William Shakespeare in his stage play "Hamlet" wrote the following speech for Hamlet,
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
(Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56965/speech-to-be-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-question)
To be or not to be? That is the question. I had written earlier in passing on the subject of vegetarianism without dwelling too deep at https://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2017/07/blessed-to-have-meal.html and another at https://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2018/10/to-be-or-not-to-be.html. I was moved to write again later on this subject at https://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.com/2019/02/to-be-or-not-to-be.html after receiving the following mail.
Good afternoon Aiya. I have read few times somewhere in your blog about how you give up non vege food over the night. Its really amazing since people like me still struggling to give up the non vege food attachment. Of course i hv few vegetarian days in a week. But couldn't gv up totally. And.... someone told me that by eating non vege, you can't pray to Agathiar appa. If you have time Aiya, please gv some enlightenment or guidance to ppl like me via your blog writing. i was so shattered and upset over the "remarks". Even i was told Siddhas get angry when i eat non vege & pray to them. I'm very clear now. I hv a stand that if i give up non vege food, it has to be voluntarily. No more even a slight liking in it. I believe one day i shall give up totally this non vege food.Thank you.
The reader is today a vegetarian although she cooks for her family. It is a good start though.
I had written the following piece sometime back but withheld it for it's a topic likely to wake up sleeping giants. A controversy might ensue. A seeker dropped by at AVM seeking to learn meditation following a sudden urge to do so in him. He told me about himself and said that he was already reciting Agathiyar's mantra and had tried unsuccessfully to meditate.
I was excited to hear that he was actually doing something for I had seen those who claimed they were in the path but upon questioning their worship I was appalled to hear that there was no worship or practice conducted but was told that the parents read much about the Siddhas. While this lot declares themselves verbally as practitioners of the Siddha path by mere reading of it, another displays picturesquely that they are on the path. The paintings of Siddhas have become a decorative item that adorns the walls of these homes. One wonders if there is any form of worship to them.
Now here was a genuine seeker. He wanted to know if it was required of him to become a vegetarian. I took a brief pause before answering him. This is a touchy, thorny and sensitive issue and has to be handled carefully, I told myself. Many hold on to their diet with passion and love not willing to let go of their favorite foods. Many have supported the vegetarian cause with scientific backings and findings while equally many have silly reasons unsubstantiated by facts on vegetarianism. So after a few moments of silent contemplation, I replied to the seeker's question that he follow his heart. The divine in him shall show him the way. When a senior devotee in the AVM family fell and tore his ligaments, the doctor at the Emergency ward of the Medical Centre did not want to operate on him due to his age factor but referred him to a physiotherapist instead. He followed as told. Besides that, he sought advice and treatment from an Ayurvedic center. To a question as to which treatment he should continue, Agathiyar told him to follow his heart. Agathiyar told him that he shall be there to guide him. The devotee continued both the treatment as they supplemented one another. Both traditional and modern-day physicians were surprised to see his quick progress and eventual recovery.
Looking back into the past, the early man before he learned to farm and tame animals must have fished if he lived near a water source or hunted small animals in the wild. Moving ahead to several centuries ago we are told that meat was introduced into the diet of our forefathers when invaders invaded their lands. Until many years ago my wife's great-grandpa's village in India adopted a meatless menu. He was asked to leave the village just for the simple reason that he had consumed meat and alcohol. He took his two children and left. They made their way to Rameshwaram. Having found no work there they boarded the ship to then Malaya. They made a livelihood peeling and cleaning prawns at a factory making shrimp paste in Nibong Tebal. Imagine for someone originating from a village where people are vegetarians, the shrimps and prawns gave them a living and livelihood. A butcher takes it in his stride to slaughter and sells meat. It is his livelihood. I know of a guru who doubled as a priest in a temple, trade anchovies, and dried and salted fish for a living. I received Agathiyar's very first message to me from my nephew who is a student of his. What do you have to say to that? The lesson here is to look at the message and not the messengers. Similarly many look at the Nadi reader rather than the message it carried and hence are disillusioned by the Nadi.
Speaking about my ancestors, it was traditional for my father's family members in Karaikudi, India to observe eating meat twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays after having taken a nice oil bath on these days. Arriving in Malaya, marrying my mother, and raising a family here, things took a change for the worst with the coming of the Japanese occupation. The hard times continued even after the war and into post-war. Even after independence, we hardly saw meat on the table. It was a delicacy to be savored only when relatives turn up at our homes or during festive days.
