RENDERING THINGS PLIABLE

When our thoughts are disturbed nothing we do will turn out right. When we are disturbed and confused even a Nadi reading will not turn right. This goes for the reader too. Similarly, when we are disturbed or distracted, no initiation from the guru will serve its purpose said the divine. The solution is for us to sort out all our problems on hand and come back with an attitude of total surrender. The solution is not in the Nadi, not with the guru and not another person be it a best friend or colleague. The solution only dawns when we sit in quietude and reflect on the problem. The divine within us will come to our aid then. In these moments of solitude, everything will be made crystal clear. Its time we quit blamming others for our shortcomings and failures and start looking withing for the resons and answers.

Using the power of the Infinity Stones, Thanos believes he can ultimately save the universe by wiping out half of its population, thinking it would solve probems. 

Why might halving a population make the world a better place? Here on Earth, human overpopulation has been blamed for many of our biggest problems. For mankind, that includes pandemics, starvation and access to clean, fresh water. For the planet, that means pollution, climate change and the collapse of biodiversity.

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos explains that his home world of Titan faced similar problems, leading to a global catastrophe, which is why he feels compelled to 'save' the cosmos from the same fate -- by reducing its population. If we imagine overpopulation as a disease, rather than fighting symptoms such as climate change, why not treat the underlying cause: people?

(Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2018/04/30/avengers-infinity-war-overpopulation)

Similarly many take it upon themselves to correct the wrong. Some think by exposing and unveiling the fake holy man, they are doing others a favor. But the divine has other plans. It created and set everything in motion numerous laws to carry out the many functions and keep tab on them and took a back seat and took delight in watching his creation spin, expand and evolve.  

Many a time we realized that our judgment of people and events were wrong in the eyes of Agathiyar. He seemed to approve what we thought was wrong. We shut up after that not daring to speak about other's matters and how they managed them. Today we have come to accept things knowing that it all happens for a reason only known to him.

Does that mean that we let it take place? No. Just as when he reveals the reasons for our sufferings he takes us to our past and goes through the catalog of our past records and files to identify the source and cause of it; so is it with treatment where he goes within and identifies the root cause of the disease or illness, what Agathiyar says is not to have a direct confrontation but to work on the cause. 

Hence penance, atonements, and remedies came to be done. In cases where there is no avenue for us to directly engage ourselves we seek the aid of the divine, through prayers. From https://en.wikipedia.org/ we learn that:

The Dharmasastras list many types of Prāyaścitta or penance. These include:

• Abhiśasta (public confession): a person visits homes as a beggar, seeks forgiveness, confesses his crime and asks for food.

• Anutāpa (repentance): a person loathes the evil he did, reminds and repeats to himself "I shall not do that again".

• Prāṇāyāma (restraint of breath): a person does breath control exercises similar to yoga.

• Tapas: a person performs austerity such as celibacy, wearing wet clothes till they dry on his body, sleeping on ground or fasting.

• Homa: a fire sacrifice accompanied with kusmanda mantras.

• Japa: muttering Vedic prayers, either audibly, inaudibly or mentally.

• Dāna: giving away gifts such as cow, horse, land, butter, sesame seeds and food to the needy.

• Upavāsa or Vratas: restricting one's diet, such as by eating bland foods or small quantity as a self reminder of penance, sometimes with vows. These are the most common form of penance prescribed in Dharma texts of Hinduism.

• Tirtha (pilgrimages): going on foot to distant pilgrimage sites, or to bathe in holy rivers.

These will help soften and make the problems pliable and easy to handle rather than go face on and meet the tough mountain. The way of the Tao speaks of this too.

Today we understand why there are so many ways, means, approaches and doctrines and teachings of the one subject we all adore - God. The reason is each is based on a revelation or experience of an individual where those around him/ her seeing the wisdom in him/ her parade his ideas and ideology. Along the way, there is bound to be adulteration and add ons to his/ her sermons, alterations in the texts etc. But at the core of it all lies love for God. Agathiyar's stand in this has been "Let it be."

