From God that was introduced through Sariyai by our parents and their parents and ancestors before them, with an element of devotion and fear instilled, with the coming of the Guru we take things into our hands to correct and set right our lives with his guidance. The Siddhas for instance speak to us through the Nadi. Taking heed of their words when we start working to rectify and make good our past deeds, a journey of discovery of our purpose in taking birth and why we are here follows. They come as father and mother giving us direction and showing their affection respectively. They teach us the ways of the Siddhas, the path that they too took on to attain Siddhahood. Taking heed of the rituals and the yogic practices given, we sail through both these phases of Kriyai and Yogam smoothly without any hiccups and safely without any problems or danger. By this time we have been transformed from the Asudha Degam or impure nature to the Suddha Degam or pure nature, and into the Pranava Degam, or the nature of the Prapanjam. Finally, we stand before God to receive Gnana which results in Gnana Degam. The Siddha upon seeing one as having the potential to be molded into one of their kind, enters his life, then helps transform him and brings him before God. With their grace, the final phase of the journey starts. This is the stage of the merger into Oli Degam or Light. This is the "mystic union which is the goal of bridal mysticism" says G.Vanmikanathan in describing Ramalinga Adigal's final moment of union with the Lord in his book "Pathway to God Trod by Saint Ramalingar", Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay.
"In a span of about fifteen years, what was unrelieved misery had become metamorphosed into joy. This is not the effect of the passage of time which dulls the edge of misery, but a genuine change in the outlook on what seemed like misery. This is the result of the affinity - a spiritual rapport between Raamalinga Swaamikal and the Godhead, which has grown stronger and stronger with the years, a rapport that has grown into the relationship of bride and bridegroom."
Though it might seem as if I was in a hurry to kick him out of the house after Agathiyar told me that he was moving house, by immediately packing his clothes and things, and calling Mahindren over, it was in view of my greed upon hearing his promise to bestow me first before leaving. Was I wrong then in wanting something of that degree immediately? But G.Vanmikanathan too writes the same. Ramalinga Adigal now in his 35th year sets out to Thillai... "the royal road to union with the Godhead."
"Our Swaamikal declares that he is freed from misery. Secondly, he states that he has received a great boon. Thirdly, he, declares that he has reached a great state of grace."
"The Swaamikal shifts the blame from himself to the Lord Whom he accuses of delaying the bestowal of grace. Our Swaamikal will very soon be leaving the Illuminative Way and will be crossing the threshold of the Unitive Way where God with name and form will disappear and where ultimately the worshiper and the worshiped, the seeker and the sought, the soul and the Godhead, will merge into each other,.."
"We see the budding of the concept of Arut-perum-jothi, the Great Effulgence of Grace, for the first time in our Swaamikal’s spiritual life. .... this is the first gleam of the concept of the rare great effulgence which will burst forth in a paean of praise of 1596 lines when our Swaamikal steps on to the last lap of the journey on the Unitive Way."
"Our Swaamikal is now ready for the highest of all possible acts of grace, the crowning glory of the long years of thavam. The conferment of the Effulgence of Grace. The Lord, out of His munificent grace, bestowed on our Swaamikal the very power by which He Himself exercised sovereignty over all the worlds. That power is the Great Effulgence of Grace.... that of being given by the Lord the power to exercise the five functions of creation, sustenance, destruction, concealing, and bestowing mukthi."
After having gained all the Siddhis and attained the highest possible state, a man of such stature, Ramalinga Adigal chose to stay away from the limelight but the Lord acts otherwise.
"The Son of Man has become the Son of God, and he who was unknown and who did not want to be known was dragged much against his will to discharge his preordained mission on earth, to commence his ministry on earth, in order to establish the Pure Universal True Path to God, a path, a religion, based on compassion towards all creatures on earth, a religion based on intense and one-pointed love of God, a religion freed from the stifling influences of caste, country, race, language, conflicting creeds, petty cruel gods and inhuman sacrifices, freed from the dialectics of learned scriptures."
In his "Satthiya Arivippu sung on the 30th January 1874, and concluded just sixty minutes before our Swaamikal vanished forever from the ken of mankind, he sings:
My Sire, my Monseigneur,
the Lord of my soul,
comes today and takes seat
at the place where I am.
In the two and a half naazhikai-s which follow,
He will blend with my grand body
and will abide in my heart
without ever departing therefrom.
By the strength of my great thavam,
I proclaim with full knowledge of what I am saying
“This is the truth, the truth indeed!”
Oh damsel with waist which resembles lightning,
my words will become clear to you
when two and a half naazhikai-s are past!"