When one comes before a Kaanda Nadi reading, the Siddhas just give a reading. They just reveal what is fated for us written in the way past. That is all. They do not interpret, explain further, expand on it, agree with, or disagree with the contents of the reading. It is the Nadi reader who elaborates on the reading fearing one would not understand the language and since clarification is often sought by seekers. The reader attempts to explain the contents based on his competency and years of experience reading Nadis. If at all the reading is misconstrued it is the fault of the reader and the seeker and never the Siddha. As for me I only take the words of the Siddhas and follow to the very word and not the explanation given. These are not something written or transmitted in the past and left for us to interpret or assume. So is it with the sacred texts of the Siddhas and their songs. Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal in asking me to read and reread Tavayogi's "Andamum Pindamum" on the Tatwas told me that they shall come to clarify. Agathiyar too has told a devotee to read the original text of Manickavasagar and not to read the clarifications given by the authors. He told her that he would come to clarify. He had told me in the past to read Tirumoolar's "Tirumandhiram" and added that Tirumoolar would come to clarify. When Suren and I met up with Dr.V.N.Jayapalan of Bangalore in Malaysia I wanted to know more about his account of the origin of Agasthiyar's temple at Agasthiyampalli, which he had released as Cd's. But he "disappointed" me telling me that all there was to say was already in the CD and there was nothing much to say further and moved on to the topic of Siddha medicine as he was a practitioner and Siddha physician. Now I know the reason he did not explain further or elaborate on it. He said what came through his moment of meditation and that was all. He did not want to manipulate the facts.
The Kaanda Nadi is read in its entirety once we agree that the preliminary rounds of questioning with the intent to pick up the correct leaf, are descriptive of us. If things do not go as predicted, we are to blame for perhaps we were not attentive and picked the wrong leaf. For instance, after going through the question and answer session and after flipping through two bundles, I thought that we had jointly located my Nadi in the third bundle. My name, that of my parents, my number of siblings, my career, property were mentioned correctly. When it came to the name of my wife, it was something else. We both agreed that it wasn't mine. If I was not attentive and had agreed that it was mine, the readings would have predicted another outcome.
The subsequent chapters or Cantos of the Nadi shall list out one of the many possibilities out there at the time of reading. Know that at its core it is a prediction. Predictions take place when we take the initiative to work on them or existing events move us towards fulfilling them. Nadis are not written in stone. A wonderful example would be how Agathiyar erased an Aasi reading and substituted it with another the moment I followed his asking. He had told me to receive another initiation from Tavayogi immediately. It was after 8 at night. The Nadi reader asked that I call Tavayogi and inform him that I was coming over. I did as told. I headed to the streets of Brickfields to purchase fruits, sweets, and flower garlands as Agathiyar listed in the reading. It was a Guru Dakshina or homage paid to the guru. I had to drive some 16 kilometers to where Tavayogi was waiting for me, at a local peedham which he had come to officiate in Batu Caves. He led me into the adjacent room and enquired why I wanted to see him this late at night. I told him what had transpired and the directive from Agathiyar. Though he was equally surprised as he had initiated me and my wife with six others the day I met him, he did listen to Agathiyar. If earlier Agathiyar's mantra was written out on pieces of paper and passed on to us to recite, this time around he just touched my shoulders and that was about that. I left thanking him.
Sriinaath Raghavan who is known to give us gems on Fb brings us this wonderful and relevant story.
"There was an ardent practitioner of Kriya Yoga who would go to the Mountains often to meditate. On one such trip, he unexpectedly happened to meet the Eternal Yogi, called Babaji. He fell at Babaji's feet, and told the great Saint, how he always wished to see him and receive Deeksha. The Saint however kept silent and listened with a patient ear, because all of them who happened to meet, more or less tell the same thing. After the Seeker finished talking, Babaji asked him to follow through a dense jungle, winding their way across many slopes, till they finally reached a cave, where the Saint lived. They sat inside and Babaji offered the Seeker a drink of something plain like water, but one that refreshed him to the core. Then the Seeker settling himself down asked, "Can you initiate me into the practice of Kriya Yoga?"
Babaji gently nodded his head in approval and imparted the highest wisdom of Kriya to the Seeker.
The Seeker after receiving the teachings felt uncommonly dejected and turning towards the Master complained, "Master this was not how it was mentioned on the website, it was far more complex with a lot of Mudras and Bandhas?"
Babaji once again nodded his head gently and vanished from sight.
It is said that this Seeker still roams the Mountains in search of Babaji, who is yet to confirm which one is right, He the Master of the Kriya or the Website. Alas! No matter what, we can never look beyond the book because we are hooked."
Imagine if I had been like the practitioner in the story above and thought "What! That's about that! Is this the reason I came all the way and immediately to be just touched by you? Doesn't an initiation involve some kind of elaborate ritual. "It was far more complex" in the books and the net?"
We think everything is complex but in reality, it is pretty simple. A simple word from Supramania Swami asking the lady who cried her heart out to him as her husband was abusing her to "Let Go" brought instant bliss and joy in her and she left laughing all the way till out of sight. A couple of devotees whose business partnership went wrong regained their joy, happiness, and life after they severed and ended it, taking the cue from the Siddhas.
One has to trust his guru. His guru knows best. Trust is the cement that bonds the disciple-guru relationship. Although Tavayogi stunned me by telling me that I do not need to carry out the remedies Agathiyar gave my daughter to be carried out in India, and I remained silent for several moments asking myself who should I follow, my guru or Agathiyar, Tavayogi sensing my thoughts came back on the line and told me that if it would satisfy me to go ahead. I never did them opting to listen to Tavayogi. Agathiyar never questioned us nor brought up the subject again.