Ramalinga Adigal on charting out the many levels on the soul's journey finally admits that there are many more stages that cannot be described. He hesitates to talk about it. We understand why. When we cannot figure out and envision the many stages he has described before hitting that point that cannot be described, if we are struggling and attempting to conceive the inconceivable as of this stages, how can we understand these higher levels. When Tavayogi repeats the same thing over and over again in all his sermons, he tells me that we are not listening, hence the need to keep repeating. When Agathiyar tells us that we have been taking numerous births, again and again, listing out some of this to us, he is telling us subtly that we did not listen before.

We can gauge ourself as to where we stand on this ladder as defined and explained by Ramalinga Adigal in his collection of writings in the Arutpa, further simplified and brought to us by Dr.C.Srinivasan in his "The Philosophy of Ramalinga Swami", Ilakkia Nilayam, Tiruchi (1968).

For the proper understanding of Uiranubavam, the achievement of the soul in the human body, one has to know the various stages of spiritual experiences.  

• Human beings leading a mundane life, without even a thought of its transient nature, are said to be in the normal wakefulness Jeevasakram.  They are alert only for trivial things; they are cautious for the acquisition of wealth, gold or land, of women and wine and of name and fame by all means indiscriminate.  There are two more stages in this kind of imperfect indulgences such as Jeevasorpanam, normal dreaming, and Jeevasuzhuthi, normal ignorance at sleep.  

• The domain of the spiritualist is Suddhasakram perfect wakefulness.  He is conscious of the real and the unreal and the transitory nature of the world. The worldly things, are nothing to him.  He is really aware of the momentary nature of life and of the ever-existing supreme deity.  When this perfect wakefulness is saturated in him he is able to visualize the existence of the Lord Supreme.  

• The next stage in the perfected line of ascent is Suddhasorpanam, perfect dream.  The aspirant of this experience will be in his dreamland of God and Godly things.  He will be dreaming to see the lotus feet of the Lord and feeling an inseparable union with His feet in his untiring search for him.  

• Gradually he enters into the stage of Suddhasuzhithi, perfect and conscious ignorance.  At this stage, the aspirant is not aware of anything except God.  

• The next stage is Suddhathuriam, perfect experience of the dawn of sparks.  The lust and the veil which have been covering the soul hitherto for generations by the influence of the impure devil power, Asuddhamaya are shed one after another and the soul is gradually cleansed by the sparks emanating from the Supreme Light of Grace.  The soul is bound by the shackles of Purusha.  However, the melting mood and the spontaneous impulse of love for God, overwhelm the aspirant.  

• The next stage of higher wakefulness, Parasakram is supposed to pave the way for the sphere of heavenly experiences in the ladder of ascent in the pursuit of the Divine.  The mind and its four different aspects at this stage of supra-mental awareness are alert and conscious of only the Supreme God and His Grace.  At this moment the aspirant does now know whether he is conscious of anything other than his Divine pursuit.  

• The next stage Parasorpanam, supra-mental dream, places the aspirant in the dream of enjoying the Grace of the Lord.  This feeling of ecstasy leads him to the next stage of ..

• Parasuzhuti, supramental unknowing where the majority of the shackles are removed by the Grace of the Lord. This stage may either lead him to the next higher stage of ..

• Parathuriyam, supra-mental perfection where he visualizes the sparks of the Divine Grace. The experience of Parathuriyam is by itself the tasting of God albeit it is not ultimate. The entelechy of the soul at this stage depends not only upon the extent of penance, devotion, and incessant love for the Lord but also upon the level of compassion, sacrifice and scrupulous service to all the living organisms indiscriminately, human or non-human. The soul is charged with Divine Grace and it is conscious of nothing but the glory of the Supreme Grace.  God is so merciful as to remove the shackles of the aspirant in order to exhibit the real nature of His Sublime Grace.  When the aspirant is able to visualize the inestimable magnitude of His Grace, he is naturally able to realize his smallness.  The Swami explains that whenever he is able to perceive of, he is conscious of the Divine and whenever he is unable to perceive of, he becomes one with the Divine extricating the egoistic self. Since the veil of the diabolic power which has so far concealed the virtual greatness of the soul, has begun to disintegrate, the soul is able to see for itself its own true color and luster.  This is spoken of as self-realization.  Now the soul besides being immersed in an unprecedented ecstatic delight realizes its own true nature.  In the words of the Swami, the soul is in the form of an atomic particle several million times as brilliant as the Sun. 