I am a vegetarian for some 24 years turning over one night without any particular reason. It just happened. When others ask me if it was due to health reasons or if it was because of my religion I had no answer. I just decided that I wanted to stop the intake of meat one day some 24 years back and never looked back at my decision. Today I cannot stomach the smell emitted from cooking meat, frying fish, or scrambled eggs. I cannot walk past a fish market too. Just as a devotee who is a vegetarian from birth says she used to close her nose with the pallu or throw of her saree as she walked by the beach daily where fishes were brought in from the sea on her way to work and would end up being teased by the local fishermen, many on hearing that I am a vegetarian immediately quip, "You are a vegetarian. You never get angry right?" It is said that taking sattvic food cools our temper. I never lost it. It just needed to be kindled and there you have a volcano erupt. It was for this reason and the prayers my mother placed before Agathiyar, that I was hauled up and counseled by him in the Nadi for close to an hour on anger management. He immediately created the perfect environment and situation for me to be tested after the Nadi reading. But I failed badly on the test that day. Mataji Sarojini Ammaiyar too reminded me to maintain a state of tolerance or சகிப்பு தன்மை at all times. I failed badly in this area too. I still cannot drop my anger over the years. I guess I have to put in more work. I realize I still have a long way to go to come to a state of acceptance.
When Tavayogi wanted to initiate my wife and me into the path of the Siddhas by passing us Agathiyar's Moola Mantra, I had no issues as I was already a vegetarian. But my wife was not. Tavayogi told her that she should turn to become a vegetarian if he was to initiate her. She agreed. We were initiated that day with six other devotees. When I brought over a colleague of mine to meet Tavayogi a few days later, he took up the initiation from Tavayogi. We were surprised that Tavayogi told him only to refrain from consuming the meat of those species that fly. Jnana Jothiamma who arrived at Kallar ashram for the first time had her initiation delayed by several days as Tavayogi sensed and told her that she had taken fish the day she arrived. After I took up the call to come to the Siddha path and I picked up yoga as taught by Tavayogi, Agathiyar and Patanjali told me to only take wholesome sattvic food and reduce processed food. I realized they had begun to fine-tune the process, having me drop the impure for the pure.
A friend shared his observation as we sat together to chat some time back. He had noticed that all those who converged at AVM were not dictated to be vegetarians in order to worship and participate in the group prayers. Neither was there the need to switch over before taking up Yoga. But what surprised him was, in comparison, all those who came by to worship the Siddhas and participate in their activities relating to charity and the practice of Yoga in another establishment were required to adhere strictly to numerous codes of discipline including a switch in their diet. Agathiyar set a different rule for those in that establishment.
Agathiyar had never asked my children to become vegetarians until recently. He only told them to attempt to let go, never dictating them to do so. When my daughter voiced her concern that her daughter is fed nonvegetarian food at the inlaws home Agathiyar who asked that they be brought up as vegetarians removed her fear saying that the food shall change by their grace. The Siddhas would switch the food that is given to them. Amazing! This reminds us of the Nawab who tricks Saint Raghavendra by serving him meat. To his surprise, the meat changes into flower petals. Another devotee was let off the hook too. If her husband took up to become a vegetarian, Agathiyar surprised us by telling her that she needed meat in her diet. When a couple of newlyweds stated their fear that they would have to comply and succumb to the pressure from their respective families to take meat as they shall move into motherhood soon, Bhogar told them that there are many equally good options available in the vegetable kingdom. He asked them to search for these viable options that replace meat. But understanding society and its pressure on women he did allow them to consume only fish for the duration of pre and post-delivery. In a timely manner, a devotee received a video clip that was shared with him. In the video, a news report on a television channel, we are told that the Siddha physicians have been known to prescribe fish for many ailments. A senior colleague at the office was warded when he was in Sabah on official duty. He had just turned to be a vegetarian. The doctor who diagnosed him advised him to start eating at least the meat of fish for he lacked protein and iodine in his body. However much he wanted to continue being a vegetarian, he had to give it up for health reasons. As a child, I remember asthmatic patients told to eat the meat of bats.
