When I came to the path it was shrouded in mystery. Many kept it a secret close to their heart. But some chose to reveal and share. Ramalinga Adigal was one. Slowly I could see that I was experiencing things mentioned in his Arutpa. I could relate to the verses in his Tiruarutpa. His experience became mine too. This was confirmed in the Nadi by Agathiyar and the Siddhas in various instances. I was elated to know that the divine chose to elevate this miserable soul to his side. And to think that it all started with me heeding the words of Agathiyar and starting the home puja.
Although Erai is beyond form, for our purpose we chose to see Erai with form. The masters and gurus then depicted Erai with a form that they either saw or that came to them. These then took visual forms as in a painting or an idol. The form is then justified with inner meanings and rituals or ways to worship drawn up. Then the cloning and duplicating began with slight variations until someone else had another entirely new vision. The moment he takes a form that is similar to the human form there is a need to see his daily needs are met with just as we attend to our guest. Hence the rituals of inviting the deity, washing the feet, quenching their thirst, giving a bath, dressing them up in clean fresh cloth or attire, serving food to appease their hunger and putting them to bed and waking them up the next morning are required. This is exactly what is being done in the temples too, where a specific time is allocated for their visit and the public too comes to receive their darshan and blessings. Although we know that Erai cannot be limited to time and space, our ancestors have derived a way to bring the divine within the reach of the commoner through these means.
Siva Sri AP Muthukumara Sivachariar, a disciple of Chitramuthu Adigal and contemporary of Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal has listed the SOP involved in invoking the deities both at home in his book "Illa Vazhipaadu" and in the temples through his audio cassette "Temple Worship." His books and talks served as a guide for me too when I started daily home puja and temple worship in the eighties.
He went on to rebuild the Sri Maha Maariamman temple with intent to correct certain major flaws in the earlier temple but the divine providence brought him a better offer. The new temple today stands out at a new site, as the only granite structured temple at Bukit Rotan, a technique used and in the likes of the famed Breehadeshwar temple Tanjavur, the old temple giving way to road extensions.
He went on to rebuild the Sri Maha Maariamman temple with intent to correct certain major flaws in the earlier temple but the divine providence brought him a better offer. The new temple today stands out at a new site, as the only granite structured temple at Bukit Rotan, a technique used and in the likes of the famed Breehadeshwar temple Tanjavur, the old temple giving way to road extensions.
Generally, seekers come to the master hoping that they will take notice of them and their knowledge in the scriptures, hoping to rub shoulders and have a seat beside the master. If the master invites you to have a seat beside him it is only to break you and your ego. Then the guru would put him to test, emptying him of all the knowledge accumulated over the years. The guru will fill him not with his knowledge or experience but will help the seeker build his own experience. Agathiyar came to us easily as vouched by Tavayogi. Tavayogi did mention that he had to leave his family, go in search of the divine, roam the streets, stay hungry for days, rush to look for shelter when it rains and finally gets to know him, while Agathiyar easily moved into our homes and our hearts.
When Agathiyar ask me to switch the lamp that I kept lit at home to one of clay, from the original brass kamatchi lamp, I could not comprehend the philosophy behind the need to worship a clay lamp, although Agathiyar stated it very briefly. Today I have come to realize its inner meaning: that the body is the clay that the lamp is made of; the soul is the oil or ghee that fills the vessel, and the wick is the thought of attaining a light body or merging with the source. As Tavyogi says we become the thought, we prepare the body or the clay lamp, making it fit to receive the soul or the oil, over the years. We work on the soul, gaining strength or Atma Balam, by taking in all of lifes experience. Then we wait for the master, guru or the divine to light the lamp of effulgence or jnana in us. The divine lights up the Jhoti in us, not unlike we striking a match to light it.
Both Agathiyar, through the Nadi, and Tavayogi, by showing us, gave us several techniques of breathing or pranayana and asanas or postures to help bring the body, mind and soul to a top form for the entry of the divine spark from whom we got separated. Having left his abode originally, the reunion takes place here where the divine spark merges within with the spark that we carried all along having worked on intensifying it through the numerous births. Simply said, the divine sent us off on a journal of gaining experience, to endure a period of separation and promised to come to meet us when the time was right to redeem us back to his kingdom.