• The next higher stage of Sivasakram or Gurusakram and subsequent stages are governed by the Grace of the Lord Supreme.  The possibility of enjoying these divine stages depends upon the extent of the descent of Grace in the soul.  There are thousands of verses yearning for the Grace to pervade in him.  The sanction is not so simple as it appears.   It was perhaps miraculously easy for the Swami to be blessed with all these experiences.  Many souls of this world have attained this stage and only a few could ascend further.  Most of them were either overpowered by the extra-ordinary brilliance of the soul and mistook it for the brilliance of the Supreme Grace or were disappointed by their inability to proceed further.  At this stage, the aspirant is able to perceive the Supreme Grace in the form of light.  This is the secret of this philosophy.  The descent of divinity in the individual is gradually profuse.  There are three forms of Supreme Light which will beneficially act upon the human body of the purified soul for the infusion of Grace.  The tremendous power of the Sun is offered to fill in through the eyes of the enabling aspirant to do all wonders at will.  The Supreme Light of Grace dawns in the sanctified intellect of the aspirant empowering him to disseminate the soothing principles of Grace.  The illumination of a higher power called Parai is disbursed in the mind of the aspirant enriching him to gain supremacy in the domain of the Supreme Grace. These three different kinds of rays supply the necessary energy for divine photosynthesis in alchemizing the fundamental elements of the human frame in which the perfected soul is enshrined.  The soul is saturated with compassion and the body appears to be an incarnation of immeasurable love for the living - not to speak of human beings.  This transcendent body of the aspirant is supposed to experience real divine life Uiranubavam and it is called Suddhadeham purified body or golden body or body of love.  It may be clearly understood that the experience of divine life in the purified body is known as Uiranubavam.  This experience is realized in the highly elevated sphere of the soul at this esteemed stage, in the supernatural purified body.  The achievements of the soul at this stage are many.  The foremost is the transformation of the impure body, into a pure body.  The experience of the soul in this body makes the aspirant love incarnate.  In other words, the aspirant visualizes the universality of love in all fellow beings.  He realizes the oneness of life in all living organisms; he is able to see a fraction of Divinity in all live creatures in the form of a spark of light, that is life in them. A little harm done to any living organism of the universe wounds him very much.  He is pained to see even the withering of a plant for want of water.  As by now, all his senses are capable of perceiving everything regardless of space and time he is worried all the more.  Since he is realizing his own self, he becomes eligible to visualize his smallness and the greatness of the Lord Supreme.  Unless one sees within himself his true nature, he cannot - nay - will not understand the reality and greatness of the omnipotent and omnipresent God.  As he has by now conquered all the elements and their influences, his own mind, space, time and the like, he is above all the thatvas and sees the reality of his soul. The more he realizes his smallness the more he sees the greatness of God in him as a result of which he is delighted.  The aspirant is able to feel the inestimable love of God, the spontaneous flow of Grace for him, if only he prepares the ground for Him to descend.  The love of the individual for God and the manifestation of God in all living things is automatically reciprocated and sublimated as Supreme Grace of Mercy, as God Himself is absolute love. In fact, the Swami goes a step further to point out that it is only the love of God that has alchemized his body and brought him all bliss and eternal happiness.  Love of God is not only the means for the realization of God but is an end in itself as God is love.  Above all, at this stage, the aspirant is able to see with his own eyes the Lord Supreme in such a form for which he has become eligible to receive and bear.  The brilliance of the Lord is so inexplicably intense and powerful that the aspirant should have made his body and senses so perfect as to receive Him.  Unless there is such a divine perfection of the individual there cannot be the seeing or descent of God in him.  The argument is very simple for those who wish to see God.  Unless one has seen one’s self one can never see God and unless one has become perfect in everything one is ineligible even to bear the presence of God.  What will happen to the sensual body and the vicious eye even before an incandescent arc lamp of several million watts power?  To move in such a tremendous speed in a sputnik, man has to put on protective armor lest he should be blown to pieces.  In the words of Swami, the brightness of God Supreme is measured in terms of several million times and more the brilliance of the sun, the moon and the universal fire put together. We are concerned with the experiences of the Swami at this level and he says that he was tempted to embrace the Supreme God. The external embrace is possible only at this stage.  It is only here that the aspirant is enjoying Supreme Grace. At this and ..

