Dr. Zhi Gang Sha in his book "The Power of Soul", Atria Paperback, NY, 2009 wrote the following.
"In one life you may learn many lessons and you will gain some wisdom from them. In hundreds of lifetimes, you will learn many lessons but you will gain much more wisdom. Your soul will gain more and more intelligence. A soul has intelligence in all its lifetimes. A soul has wisdom and knowledge in all its lifetimes. Your soul is the greatest resource for your intelligence. To realize this is the first step. To receive soul intelligence, wisdom and knowledge to transform your life is the second step. To develop your soul intelligence, wisdom and knowledge further is the third step."
We are reminded by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha that "If one does not move one's soul life further during one's physical life it is a great pity." We are asked by Ma, Aiya, Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal repeatedly to seek experiences in the outer world first and then move within into contemplation and meditation to seek inner experiences that are entirely beyond this world. Thomas Moore in his book "Care of the Soul", HarperCollins Publishers, 1992, wrote, "Renaissance Neoplatonist said that the outer world serves as a means of deep spirituality and that the transformation of ordinary experience into the stuff of soul is all-important." Moore adds, "Just as the mind digests ideas and produces intelligence, the soul feeds on life and digests it, creating wisdom and character out of the fodder of experience. The soul needs an intense full-bodied spiritual life as much as and in the same way that the body needs food." This is what Agathiyar, Ma, and Aiya have been repeatedly telling us too.
The soul comes to learn and grow from its experiences. The spirit of God is in all things and we learn to pick up the essence of these individual spirits in his creation. Having collected sufficient experience for it to grow, the soul then shifts into a silent mode contemplating on all that it had absorbed and begins to digest them while in solitude. Having done with the absorption, it takes on a new perspective of the world and returns to address the world and its issues from a different angle, and to educate others on true living, sharing the wisdom gained from its period of hibernation and silent contemplation. These evolved souls who are Jeevanmuktas become gurus in the eyes of others.
R.Venu Gopalan writes in his "The Hidden Mystery of Kundalini", Heath Harmony, 2001, "After completing the cycle of all the eighty-four lakh yonies the soul takes rest in the purest heart of the Lord himself. To keep the soul from accumulating the burden of piousness and sin, Lord himself decides on the concept of repaying back all that is taken and all that is to be given so that when the soul rejoins with him it is pure. So when we go through tough times understand that it is the love of God in wanting to see us rejoin him in its purest state, he sees to it that we do not accumulate further burden or karma and wash off or burn whatever remaining, facing these tough times boldly. In these times of Covid-19 pandemic where many jobs were lost and businesses closed, be grateful for the good times the Lord gave us and pray that he gives us the strength to shoulder these trying moments and bad times.
P. Thirugnanasambandhan in his "The Concept of Bhakti" published by the University of Madras, 1971, leads us into an understanding of the soul and its evolvement or rather detachment from all previous actions and the thought of being the doer.
- (Sariyai) The soul inspired by the highest goal of communion with God passes gradually from one stage of spiritual enlightenment to another. Starting from the first rung of the ladder, as the servant of God, the soul practices Carya, consisting of external duties such as cleaning and lighting God's temples, adorning the images of God with garlands, praising God and attending to the needs of devotees. For these deeds, the soul is rewarded with Saloka or dwelling in the region of God.
- (Kriyai) From being a servant, the soul in the Kriya stage becomes a son of God and renders more intimate service than before, such as invoking God's presence, serving him with love and praise and other acts of service like Sivapuja, besides attending to the burning of incense, collecting flowers, etc. the reward for service of this type is Samipya or dwelling near God.
- (Yogam) In the next stage of Yoga, the Sakha Marga the soul becomes the friend of God and thus is nearer God. Withdrawing its senses from the material objects, it concentrates on the contemplation of Siva. This is rewarded by Sarupya, which is to have the same form as Siva but not the essence.
- (Gnanam) The soul has to progress further in the Jnana Marga to reach the final goal of Sayujya from where there is no return. Sayujya is a state of the union of God and soul, a mysterious union of either so that God and soul exist with their respective attributes, the former as the source of bliss and the latter as the recipient of the same.
It has always been a journey of moving from the external into the internal. But sadly we remain stagnant in the external shackled by its pleasures. Making us know this truth, we were brought to traverse these stages too. Lately, Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal have been asking us to go within, some 18 years later after he engaged us in Sariyai, Kriyai, and began us on the preliminary stages of Yogam. These days we see some urgency in him driving us to carry out his bid, doing things that he did too. He made us worship his image in the granite and metal paying homage to the element earth; he made us worship the water in the Purnakumbham and the Holy rivers paying homage to the element of water; he made us light the sacrificial fire Yagna or Homa paying homage to the element of fire; he made us observe the breath paying homage to the element of air, Prana, and now has brought us to sit silently absorbed in the element of space not of the mind but of the heart. Tavayogi very aptly wrote the following when I asked him to autograph his book "Andamum Pindamum" - "Aandavan Uraigindra Edam Thangal Ullam, Athuve Payanathin Thodakkamum, Mudivum" when translated meant, "Erai lives in your heart, from where the journey starts and ends too."