Arriving home after getting "initiated", I wanted to go through the recording on the cassette. To my surprise just minutes after the opening introduction by the Nadi reader, all else was replaced by the hiss of the cassette tape till the end. It was mysteriously erased. Going back to the reader, and reading the Nadi again, some of the things mentioned in the earlier reading were not there and many new things surfaced in the current Nadi. The moment I took heed of his words and went back to Tavayogi for another initiation parts of the earlier reading became irrelevant and a new chapter and destiny emerged.
Just as the Aasi reading was erased and substituted, when my predictions by Dr.Krishnan did not materialize and I came to know from him that it might be because of a curse in my past lives. After six years as I sat before Agathiyar, he confirmed and explained that it had hindered me from receiving the benefits of my puja and yoga practices. Agathiyar read out my planetary positions as documented in the Nadi. Returning home and referring to my previous astrological charts and the one by Dr. Krishnan it seemed quite different. I went back to the dear doctor. He too was taken aback and tried to work back my time of birth according to Agathiyar's revelation. If I was told and my birth certificate noted the time of birth as 3.53am on a Tuesday morning, Agathiyar stated it as 9.25am. That would be daybreak when I was told that I was born at dawn. The doctor told me to listen to Agathiyar and follow that. Since then I never consulted astrology knowing that my life was not in my hands and that they were determining the outcome. It was only in 2018 that Lord Muruga came in a Jeeva Nadi reading and told me that he had changed my fate.
We have choices and free will to chart our path although it is fated. We can change our fate. If for instance, Agathiyar predicts that we would harm someone either physically or through speech or writing, it is something this soul has come to do and gain the experiences that shall come with it. This can also be misconstrued as that the Siddhas want us to do this act of physically hurting others or tarnishing their name. The seeker can become overjoyed thinking that this is his purpose in life. Any act that we do now has its cause either in the present life or in previous lives. But good sense will tell us that it is wrong to harm another. One should plead that the Siddhas change their fate. By coming to worship them the grace of the divine shall work on our fate and turn it around. A new destiny is charted with the Siddhas taking the steering.
The Siddhas never intended to create a sense of fear or force us to obey their wills. But instead, they gave us the right to use our free will to navigate through life. It is only when we come against a wall or are lost for answers that we consult the Nadi looking for answers to our dilemma. I guess this is the reason a fellow seeker at the local Peedham that Tavayogi officiated and that I frequented asked me if I had any problems. We do not go to a reading to test its authenticity, prove it wrong, a hoax, or a scam. If we do the Siddhas knowing our intentions play us out. If it was purely intended to squeeze money out of us, the Nadi readers I encountered would have milked me some 56 times. But they never took my money. I placed a token at their altar and left. The only time I gave a specific amount was when Agathiyar in the Nadi told me to pay homage to the Siddhas for documenting my Kaanda Nadi and its associated Cantos the very first time I went for a reading. The late Dr.Krishnan, an astrologer and Siddha physician who later became a friend and an upaguru never took more than that which covered his cost. For instance, he could have earned RM75 that day in the nineties for three readings, me, my wife, and my daughter. But he told us that it would suffice to read only mine for their predictions would be covered in mine.
A true seeker will be led to genuine people and shall not be conned. If at all you should land with them, know that it was fated that you lose your money then. A true seeker who goes looking for the Siddhas to get to the bottom of issues and troubles will get the answers he seeks and shown ways to come out of his unfavorable current state of affairs.
But for some selected souls that already have had a strong bond and connection with them in past births, they knock on the door or give a reminder call to them. Or these souls might be chosen to do their work hence they come around to visit them when the time is right revealing their purpose. Just as a bread factory can supply bread to appease the hunger of many, a charitable group can help uplift the standard of living of many, these souls can uplift the souls of fellow humans to realize their true selves. They are the gurus. That is about all that they do. To make us realize who and why we are here and have us walk our own path of discovery. Eventually, this seeker too shall take up a cause and a purpose and bring others to the fold. One bad apple can ruin the entire lineage and the other gurus that he came in contact with. I guess this is the reason the guru shall have us under his custody, nurture, monitor, and test our eligibility for some 12 years before setting us off to preach and practice on our own.
But sadly spirituality and yoga are sold as a commodity these days. One can purchase initiations, practices, and wares to help uplift oneself "instantaneously", becoming a guru himself. I guess this was the reason the Siddha tradition was shrouded in mystery and kept under lock and key by the masters, fearing misuse, manipulation, fraud and to prevent the ignorant few from unleashing dormant energies that could ruin their lives and cause misery and sorrow to close ones if kept unchecked and without supervision. Though I picked up Yoga officially from Tavayogi I never taught it to others unless I was instructed to do so. I know that if Agathiyar asked that I teach it to someone, he would continue from there to monitor and supervise the practice. As I had refused many gifts and treasures that others would envy and seek, such as the rare opportunity to build a temple for him and Lord Murugan, the Nadi for my use and others, and Siddhis that cure and heal others, and even the role of a guru, Agathiyar respected my wishes. I asked that he let me be free to do nothing. That is what I am currently doing. The only task he gave me was to continue writing which I am beginning to enjoy for it is akin to the internal flowering in the crown that is taking place currently. As knowledge of the unknown dawns, it enlightens us. I had always told him that I did not want to end this life without knowing anything. Whether we achieve the higher states that are spoken about is immaterial as of now. At least we can pass away in peace telling ourselves that we had at least attempted.