We read that Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri who was named Ram by his foster mother Unniamma, as a baby of 18 months, had a rare skin disease. A stranger came up to them and asked that the blood of the crow be applied on his skin and that he shall be healed. His story is told by Swami Chetanananda and M.U. Hatengdi in their book "Nityananda: In Divine Presence".
At about eighteen months of age, Ram developed liver troubles. And even though Mr. Iyer hired for him the best ayurvedic practitioner, the baby's condition worsened. He grew thin and his stomach became distended. Because he often cried through the night, Unniamma's landlord finally demanded that she get rid of him. Too agitated to go to work the next day, she instead took her ailing son out for some fresh air. As she walked, she suddenly saw a tall dark-skinned stranger carrying a large satchel. The distraught mother, thinking he was a physician, approached and begged him to help her child. As if expecting her, he removed a packet from his bag and instructed her to mix its contents with the flesh of a freshly killed crow fried in clarified butter (ghee). She should then administer a small dose to Ram each morning before he had eaten. Also, she should rub Ram's skin with the crow's blood. At this very moment, a toddy (sap from the toddy palm is collected by toddy tappers for making a fermented beverage called arrack) tapper walked by and handed her the crow he carried in his right hand. Astonished, she looked up to thank the two men--but they had vanished. Unniamma started the prescribed treatment at once, and the child recovered in a short time. The crow's blood, however, permanently turned his skin a dark blue hue. Years later when questioned about any aspect of his background, Nityananda often quipped that a crow came and a crow left.
Looking through the Siddha books I was surprised to find in the pages of K.Venkatraman's "Yugangal Kadandhu Vazhum Unnathak Kalai" published by Vijaya Pathippagam, Coimbatore, 2007, in mentioning the preparation and protocol to adhere to in picking the root of the Vellarukku it is also mentioned that one has to sacrifice a white fowl before digging up the root.
I was in the construction sector. I understood that we cannot possibly expect the construction workers to survive on a vegetarian diet and work in the hot sun, carrying construction materials, mixing concrete, etc. Their work demands them to take the appropriate food to provide energy and strength. One having a desk job can of course sustain on a vegetarian diet. Some may question how is it that the elephant that is a vegetarian can carry huge loads? But we must understand that its digestive system is different from ours. My daughter's pet dog chews up almost everything: rags, pebbles, metal, bolts, plastic, paper, grass, and everything else. It does not affect him in any way as all these come out through the other end the next day. So do the strays eat from rubbish dumps and never fall sick. As for us, just say that we stay away from adopting good hygiene for a few days. What happens? We shall fall ill as we are told that "Up to 80 percent of all infections are transmitted by hands, according to estimates by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the E. coli by coming into contact with the feces, or stool, of humans or animals; or currently, the COVID-19 virus that is primarily transmitted between people through respiratory droplets and contact routes."
To those who are fanatical about the need to be a vegetarian, I have the following questions to ask of them though it hurts me a lot to do so. When people try to split and divide society over racial matters, or language I ask what about the air, water and blood? Is air, water, blood, and milk considered vegetarian? It is in the waters of the streams, rivers, and ocean that small organisms and fishes, amphibians, and mammals thrive. It is this water that is held in the kumbam that mantras are chanted into and used to bathe the deities' statues. Then there is the question of tiny microbes in the air, water, and all around us, on our skin, on our scalp, and inside the body. There are tiny organisms in the air, on the ground, in our path, and in water. We drink the water and inhale the air. Can we refrain from inhaling, stepping, or taking in these lives? The air that one breath out is in turn inhaled by another. Can we shut out the expelled air from a meat-eater from arriving at the nostrils of a vegetarian? So are we vegetarian or not?
Can we and do we classify blood according to race and religion, faith and belief, or that from a vegetarian or a non? Is the blood from the blood bank separated and labeled as from vegetarians and non-vegetarians? In event of an emergency and in a matter of life and death, are we going to wait to seek blood transfusion from a vegetarian or depend on the blood bank?
The milk is from a mammal. So is it vegetarian? Our very body is a pack of meat and food for wild animals when alive and food for maggots and worms when we die. This very body is meat and becomes food to the wild animals and food to microbes, ants, worms, larvae in the soil once we die.
