If Tirumular defines one who stays home to carry on his spiritual practices or Tapas or Tavam, as a Maatavar or Tapasi, PV Jagadisa Ayyar in his book "South Indian Customs", Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 1985, refers to a wife who is a comrade and supportive of her husband's spiritual ventures as a Saha Dharma Charini which means the lady who performs the duty enjoined in company with her husband. Kavyakantha Vasistha Ganapati Muni hailed his wife describing her as a Tapa Sakhi, meaning comrade in Tapas.
My wife too fits the bill perfectly. She has traveled with me, accommodating all my wishes and asking. Whatever I read I try it out. She ends up cooking it for me. Whatever practice or ritual I pick up, she accommodates well. Never once had she stayed away. When I was in hibernation for some 14 years, she never questioned me nor nudged me to revisit the temples. I would occasionally go over for the sake of my wife and our children so that they are not alienated from society. When I started back on worship, she joined me without question. When I began the worship of Agathiyar and the Siddhas, she would join in. When Agathiyar and Tavayogi started us on rituals, she prepared whatever was necessary and conducted the puja. She would clean up later. When Agathiyar brought over potential aspirants and devotees to our home she would entertain them with her talk and food. When I took up discipleship to my two gurus, she followed suit without question. She did all that was asked for. Agathiyar then decided to gift her with a Nadi reading for all her service towards him and his devotees. He bypassed the traditional means to get a reading - the need to give an impression of her thumbprint, sitting through hours, leafing through the bundles of Nadi trying to figure out which was ours, and finally settling to have the Maha Muni speak to us.
I had given Nadi Guru Sentilkumar a print of my right thumb in 2002 to help trace and locate my Kaanda Nadi the very first time. I followed the Nadi to the word, never for once doubting it. I did all the remedies and temple visits mentioned by Agathiyar. He was pleased and began to call me up for more readings through his Aasi Nool reading at regular intervals. Later my daughters too passed their left thumbprint to Nadi Nool Aasan T.Ramesh in 2007 and 2009 respectively, to help locate their Nadi from the large numbers of Nadi that are brought over to Malaysia each time the readers came over. The question and answer session would further help identify and single out our individual Nadi. If everyone including me, who went for a Nadi reading for the first time at least is ask to provide a thumbprint and the birth details to facilitate finding his or her Nadi leaf, that is not the norm I was soon to find out. If Agathiyar decides he does provide a reading minus these formal procedures. Agathiyar made an exception in my wife's case.
I had always wanted to bring my wife to locate and have her Nadi read. If I had gone to the Nadi reader the first time after hearing the Siddhas ability to look into the past, present, and future from my colleague, I brought my daughters to help decide on the next course of action after they had completed their tertiary schooling. Then I wanted to know who my wife was as she attended to me and the family and took in the added responsibility of seeing through the weekly Siddha puja and entertaining the devotees gathered without fail. Besides that as both my daughters had seen their Nadi and as I shared my regular Nadi readings with her, I thought my wife too would like to hear her Nadi revealed by Agathiyar too. So we sought an appointment with the reader. But as a result of some minor confusion regarding the date and time of the appointment my wife and I were turned back. The reader never called us for her reading but instead called me over for my regular Aasi Kaandam reading that was waiting to be read. As he left the room and went into the adjacent room that stored the library of Nadis he returned with an expression of astonishment. He held in his hands a Nadi that was about to reveal about my wife. I too was surprised. Agathiyar began to address my wife in her absence, without the need for her to give her thumbprint and without the usual trend of question and answer to locating her Nadi. It was all so mysterious. He shelved all the protocol because she had served him untiringly all the years. Agathiyar chose to address my wife, without even she being present there, and without having her left thumbprint taken! Agathiyar made an exception in her case and we understood pretty well why she was special after he revealed about her in the Nadi. Agathiyar was fully contented with my wife's service to him! He praised her for all her efforts in carrying out worship and prayers for him. The whole revelation was for her that day. She was not present, I had not gone to seek her reading, the Aasan did not ask for her thumbprints nor birth details. But the most loving father chose to address his child that day without going through the process or even calling for her presence and attendance. The Nadi Nool Aasan was stunned while I was very happy for my wife. I keep repeating it because I presumed an event of this nature had never happened in all the years of the Aasan reading the Nadi for the public.
Agathiyar through this incident has shot down all the misconception and condemnation of the Nadi and its readers telling us that if he chooses he will give a reading without the thumbprint, without the need to know and chart the horoscope, without reading one's face or reading one's mind, without the need to question and gather the facts from the client and disclose it to him as his Nadi revelation which are the most common accusations hurled at the Nadi and its readers.
I am blessed to have her. She has stayed with me in the worship of the Siddhas since the beginning, attending to all the needs of Agathiyar and his puja. She takes care of every small detail and prepares everything necessary to perform and fulfill the rituals. She attends to all the guests and prepares food for them. Then she washes up and waits eagerly for the next round of puja.
From all the readings ad revelations Agathiyar gave about my family, I am humbled as he drives the point in me that nothing was my doing or effort. He said I came to the path of the Siddhas because of my daughter; he then calls me to it only when I was 43 years of age, something that I should appreciate. Tavayogi told me "Be grateful that at least he had made the calling then, although pretty late in life." Then Agathiyar tells me that if I have traveled this far it is because of my wife. He then sends me to my guru Supramania Swami who decides to gift me the 40 years of tavam or merit gained as a result of his tavam or penance and austerities. Then he sends Tavayogi to me to show me the finer points of the Siddha worship, and Yoga. Then Agathiyar brings along Ramalinga Adigal to fine-tune our practice in the absence of both my gurus in physical form. Ramalinga Adigal connects us with consciousness too. Finally, Agathiyar comes to dictate every post written on this blog. Now tell me what is truly mine? Nothing!