I had just finished watching the movie "Yatra" a biographical film on the events leading to and the Padayatra undertaken by Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy who came to become the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from May 2004 to June 2009. Here is a story of a man to be adored for his principles. He came for a purpose and saw it done. If I had thought that once we enter politics we have to let fly our principles here is one man who proved me wrong. What his father told him, that much good could be done if he entered politics resonates with what I told several "caring" citizens back then in 1994. When I was posted from a coastal village having served some eight years, to the capital city, I frequented a stall opposite my office building for my breakfast and lunch. A group would gather daily and review the day's news often picking on politicians and the state of affairs in the country. These negative reviews would have me finish my meal and leave immediately as I could not stomach the talk. I could not avoid this daily torment as I had no other option for a vegetarian meal except that which was served with love by the Muslim mother who saw and treated us as her own. After a short stint of eight months here, I was posted to a project site some 56 km away. After five years I came back to the HQ. The same group of people was there, having aged a bit. Some were missing but were replaced by new faces. But the reviews continued. I was shocked beyond belief. How could people be stuck in a time warp for years, vomiting the same opinions and views? Don't they change? Don't they move on? I walked up to them and told them that if they were truly interested in bringing a change in the country then they should enter politics and fight it out in parliament and not debate at a tea stall. I left the place in disgust.
It saddens me to see people caught in their own opinions, holding on to them till their very last days. Instead holding on to a principle would very much be welcomed. Even we who undertook this journey walking the Siddha path have made remarkable progress having learned and later drop our opinions, views, theory, and practices as we met new experiences that often ran down those that we held to previously. That is growing up spiritually. We are not here to implement a set of programs like the machines do. We are here to grow into wonderful creatures. Just as each leaf on the branch shall fall after seeing daylight, and grow anew, on a new branch, similarly seeing through the tasks and evaluating them we move on to better perform in the next tasks given. Though perfection is a far cry, at least we have tried to deliver our best.
Each soul is here for a purpose. We need to know our purpose and life, figuring out and charting what to do. The Siddha's Nadi, a wandering Siddha, a guru, or sitting in meditation could all bring us to know our own purpose here. In knowing our purpose we shall then work in tandem with the energies prevalent around us, roping them in our time of need. Their agenda would be for the greater good instead of the good of an individual self. When Tavayogi's daughter could not accept the fact that her father had taken a resolve to become a mendicant, Agathiyar came to console her in a Nadi reading. He told her if he was to stay he would only be a father to her and her siblings. But if he was to leave he would become a father to many. Tavayogi chose to follow Agathiyar's wish and dream and left home. After his wanderings, he was asked to stay put in a place that Agathiyar pointed out to him as Agathiyar Vanam. Tavayogi located the place at present-day Kallar and set up an ashram. Agathiyar then told him to go to Malaysia in 2004 which he did, to speak on the Siddhas. The following year saw numerous Peedhams, centers, and movements affiliated with him mushroom throughout the country. Agathiyar's dream was fulfilled by Tavayogi. When Tavayogi made his last rounds visiting devotees' homes to witness the Siddha puja in 2016, Agathiyar through the Jeeva Nadi in the possession of Tavayogi conveyed a message from Tavayogi's guru, Chitamuthu Adigal who wanted us to carry out a Siddha puja in the Thanneermalai Sri Thandayuthapani Alayam, in Taiping. His guru had been here and in many parts of Malaya then. We did as told. The Siddhas recently conveyed a message from Tavayogi to me asking me to turn each home into an Agathiyar Vanam just like my home had become. I am told that it is Tavayogi's dream. The ball is in my court and I have to figure out how I am going to go about fulfilling my guru's dream.