Life before coming to the Siddhas was confusing. We did not have answers to why we suffered. They tell us it's the result of our past actions or karma. We could not decide even on trivial matters. They tell us to trust ourselves in these decisions for they are the ones guiding us. We lived in fear of dangers lurking, old age, illness, and death. They tell us what is there that is ours to fear having to lose them. We began to grasp and hold on to organizations even those related to him and engaged in doing his work. He made us break that attachment and hold and release us from becoming captives of our own making and desires. If earlier we worked our brain out in coming up with programs and plans, he made them for us and made us work towards its success without having us take credit for its results.
After dropping Sariyai and Kriyai, Agathiyar set us on the path of Yoga and Gnana, asking us to bring future seekers at Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM) to meditation or Dynam. He changed its role and name to that of Gnanakottam. As for Sri Krishna who engages devotees in their feeding program Pothihai Tharma Chakram, Agathiyar has now moved them up the ladder too, asking him to bring seekers gathered at Agathiyar Universal Mission (AUM) to Yama and Niyama first before teaching Yoga asanas and pranayama. Both AVM and AUM seem to be the two eyes of Agathiyar where he brings us under his scrutiny and watchful eyes, monitoring and guiding us along. Can we possibly take the leap from a life full of activity, puja, rituals, dharma, feeding, etc to go within and sit in solitary? Henry Wei in his book "The Guiding Light of Lao Tzu, Synergy Books International like Agathiyar hints that it's very difficult if not impossible. "The process involves tremendous sacrifice from the worldly standpoint not only the abandonment of one's habitual way of life but also the termination of many human ties." Although "Lao Tzu did not expect people to detach themselves completely from outward activities and to live aloof from the busy world", "A calm and detached attitude towards the vicissitudes of life will prepare one for mystic meditation" says Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, writes Henry Wei.
But even though Agathiyar says its an impossible venture, at least for us, he told us never to give up placing concerted effort towards it. Chuang Tzu asks us to "imitate the sage who considers life a fleeting dream and death a rest; who do not scheme nor strive nor calculate and who sleep without dreams and wakes up without worries; with his spirit ever pure and his soul always alert."
"A spirit that is pure and a soul that is alert", is what the Siddhas strive to drive into us too. All these play or lila of theirs is to bring us to this state of change that is possible in the physical world and acceptance that comes with an understanding of the subtle world. Association with the Siddhas brings us to understand the subtle world that envelopes and surrounds us, hidden away from our eyes but that determine every single thing in this gross world. The knowledge of this whole new world out there that seems to be subtle and invisible was not made known to us before, and was out of reach. Coming to the Siddha path we are enlightened about the subtle world and its forces that govern every thought and action of us. The Siddhas who discovered it knew the means to understand and live accordingly with it. Acceptance and tolerance of its virtue and powers then set in. For instance, they knew the extent of karma and its chain of endless cause and effects and more actions, that is the cause for further effects, starting a neverending cycle of cause and action. They advocated among many ways the way of bakthi or devotion and sadhana or religious and spiritual practices that is known to help modify the effects of karma if not break the chain. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami attests to how devotion does wonder in the devotee and sadhaka. He says that the grace of the divine that is derived through devotion, melts the karmas, in various stages, and in various chakras finally burning it in the fire of tapas or austerities and meditation. As we evolve through numerous births, with continuous sadhana in each birth, these "karmic packets are refined."
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami continues,
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami continues,
Planetary changes activate new karmas and close off some of the karmas previously activated. The magnetic pulls and the lack of magnetism are what jyotisha (Vedic astrology) is telling us is happening at every point in time. These karmas then wait in abeyance, accumulating new energy from current actions, to be reactivated at some later time. These karmic packets become more refined, life after life, through sadhana. All of this is summed up by one word, evolution.
If Agathiyar had given us numerous tools to travel the journey in Sariyai and Kriyai, including the finance and good health to carry out charity and seva or service to Erai, a guru to personally guide us on the rituals and in Yoga, he gives us the pathuhai or sandals to slow us down, the kamandalam or drinking vessel to take a sip of water before doing pranayama, and the vaasi kol or the stick placed under the arm or wrist as used in correcting the breath or in holding up the rosary to chant respectively that are the only tools on our inner journey. The breath that has kept us company since birth, continuous to come along as a companion. If earlier we spent hours in doing puja, distributing food and groceries, hosting events, and vizhas, today he tells us it is all enough as we have gained enough credit hours to start on another level of advancement. He asked us to sit quietly and observe the breath. He has asked us to spare some moments of our busy lives and schedules for him. He is merely asking 12 minutes of our time to do wonders in us.
The idea of having us sit alone in isolation is to detach ourselves from acting upon the vasanas that we might still carry even after having done numerous parikaram or remedies, going on pilgrimages across difficult terrains to difficult places, lighting the homam, participating in the Yagam, feeding the hungry etc. All actions even all of the above that are of good nature bring about good karma that has to be exhausted by taking more births. We need to end this cycle. So there is no other way than to go within. This is the final journey cutting oneself completely off all action both physical and mental. Here a thorough cleansing takes place. Eknath Easwaran in "Dialogue with Death - A Journey Through Consciousness", Jaico Publishing House, 2002, suggests that, "If we can learn not to act on a samskara by severing the connection between stimulus and response, that particular chain of karma will no longer have a hold on us." So in sitting alone by oneself, the stimulus is shut off. Hence there is no need to respond to anything. This breaks the chain. What we go through in these silent moments is the remnants of our past karma if it still lingers. Watching it take place or happen within will bring an end to even these last vasanas, roasting it in the fire of meditation, depriving them of germinating forever. If earlier we had exhausted all external means to rid karma, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami in "Merging with Siva - Hinduism’s Contemporary Metaphysics", Himalayan Academy, 2005 enlightens us further as to how meditation does wonder in ridding us of the last vestiges of karma.
When we cause a traumatic disruption within ourselves or within others, the action is imprinted in the memory patterns of the Muladhara chakra. The seed has been planted and will remain vibrating in the depths of the mind even though consciously forgotten. We carry it over from life to life, from birth to birth until one day it blossoms into the fruit of our action-reaction. There are thousands of things vibrating in the Muladhara chakra, and from those memory patterns they are going to bounce up into view one after another, especially if we gain more Prana by breathing and eating correctly. When meditation begins, more karma is released from the first chakra (Muladhara chakra). Our individual karma is intensified as the ingrained memory patterns that were established long ago accumulate and are faced, one after another, after another, after another.
In our first four or five years of striving on the path we face the karmic patterns that we would never have faced in this life had we not consciously sought enlightenment. Experiences come faster, closer together. So much happens in the short span of a few months or even a few days, catalyzed by the new energies released in meditation, and by our efforts to purify mind and body, it might have taken us two or three lifetimes to face them all. They would not have come up before then, because nothing would have stimulated them.
Many do not realize that the Siddhas shall fulfill all our asking especially the ones that seek to be released from the cycle of death and birth or that prompt one to desire never to be born again. They shall then undergo extreme forms of suffering as the exhaustion of karma is hastened.