• subsequent higher stages we transcend and enter into ecstatic delight.  These stages are beyond human perception as we are attempting to conceive the inconceivable, to realize the unrealizable and apprehend the inapprehensible.  The aspirant is already endowed with such a purified mind and body that the Grace of the Lord Supreme is incessantly filling in his mortal frame.  He, therefore, with infusing power and cosmic strength is able not only to visualize but pierce through his onward march to and into the Supreme God and Godhood. 

"Now I am afraid, that I am exceeding my limits and daring the tread on the Divine path which can by no means be imagined. The sacred book of the divine song of Grace, Tiruarutpa and the very strong conviction that I am led by the Will of the God Supreme, strengthen my nerves to proceed in this endeavor. The stages of spiritual experiences enlisted so far are of one kind. Still higher stages are heavenly. Here the mind fails to conceive and all the senses cease to function. Austerity and penance of the highest order are needed for the ascent of the soul not only to get at the descent of the Divine Grace but for its accumulation further and further in the gnostic pursuit.", writes Sreenivasan of the journey ahead. 

• At the next stage of Sivasorpanam or Gurusorpanam, Supreme dream - the aspirant dreams of the divine embrace if at all he poses to sleep. 

• The next is Sivasuluthi, supreme tranquillity where the soul is neither conscious of its own self nor ignorant of it.  Here the Supreme Grace flows into the body of the aspirant more and more and the enlightened body prepares itself for the next higher sublime stage of ..

• Sivathuriam or Guruthuriam. The plane of experiences becomes transcendent.  The Swami discloses that his body has by then been transformed into Pranavadeham or body of Grace. The stages of experiences are divine.  At this stage, he could visualize the God Supreme fully and merge with the Supreme-Grace-Light.  The enjoyment of the Supreme Light is the experiences of this stage. This effulgent stage is again very high.  It is beyond the reach of most of the so-called great saints and seers.  The Swami himself points out that this stage was attained by a few great souls like Muthuthandavar, Thathuvarayar and the like.  The irresistible bliss of this stage had engulfed the seers and they were perhaps, satisfied with the excessive happiness of this stage and even felt it to be the consummation of their goal. He feels diffident to express his feelings of ecstatic delight of this and still higher stages.  But their consecration was exceedingly high and they were permitted to enjoy the ultimate and eternal happiness of all the six divine paths such as Suddha Siddhanatham, Suddha Vedantham, Suddha Nadantham, Suddha Kalantham and Suddha Bhodantham.  It is only at this level the divine aspirant gets Samarasa Suddha Sanmargam, the divine objective of the Swami.  The realization of this gnostic stage permits the aspirant into the threshold of Sanmargam where alone the conquest of death is possible.  The Swami has set forth the truth of experiencing the exuberant bliss at this stage of Sivathuriam as  Sanmargam. He has been benevolent enough to explain the splendor and glory of the extremely effulgent stages as ..

• Suddhasivasakram and so on.  These extra-ordinarily supreme stages have been explained for the first time only by the Swami.  He has emphatically narrated the Supreme Bliss of his being in the kingdom of God Supreme. 

In https://www.world-religions-professor.com/tao.html we get to understand the reason Ramalinga stops at that without further elaboration.

The first line of the most important text in Taoism expresses the difficulty in describing or defining the supreme ultimate. "The Tao that is said to be the Tao is not the Tao; the Name that is said to be the Name is not the Name." In other words, we cannot describe it in language. It cannot be reduced to words or concepts - it is infinite, mysterious, and exceeds all words no matter how poetic.  

Dr Srivasan continues on the further stages with hesitation too.