It is said that first there were microbes that aided plants in photosynthesis. These microbes are trapped in leafy plants. So when we eat vegetables and plants we are digesting these microbes too. Microbes live in bread, yeast, and yogurt too. The digestive tract has bacteria that are vital to digestion. So are these apt for vegetarians? In event of famine and when there are no crops and grain would we shy away from taking meat or take it to survive? Let us be practical about this issue.
What we should strive for is to turn this body of meat into a pure body or Sudha Degam and energize it with life force or Prana, and transform it into that of sound or Pranavam and later to that of golden light and effulgence. This body if taken care of and maintained well shall serve to help us to achieve our desired goal of attaining deathlessness. Bhogar like all saints, sages, and Siddhas tells us that this body is of utmost importance to those who strive to achieve Godhead. Ramalinga Adigal brought distinct changes in his body, so much so he hardly ate. Even if he ate it was only a small mouthful once a day. He sustained the rest of the time on the ambrosia that seeped in him. He sustained on the breath. The effulgence in him kept him alive. In that state, he could afford to refrain even from taking vegetables and grains. Hence the reason he could show compassion even to plants. Ramalinga Adigal surpassed all the saints when his compassion towards other humans and animals went further to include the plant kingdom too.
The saint Vallalar of Tamil Nadu said: “Vadiya payirai kanda pothellam wadinen” which means: “I would shed tears on seeing the crops which are withering for want of water.”
இராமலிங்க வள்ளலார், திருவருட்பா (3471):
'வாடிய பயிரைக் கண்டபோதெல்லாம் வாடினேன், பசியினால் இளைத்தே வீடுதோறு(ம்) இரந்தும் பசி அறாது அயர்ந்த வெற்றரைக் கண்டு உளம் பதைத்தேன் நீடிய பிணியால் வருந்துகின்றோர் என் நேர் உறக் கண்டு உளம் துடித்தேன் ஈடு இன் மானிகளாய் ஏழைகளாய் நெஞ்சு. இளைத்தவர் தமைக் கண்டே இளைத்தேன்'
தண்ணீர் இன்றி வாடியிருக்கும் பயிர்களைப் பார்க்கும்போதெல்லாம் என்னுடைய மனம் வாடுகிறது. பசியினால் இளைத்தவர்கள், ஒவ்வொரு வீடாகக் கெஞ்சிக்கேட்டும் பசி தீராமல் களைத்துப்போன ஏழைகளைப் பார்த்து என் உள்ளம் பதைபதைக்கிறது. பசியால் வயிறு காய்ந்தாலும் இணையில்லாத மானம்தான் பெரியது என்று நினைக்கிறவர்கள், அதனால் யாரிடமும் பிச்சை கேட்காமல் சுயமரியாதையோடு பட்டினி கிடக்கிறவர்கள், அவர்களைப் பார்க்கும்போது, நானும் இளைத்துப்போகிறேன்!
(Source: Tafa - தமிழ்நாடு விவசாயிகள் மற்றும் வேளாண் சங்கம்)
Mataji told me that when we pick the herbs we ought to recite, "Siddhar Saabam Nasi-Nasi" seeking permission first before doing so. Bhogar in asking for the Neem leave told me to recite the same before picking it as it was dusk confirming the age-old practice of not laying hands on plants after dark.
Now when is it required of us to become a vegetarian? When we want to transform this body. If one wants to bring a transformation in him and achieve the spiritual state of the Siddhas then it is of utmost importance that he be a vegetarian and start early. Jnana Jothiamma who spent most of her life in the USA upon arrival in India desired to eat fish. Tavayogi who was to give her an initiation stopped proceeding with the initiation telling her that her last meal that consisted of fish meat was still in her stomach. He deferred the initiation to another day. Many years later, when she surrendered her heart and soul to Agathiyar, Agathiyar put her on a regime of internal cleansing telling her that for someone who had taken meat some sixty years she had to bear the pain and pass through the trauma that came with it in wanting to purify her body bringing it from the state of Asudha Degam to that of the pure body or Sudha Degam. She had to rid, expel and purge the body of all the toxins and "meat" consumed over the ages that had become flesh and blood. We can understand then that for someone who had eaten meat for a few years and stopped, it would be relatively easier for him and on him. For another who is a vegetarian from birth, he would sail through like a breeze without much ado.
