When we are in the midst of soul talk in the past several posts, a cleaner picks up several books that her owner threw away and passed it to my daughter. She passes it to me. Now in my hands I have "Life of Sri Ramakrishna" and "The Power of Soul". What a timely entry. Books have always come in handy at the right time for me. When Segaran left for Yogananda's Ashram in Ranchi to become a monk he passed me a copy of Yogananda's "Autobiography of A Yogi" that introduced and gave me an insight on the lives of many saints, bringing me to explore more about their lives.
C. Norman Shealy in his foreword to Dr. Zhi Gang Sha's book "The Power of Soul", Atria Paperback, NY, 2009 wrote,
My insight for many years has been that love is the desire to help others. Indeed I sense that our most essential instinct is to assist others. Unfortunately some individuals have not felt nurtutered enough to allow this instinct to blossom.
True. I was one of these individuals where the plight of others never registered an effect on me. I would stay away from a dying man without even wanting to go near him; I would walk past a man begging on the street, not the least concerned for him; and I would eat the meat of the very chicken that I carried, petted and fed having raised them in our backyard.
Then it all changed when I went over for a Nadi reading, my very first. Agathiyar revealing the reasons for my problems, obstacles, illness etc brings me to do remedies that took the form of doing puja and rituals and conducting prayers besides carrying out acts of charity. I continued doing it even after the stipulated period was over, imbibing these acts into my daily life. Later I began and continue feeding the birds, "Pulligal" or Lonchura punctulata or commonly known as Pipit that came to my home the very day Agathiyar told me to feed them, to this day.
Sadly many follow what has been stipulated in the Nadi by Agathiyar and stop at that without taking it as a cue to continue these noble and charitable acts. Man - the day he recovers, forgets Erai. Man - the day his life changes for the better forgets Erai.
When I met Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal first at a local affiliation of his Agathiyar Gnana Peedham in Batu Caves he showed me photos of poor native children whom he fed at his ashram and invited me over to his ashram in India. I took up the invitation arriving at his ashram after a month of his departure back to India. He arranged to feed the people when I asked to carry out a feeding session. We shopped together for the vegetables and groceries. He picked the goods, filled it in a sack and threw it over his shoulder and walked away heading for the car. He called over Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar who was Mrs. Sarojini then, from her hometown to help out with the cooking. It was truly satisfying to see the smile and laughter and the spark in the eyes of the kids who had turned up to savor the food.
Back at the office, I had Mrs. Rasidah Abu Bakar feed us all. She used to take orders to cook food for our office events. She would always give more than requested for the price. At times we would keep eating till evening and even pack it home. She would take the trouble to cook vegetarian for the only solo vegetarian there - me. Once as we traveled back home from work, as she used to carpool with me, she told me that she was blessed by the almighty in many ways. "When I give more I received more", saying thus she shared her secret.
Soon I would buy food, taking it to the office and share it with my colleagues. I shall leave it at the pantry for any hungry soul who drops by. I would delight in seeing them savor the food.
Then I began to pass on packaged food and drinks and fruits to the garbage collector, the drain cleaners, the grass cutters and other workers who come by my house. With the coming of Bala Chandran and his schoolmates to AVM, we began to feed and furnish groceries to the orphanages and old folks homes. When I came to know Sri Krishna, I joined him in street feeding that jolted me out of my senses. There were hundreds of homeless and hungry sleeping under the open sky. When we took off from where Vintha left in feeding the poor in the PPR flats we were surprised to know that there were still many who went by with only one meal a day, where children were put to sleep early so that they would not need to be fed another meal and did not have even the very basic needs like water and electricity as they could not afford to pay the utility bills and many more. There was a multitude of problems that these single mothers and grannies encountered, besides having to work and also manage the kids. Most householders had to care for the sick, disabled and mentally and physically challenged too.
Seeing those on the streets and visiting the homes of the poor and unfortunate brought us to never complain about our shortcomings. We are indeed blessed to have a roof over us, a vehicle to travel in, good health, can afford the best medical attention, have a job that pays well. Many do not have these.
The acts of "nurturing, serving and helping others" brings great joy and satisfaction. Besides these acts going a long way to "assist in dissolving our karma, it empowers us to shape our destiny and our lives" says Norman. Agathiyar set us on a course to carry out various acts or tasks that slowly worked on dissolving our negative karma (hence changing our fate) besides enhancing the positive. These positive acts and its merits, with the grace of the divine, began to work out a new destiny for us. We have come to shape our lives. Soon we would be masters of our destiny rather than being a puppet. If we were marionettes that were moved by the strings attached to them, these strings are snipped the moment we come to the fold of the Siddhas. The Siddhas give us the liberty to be free to explore and gain experiences that in turn become lessons from which dawns Jnana or divine knowledge that shall explain all that needs to be known.
Walking us through his 5 tenets for life and its purpose, that brings us to rise about our karma and the hold of the tatvas on our physical body, Agathiyar now takes us to the study of the soul.
Malar who in her own words, "Anna i was reading the blog again..that day i read but forget to jot down important notes. Rereading again. Appo than ithu ennathu parthen. Anna ennaku inthe line puriyale. Could you explain to me? சன்மார்க்கம் நன்மார்க்கம் நன்மார்க்கம் சகமார்க்கம் துன்மார்க்கம் துன்மார்க்கம்.
I gave my understanding of it. Then she shared Mahindran's understanding, "எம்மார்க்கமும் துன்மார்க்கம் அல்ல சகமார்க்கமும் சன்மார்க்கம் அடைந்தால் நன்மார்க்கம் ஆகுமே." All the teachings and experience has come to Mahindran as this verse. Looks like I cannot make a living no more with so many budding novices in the AK family blooming and flowering into intellectuals and Jnanis. But it brings me great pride and joy to see them grow into great atmas. Mahin, Malar, Suren, and Rajah to name a few are turning into great receptors to receive and pass on the words of Agathiyar. It makes me so happy.
Walking us through his 5 tenets for life and its purpose, that brings us to rise about our karma and the hold of the tatvas on our physical body, Agathiyar now takes us to the study of the soul.
Norman says, "the soul is the door to divine light, to assisting us in creating and experiencing enligtenment" adding that we are giant piezoelectric crystals that are capable of receiving, storing and sending electromagnetic energy." If we call it an initiation Dr. Zhi Gang Sha calls it Divine Soul Download. Lord Muruga is known to download the software into us, as many in the AVM and later ATM family can testify. The password that starts the download is "I Surrender". The moment one verbally announces his surrender to the divine, the divine download begins though he wants us to be ready to receive it for otherwise it would be wasteful. Ruzbeh asks us to bring the cosmic energy down within us into our causal body that will see the physical body heal immediately.
Dr. Zhi Gang Sha says "Soul enlightenment is the final destiny of one's spiritual journey." We should not rest on our laurels but move to bring everyone to the status of an enlightened being. "To enlighten humanity is the direction of the divine for service to humanity. To enlighten humanity is to uplift the soul standing of every human being." He is then a Jeevan Mukta.