In the beginning, in the nineties, I began to post my drawings on the web at indianheartbeat, as the originals were collecting dust. My initial entries were about Indian culture, arts, and dances. Returning from India in 2003 I had taken notes about my visit to the numerous temples which I shared. Soon I began to write about Agathiyar, the Siddhas, and my guru Supramania Swami of Tiruvannamalai. In 2005 after meeting Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal and going on another pilgrimage of a different kind, I posted my experiences with him. There were numerous websites where I hosted and posted these experiences. Soon I shifted to blogging in 2013 as it was easier to incorporate media.
As I had a calling from Agathiyar to come to his path, this blog carries the experiences I have had. This blog is solely meant to share my experiences coming to the path of the Siddhas. My intention in sharing is to introduce those who have yet to pick a path among the many wonderful paths and are deciding which way to go. I have seen the results. So have the many seekers, aspirants, and devotees of Agathiyar who came along on this journey with me.
As it is my journey and experiences, it need not conform to any particular rule or mold. Each individual on the spiritual path will have a varied experience although traveling together. Even if I was to walk with another side by side, his feet would touch the ground on a different spot from where I step. I might prick my feet on a thorn but he might avoid it. The only way we could have the same experience is if I carried him but then his perspective would vary from mine.
These posts are written for me to understand the path better. I am learning each day from the many revelations be it from the Siddhas and Erai, my gurus, saints, and sages, the many books that are brought to my attention and my previous Nadi revelations and those of others. The many experiences of others on the same path and the diversity in the ways and approaches and understanding, the respective tasks, and mission even to each individual all add on to my experiences that fill these pages. I thank all the contributors. Many a time a post is written after I meet my young buddies on the path. What results from our constructive conversations is expanded with references to the words of the saints and posted later. Let us journey together on this wonderful journey and exploration of the self.
These posts are written for me to understand the path better. I am learning each day from the many revelations be it from the Siddhas and Erai, my gurus, saints, and sages, the many books that are brought to my attention and my previous Nadi revelations and those of others. The many experiences of others on the same path and the diversity in the ways and approaches and understanding, the respective tasks, and mission even to each individual all add on to my experiences that fill these pages. I thank all the contributors. Many a time a post is written after I meet my young buddies on the path. What results from our constructive conversations is expanded with references to the words of the saints and posted later. Let us journey together on this wonderful journey and exploration of the self.
If experiences are said to be a result of fate that is decided by one's karma or past actions, the lessons we learn from these experiences make us wiser in dealing with worldly affairs. After coming to the path Agathiyar begins to give us varied experiences that would help our soul develop and grow, becoming wiser by the moment. The experience in going within brings knowledge of the subtle. These experiences and their associated knowledge bring us to see the world from a different perspective. We begin to engage with the soul. We begin to know our true selves. We shall begin to know the purpose of birth, and the reason we are here. If this revelation comes early we can set about doing what we came for. Only then can we say that we have served our purpose. If it comes late in life there might not be sufficient time and we might not have the energy to engage in our mission.
The saints and sages, Siddhas and Rishis searched for answers to this question too - "Who am I?", "Why am I here?" "What have I to do?"
What are the means to know these answers? Where do I look for the answers? If we have lost something in the dark we need to bring in the light and begin searching. Similarly, we have lost our true selves in the darkness of Maya. We need to bring in the torch and the light that is with someone who has traveled on the path before us. He is the Guru, dispeller of darkness, illusion, and Maya.
Sadhu Om a devout disciple of Bhagawan Ramana, shows us the way.
So long as we ask for a path to follow, the guru can only point us to the path of awareness (cit), ‘Attend to yourself’, or the path of happiness (ānanda) or love (priya), ‘Love God or guru, who is yourself’. What all jñānis have taught through words is only these two paths, jñāna and bhakti, self-enquiry and self-surrender. Even Dakshinamurti taught only these two paths so long as he was answering the questions of the four Sanakadi sages, but finally he had to merge back into himself in order to teach them how to merge within and just be, which is the path of being (sat), and which can be taught only through silence and not through words. This is why Bhagavan often said that silence is the highest teaching, and it is ever going on in our heart, because it is our real nature.
To learn what silence is always teaching us, we must turn our entire attention within, for which intense and all-consuming love is required. That is, without love (bhakti) we cannot follow the path of jñāna, which is the practice of attending only to ourself, and without attending keenly and persistently to ourself, we cannot learn what silence is always teaching us in our heart, which is just to be
Sadhu Om sums it up beautifully.
Therefore the path of love (priya or ānanda) culminates in self-attention, which is the path of cit, and self-attention results in just silently being, which is the path of sat. It is only through silence that our real nature can be made known to us.
True.
"As Bhagavan implies in verse five of Ēkāṉma Pañcakam (kaliveṇbā version): What always exists by its own light is only that ēkātma-vastu [one self-substance]. If at that time the ādi-guru [the original guru, Dakshinamurti] made that vastu known [by] speaking without speaking, say, who can make it known [by] speaking? Who has the power to elucidate this [by] speaking, when in ancient times [even] you [as Dakshinamurti] elucidated [it] without speaking?"
By trying to explain this wisdom, we are only giving form and figure, giving a name, giving expression to it.
And what Arunachala teaches us through silence is just to be - to stand still without rising as an ego to do anything by mind, speech or body - as Bhagavan says in verse 36 of Śrī Aruṇācala Akṣaramaṇamālai.
The path of being (sat) cannot be taught in words, because the nature of this path is no different to the nature of its goal, and since the goal is absolute silence, untainted by the rising of the ego, it can be made known only by silence. In other words, in this path there is nothing to be done, so there are no exercises that can be prescribed. In order just to be, the ego does not need to do anything, and must not do anything. All that is required of it is just to die: that is, to subside and disappear forever.
Hence we know the reason why saints time and again were told to sit quiet or Summa Eru and have asked us to do so too.
(Source: http://www.sriramana.org/ramanafiles/mountainpath/2017%20IV%20Oct.pdf)