Besides this, many become vegetarians on compassionate grounds. Love for another being and animal moves them to see them as their own. Love for the guru too can bring his followers to switch their choices in pleasing their palates. We are told that Chitramuthu Adigal, guru to Tavayogi, brought the villagers in his hometown in India to turn into vegetarians. So it all boils down to our intent in life and purpose in living. If we want to follow the path of the Siddha and Ramalinga Adigal we have to turn to become vegetarian. There is no two ways about it. There is no option left.
Speaking to Suren over the phone some time back, we both agreed that we are blessed if we have the option to become a vegetarian. We are blessed if we can find greens to cook and eat. When there is an option please opt to take vegetarian. In the event, there is none then by all means consume meat rather than go hungry. But for a vegetarian like me, I cannot go back to taking meat. The very smell of fish and eggs frying and meat cooking in the pan drives me away. My body cannot revisit taking white meat or red. We also agreed that we are blessed if we can find someone to feed or help. It is said that the tradition in the old days was to feed a stranger before those in the household ate. The householders would come out of their homes and look around for someone or any animal to feed first. Yogi Ramsuratkumar too says we need beggars. They provide us an opportunity to serve and help them. Agathiyar says to feed at least a person a day. As it is rare to find the hungry come by along our homes these days, we took up to serve the deities and partake the food later. Having said all this I realize that it is not the food that is tasty but the inherent changes in us that make even the most simple food extremely tasty. Our senses when enhanced in this journey of internal transformation tend to bring out the taste in food. Food begins to taste like Amirtha or ambrosia. Tavayogi recently complimented a devotee couple for the food they served at AVM that it was Amirtha after partaking it in the subtle form. Initially, when I was skeptical if Gods actually ate the food we served, Agathiyar revealed to the late Nadi Guru Hanumathdasan that Lord Rama and Mother Sita had eaten the fruit served. Upon entering the inner sanctum they observed marks on the fruit. A devotee of Goddess Ma was told to serve hot meals for he was told that they take in the steam.
If one wants to live life as it is, let it be. Let us lay off the debate or lay off convincing another to turn to become a vegetarian. Just as you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, let them come in good time when they are ready and fully understand the need. For those championing vegetarianism change your body that is meat into that of light rather than settling merely for a change in your menu. Do not eat the menu but the food. Pursue further the teachings of Ramalinga Adigal and transform your body.
There is another touchy and thorny issue that pricks the finger, that of worship to "Siru deivam" or lesser Gods, a term commonly used to denote guardian angels or Kaval Deivam, Kula Deivam, or Ista Deivam that borders on and is accompanied by making animal sacrifices. The Kaval Deivam or village deities are the patron deities or grama devata of the village. The Kula Deivam, or guardian spirits are ascribed to various sects or clans in the community. The Ista Deivam is an aspect of the formless that one is captivated with and chooses to adore and worship. I stayed away from the worship to these deities where animals are sacrificed and their meat cooked and served to devotees, in all my years of religious upbringing. I would watch from afar these deities who take possession of devotees' bodies and walk on swords, hit and hurt themselves with whips and knives, and address the needs and wants of their devotees, but would turn up for the feast at the end of the prayers. Although I told them that we shall not cross paths, a strange turn of events brought them into my homes too when they came to pay respect to Agathiyar. They would communicate with him silently and leave without addressing or speaking to us. I soon found out that many such deities became guardian angels to devotees. Some were not given access to enter but instead told to stay out. I was told by a devotee who worshipped the ferocious form of Ma that she would seek permission and abide by the dictates of Agathiyar before leaving to see to her given task. We saw the truth of his statement many years later. The Siddhas show us to them too to solve the hardcore cases. It surprised us when Ramalinga Adigal too showed a devotee to them. It surprised us that when these deities address disciples of Agathiyar they ask for vegetarian food instead. Now how do we explain all these? Agathiyar has brought me to realize that all was his creation and that we cannot possibly sideline anyone be it man or deity.
Coming back to the question asked of me, "Are we required to become a vegetarian in pursuing the path of the Siddhas?" I have placed the facts before you. I leave it to you. Rather than have endless debate about this matter why don't you start being a vegetarian and see for yourselves? It all boils down to what you want in life? What do you want to make of this life? Then again, who can say what the divine has in store for you? Who can say what is right and what is wrong? Who can fathom the mind and actions of the divine?