At the happy realization of this resplendent stage of Sivathuriam in which the aspirant has been transformed into a Godly being with concentrated Divine Grace, his body is known as Pranavadeham, body of Grace - a stage in which the God Supreme has found a perfect place to dance or rather a body wherein the Supreme Grace has flowed.  At this stage, a complete union of the aspirant with the Supreme God in and out is fructified.  The Swami feels diffident to express the tremendous feeling of the ecstatic delight of this state.   But he has given expression to this stage that it is the Supreme bliss throughout and the Supreme Lord harmoniously integrates with the aspirant.  Only the chosen gifted souls enter into this realm of this really eternal bliss.  Many could not reach this stage and hence have become stagnant then and there at different levels of attainments.  Many are lost in the Bliss.  However, a few being overpowered by the Bliss imbibing the Grace remain here itself.  Fewer still enjoying the Bliss more and more and being charged with saturated Supreme Grace evolve further and further.  The next higher stage of this Godhood is spoken of as Suddhasivasakram - Absolute Supreme Consciousness.   The most celestial subsequent stages are Suddha Siva Sorpanam, Suddha Siva Suzhuthi, Suddha Siva Thuriam and Suddha Siva Thuriadeetham.  

Ramalinga Adigal "says that he has tasted the bliss of all the sixteen stages contemplated by the Vedas by the permutation and combination of the four paths such as Devotion, Action, Meditation, and Wisdom one after another and attained higher and truer perfection with the aid of the Supreme Grace, besides the ultimate goal of all the six heavenly avenues such as Vedantham, Siddhantham and so on, (Suddha Siddhanatham, Suddha Vedantham, Suddha Nadantham, Suddha Kalantham and Suddha Bhodantham) leading to Divinity.  He has further given an exposition of his admittance into Sanmargam by the bounteous and boundless descent of the auspicious Supreme Being in him which has resulted in his immortality. He has specifically defined and repeatedly sworn that his path is Sanmargam in which the aspirant becomes immortal."

The outwitting accomplishment of this supramental and transcendent stage, a stage which cannot be conceived of by human intellect and endeavour unless with a tinge of Divine Grace, a stage which is beyond the reach of many seekers due to either subjective or objective shortcomings, a stage which has to be attained by the devout aspirant but with the sublime sanction of the Supreme Grace, is the Divine embrace of the Lord Supreme. This holy embrace is characterised by the Swami as external merger of the Divine.

All these absolutely supreme stages are explained by the Swami for the first time as enjoyed by him. In all of them the merging of the Supreme Godhead is explicitly declared. The highest stage in this Sanmarga philosophy is the most sublime and most supreme where the Swami unites with the Supreme Godhead. The most superior Divinity merges in him fully and completely. The ecstatic bliss overwhelms him perpetually.  

There are several verses explaining the eternal union and communion of the Supreme God.  

"The Lord Supreme who has established a fondling abode in me got Himself not only merged in me but got me merged in Him.  He became one with me.  He became Himself realized in me.  The supremely sweet Lord dancing in the arena of pure knowledge and wisdom is in me in a state of blissful ambrosia."

Hence we understand why Agathiyar told us to Let it be. Do not argue. Do not enter a confrontation. But yet we tend to hold on to words, concepts, doctrine, text, scriptures, etc, willing to give our lives to protect it, defending these ideologies and words.

So, when we describe or define it, we are merely approximating it - not encapsulating it in its essence or totality. Thus, we cannot become rigid or dogmatic about it, its qualities, nature or workings. We cannot know it intellectually or analytically; however, we can discern or intuit its presence and workings by developing certain virtues within us and following certain practices in our lives. (Source: https://www.world-religions-professor.com/tao.html )

When we progress we tend to drop our earlier understanding of things and matters, we tend to drop our love and attachment for certain things moving on to grab new ones. This is all part of evolvement. But it doesn't mean that all those in the past were wrong. We needed those to experience certain values that we seeked to learn in life. Knowing this we need not carry the feeling of guilt that we have wronged. For both individuals had agreed upon to come to work out this play and the divine has sanctioned it.

We understand now that there are many souls waiting to enter a physical body of their choice, through the process of taking human birth. Although initially the physical body is required to house and carry the soul, with one's yearning, effort and the divine's grace, the soul grows and begins to bring change in the very body that it dwells in akin to one moving into a new home and with the passing of time and accumulation of material wealth takes to renovate the home to accommodate the needs of its occupants. The soul prepares the body for Erai's entry. As the prime minister stands alongside, but slightly to the back of the king, who occasionally turns slightly to whisper to him, and as Agathiyar stood beside Lord Muruga, and slightly to the back of him at Carey Island, so too the soul stands alongside but slightly at the back of the divine that comes to reside momentarily initially and then for good, in one's body.