will grow.”
Ram Surat Kunwar shocked on listening to the words of his Master exclaimed,
“Papa, should I beg for my food? Am I a beggar, Papa?”
Papa, without answering, went inside. From that day Ram Surat Kunwar called himself a beggar. His Guru, His Master, His God asked him to beg and so he became a “beggar.”
When Ramana followed by Aurobindo, passed away, Ramsuratkumar thought that he should open himself to the remaining sole savior Ramdas. In 1952, he arrived again at Ramdas’s ashrams; only this time Ramdas turned out to be an entirely different person. Truman writes,
It is interesting to note that when he arrived the third time the holy man was actually awaiting his arrival in expectation and greeted him just as a father would have received his own son.
Ma Devaki writes in YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR -THE DIVINE BEGGAR, published by Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, July 2008,
According to Sri Yogiji, the four years of tutelage under Sri Aurobindo and Maharishi Ramana were a period of ceaseless transformation of the human into the divine - a period of construction of all that was conducive, destruction of all that was dross and sublimation of all into greater and greater awakening. His days see-sawed between heights of ecstasy and depths of gloom.
When finally the Yogi came to Ramdas,
He was already a ripe fruit needing but a gentle tap from the Siddha of Kerala (Ramdas) for final consummation with God. Now a divine madness, bordering sometimes on the vestiges of insanity, gripped him uncontrollably. Yogi Ramsuratkumar laughed and wept, sang and danced and yet other times sat still as a stone or rolled on the ground, ecstatically overwhelmed by beatific surges of divine consciousness.
For many years Ramdas had secretly worked on the disciple to accustom his body gradually to higher rates of vibration. Then Ramdas initiated him into the repetition of the Ram Mantra. What was to transpire immediately was a vivification of the centers or Chakras of the inner man, a radical elimination of all impurities and a sudden influx of energy directed through the master and accompanied by a release of latent spiritual fire within the disciple. The initiation would throw him into the cosmic dimensions of the divine mind and open doors to fields of activity and realms of consciousness hitherto unknown to him.
When the initiation was complete Swami Ramdas remained silent for a moment and then said, “Go and repeat this mantra day and night all the twenty four hours.”
S. Parthasarathy has given a very elaborate account of Yogi’s life in his book, BIOGRAPHY OF YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR - THE GODCHILD OF TIRUVANNAMALAI (AMARAKAVIYAM). Without adopting any rituals and not leaning on any traditional conditioned customs of the religion, Ram Surat Kunwar (the Yogi’s original name) braved his path with the pure faith upon his Guru and reached the other shore safely. Parthasarathy writes,
In later years Yogi Ramsuratkumar said “Nobody can love this beggar like my Father Swami Ramdas and nobody can torture this beggar like my Father Swami Ramdas. My Father killed this beggar because He loved this beggar. This beggar died at the holy lotus feet of my father Swami Ramdas in the year 1952. After that my Father alone exists and not this beggar. This name Yogi Ramsuratkumar is not this beggar’s name; it is the name of my Father. Father would always shower his grace on the people who remember this name.
In WAVES OF LOVE published by Yogi Ramsuratkumar Bhavan Mauritius, 2009, the yogi is quoted,
“Swami (Ramdas) has killed this beggar, but life has come. Millions and millions of salutations at the lotus feet of my Master, Swami Ramdas! He has initiated this beggar in Ram Nam and has asked to chant it all the twenty-four hours. This beggar began to do it and in the space of a week, this beggar has this madness. The same madness still continues.”
Truman writes,
In the course of only seven days and seven nights the yogi made the great exodus from the kingdom of man to the kingdom of God. The latent forces released within him combined with the power of the master whipped him out of bondage into limitless freedom and from the mists of human intelligence into the luminous consciousness of the divine mind.
Ramsuratkumar left the home of his master for Tiruvannamalai but only arrived at Tiruvannamalai after seven long years having wandered the length and breadth of India.
As we are often reminded, at https://amarastrand.com we see a similar reminder, "Attachment to phenomena, spiritual or otherwise, will impede our unfolding. Let it pass through you…it is a force that is tuning your various bodies to be able to transmit and hold a very clear and powerful frequency or energy signature." I too fought the "force", not wanting it to take control of me and my life, and for various other reasons too. Today I have given in for I realize even "me and my life" does not belong to "me." Lord Muruga had to come through the Nadi to ask me to step aside and watch. My wife too has been asked to just watch the unfoldment take place. If that is his wish we shall then comply.