All my reading, home puja, and yogic practice of some 8 years were not fruitful until I had the grace of the Guru, the Siddhas, and the deities. Their grace came about only after I began to carry out the rituals and puja to the Siddhas. After my 14 years of expulsion or forced hibernation from all forms of puja and reading, my mind was cleared of all the previously acquired knowledge and practice. Agathiyar in a most mysterious way passes me the Vasudeva mantra to recite and a painting of Lord Dhakshanamurthi to worship. The former cleared the knots and blockages and prepared the vessel, and the later prepared me to meet my guru in physical form. I was brought to read my Nadi where I learned about karma. I left on a pilgrimage to temples. My guru led me on a pilgrimage of a different sort to caves and jungles later. He introduced Kriyai or rituals and Yogam and coaxed us to seek Gnanam. Agathiyar in leading us into Gnanam wants us to go within and experience the Atma the storehouse of bliss or Anandamaya Kosam.
The salvation of the Atma or Soul is only possible with the grace of the divine. The divine has to come to get us out of this rut or Maya. The Paramatma comes to redeem the Jeevatma that hid behind the veil once the "I" came into being. The "I" can only be trashed by the guru and his words and ways. Hence I have come to realize that one needs a series of events to take place to awaken the "I" to realize that he is divine in nature and that his Atma has gone into hiding because of his arrogance in thinking that he is the doer. In puja, we submit to the holy feet of the Lord and surrender. In surrendering we keep reminding ourselves that it is all his doing. This submission of ours opens the gates to his grace. His grace flows into us and floods us sweeping away all the rubbish, foul smell, stagnated waters, and dirty water hence cleansing every pore and cell in our body. Each cell reverberates with his energy. The body becomes divine in nature.
The nature of the divine and the guru is compassion and love. When we tend to judge others as worthy or otherwise of their grace by our standards, the divine accepts everyone under its folds. The good, the bad, and the ugly. That is the nature of the divine and guru. This was made known to us over the weekend. Hence I realize now why Tavayogi sat with people from all walks of life entertaining them at his ashram. Hence I understand why God saw people from all walks of life at his temple. The guru is both the rose and the thorn. He spreads his teachings as the rose emits its smell. He comes as a thorn to remove the thorn in us. After cleansing and fortifying our physical body he is now working on our thoughts. The Siddhas brought us to the realization that we are not the Annamaya Kosa. You need the energy to move a thing. The prana and Pranamaya Kosa is the energy body that moves the physical. So what is this "I"? Is it the physical body or the Pranayama Kosa? Or are we a culmination of both? We cannot possibly be the body or the energy alone for we have a mind that thinks and drives the energy to move the body. So are we then the Manomaya Kosa? But wait a minute! We realize that there is someone driving our thoughts, driving us to think, analyze, judge, and opine. So are we the Vignanamaya Kosa then? Does this gnanam drive our thoughts? Then why is not everyone a gnani?
We are told that we are by nature a buddha or divine. We are the Atma, pure in nature. The Atma is only seen to be separate from the Paramatma when it leaves the home to stay with the Annamaya Kosa and Pranamaya Kosa momentarily just as a teen is eager to move out of his parents home to gain his own experiences and supposedly be free. As Tavayogi says we need the body to know the breath, and we check the breath to ascertain if there is life in the body, both Annamaya and Pranayama Kosas are essential to exist and for survival. This is the state of plants and animals. Man has an added faculty that of the Manomaya Kosa to think. He is then gifted with the Arivu or intelligence that is the Vignanamaya Kosa so that he makes wise decisions. The wisdom in him leads him to know his Atma that is forever in a state of bliss in the Ananadamaya Kosa.
This body is lifeless without the energy derived from prana in food, water, and sunlight. This body is lifeless without the energy of the Pranayama Kosa. This body is lifeless without the Manomaya Kosa too. We turn into idiots without the Vignanamaya Kosa.
Finally, all the experience gained through this composite body of 4 Kosas leads us to joy when it connects with the pleasures derived from the sense organs and bliss when it connects with the divine experiences. We become drenched in bliss. That sheath of bliss is Anandamaya Kosa.