It is almost 18 years since I went for my very first Nadi reading, here in Malaysia itself, a reading that was to change me and my life and that of my family and friends too. Agathiyar in that reading revealed about me, my family, career, and went on to reveal my past birth. He also spoke about the future that was written for me. He gave me remedies to carry out. This he said will flatten the curve. Yes just as researchers are talking about flattening the curve as in the number of incidences and cases reported in the current COVID-19 pandemic, Agathiyar gave us remedies to satisfy the needs of the divine law in place that states we reap what we sow. He came to recommend ways to counter or cushion the effects of our past karma with minimum injury, suffering, misery, and ailment to us. He then threw all the sacred scriptures and books to us and asks that we follow the countless virtues and morals that are ascribed in them This helps dampen the force and velocity of the negative nature in us and propels the positive to greater heights, overshadowing the evil in us. This accounts for the first two lessons or areas that need our immediate attention, Yama and Niyama, restraints or ethics of behavior, and observances, respectively, as listed in the eight limbs of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. Meanwhile, he had me meet my very first guru in physical form at the end of my maiden pilgrimage to India to carry out the said remedies. Supramania Swami ignited and lighted the lamp of devotion towards the guru, which was a new subject for someone who knew only worship to the deities.
Agathiyar waited three years to see if I followed his dictates before coming forth with my second Nadi reading. Soon, as said, he came through the Nadi at the exact moment Tavayogi Thangarasan of Kallar Ashram was in town. He told me to take initiation from him. Another journey began that of walking the path of the Siddhas, with Tavayogi literally taking me to the abodes and caves of the Siddhas in the jungles of India. Tavayogi then taught us the third and fourth aspects of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, Asana, and Praṇayama, physical postures, and control of the prana or breath respectively in 2008, after we cornered him to teach us.
In 2011 Agathiyar asks to stop doing all forms of practices as it had unleased energies within. With the opening of the chakras and by revitalizing them, the dosas in the body had aggravated and went off-balance. It was a period of partial hibernation for me with only puja and charity going on, as opposed to the full lockdown or hibernation in the years between 1988 and 2001, where for 13 solid years I had abstained from all forms of worship and religious learnings and questioning, a command that came through Lord Siva in a dream. Siva saved the day for otherwise, I would have gone cuckoo then with so many questions and doubts in me and so many inconsistencies between the scriptures and what we saw in reality.
Recently Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal came to revive the Asanas and Pranayama that Tavayogi taught earlier and asked to worship the light within. They have brought us to the fifth limb of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, Pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses and asking us go beyond, by going within, engaging further in the finer and subtle stages of Yoga namely Dharaṇa or concentration; and Dhyana or meditation. The journey traveling the path of Patanjali that is initially an external one working on the body, habits, character, etc is a forward journey. Patanjali then takes us on a reverse path, or a return journey now moving inwards, from the body towards the soul, that BKS Iyengar terms as the true renunciation, contrary to the common belief and understanding of renouncing the world and all in it. Our thoughts, perspectives, and understanding changes as we journey within. We still live in this world but see things differently. We are not disturbed by all that takes place knowing the world to be a stage and us actors playing a role in it. They sit back and watch the movie that goes by on the big white widescreen of life. Finally, if we manage to enter these stages of inner absorption, Patanjali shows the way to Samadhi or absorption, that of knowing and realizing the seed of consciousness. He shows the way how one can reach the abode of the soul forever so that all the actions he performs in the world, will not create a counter-reaction, hence severing the fine thread of birth and rebirth. Hence the journey ends here says Tavayogi in a phrase he wrote in his book "Andamum Pindamum" when I asked for his autograph: ஆண்டவன் உரைகின்ற இடம் தங்கள் உள்ளம். அதுவே பயணத்தின் தொடக்கமும் முடிவும். God resides within you in your heart. This is both the starting and ending point of the journey.
The "curve" researchers are talking about refers to the projected number of people who will contract COVID-19 over a period of time. (To be clear, this is not a hard prediction of how many people will definitely be infected, but a theoretical number that's used to model the virus' spread.) (Source: https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-flatten-the-curve.html)
As is said that "The faster the infection curve rises, the quicker the local health care system gets overloaded beyond its capacity to treat people", similarly the effects of our karma is spaced out over several births so that we are able to shoulder just the right amount in each life without crumbling, breaking apart or burning out. For those who willingly intend and wish to hasten the process, they go through much suffering, willingly without complaint. The Yogis and saints are known to take on major illnesses without treating them. If it looks like we suffer the most, embrace yourself and tell yourself that God loves you and wants you back in his arms.