எமது எழுத்துக்களில் ஏதும் பிழை இருந்தால்...
If my writings are flawed...
அது நீயா எழுதுகிறாய்?
(Before I could finish my question Agathiyar like Tavayogi puts another question back to me) Are you the one writing it? (Hinting that it is his work entirely)
As I would not want to add to the confusion that already exists as it is in the spiritual arena, I had asked Agathiyar when he spent some quality time with us over two days on 17 and 18 February, if there were flaws in my writing, he immediately responded asking me if it was mine to take credit for. Though I knew he was giving me the subject right to the very words to use to convey the message, I had to be doubly sure that it was not misleading. I am willing to correct myself for I am also learning together.
I saw how a speaker giving a talk distorted the facts by telling us that there was no past and future birth. It surprised me too for the very first lesson in Siddhahood was knowing our karma and past births. After Agathiyar himself came to point out the flaw I was prompted to bring this to his attention. I spoke to him in private over the phone. He admitted that he used to say this because many were either caught very much in the subject of karma and never lived their lives fully or never bothered about their lives leaving everything to another moment and another birth. Though his intention was good to have them live in the present moment, he had distorted the truth. I did not want him to repeat it in his future talks. He responded positively telling me that he shall refrain from saying the same in the future. One now wonders how much of all the things we took on and adopted is the genuine truth.
Devotees often share their "adventures" and "travels" to other planes, with me, remembering them either after returning from a brief span of coma or encounters with death or in others after having sailed through the oceans and seas of space in their meditations. I have never had any of these experiences (as yet). Neither am I interested to see nor know. When we cannot fully comprehend the very soil and ground we stand on, the tattvas that govern and drive us, the breath that keeps us alive, and the soul that had accompanied us from day one of our conception, of what use is this additional baggage of knowledge or experience of the unknown frontiers? When we cannot bring ourselves within and fully comprehend the internal journey, why ponder upon this external journey across time and space? Then again where would one start to know these other and outer worlds, dimensions, planes, and spaces? We would not possibly see all of these in one short life span of ours. Even the learned in our midst cannot possibly explain in lucid detail. Only the one who has returned from there can give us a detailed account provided he remembers or is allowed to retain these sights and experiences and divulge these sightings. Then again would it be absolutely intact in its original form when it comes to our dining table?
When there are many unresolved questions in our midst why ponder about that which is beyond our reach and comprehension? For instance, who is this Shanmugam Avadaiyappa? Is he this body? Is he this breath? Is he this soul? Does this body respond to the call of his name? Does a dead body arise when called to do so? Does the breath that initially comes and goes, when it decides to leave for good, respond to the calling (of this name)? Does the soul that departs return to the body when the name is called out? It sure does seem so for how can someone wake up when his name is called out in his sleep? So is the name accorded that of the soul?
We are asked to call out the names of Siddhas, and recite and chant them. The Siddhas respond accordingly too. So am I correct to deduce that the Siddhas, who walked the ground in the past and either entered the state of Samadhi living very much alive in their Gnana Degam or bodies that are kept hidden from view; the Siddhas who chose to go further and merge with the wind with the Pranava Degam; and those who merged with the light eventually in their Oli Degam, respond to their last known names?
So am I correct to deduce that just as this skin, liver, brain, lungs, heart, kidney, spleen, pancreas, thyroid, and joints are not Shanmugam Avadaiyappa, and neither is the composite of all these that is the body Shanmugam Avadaiyappa, so too the numerous forms and names is but a reflection, characteristic, personality, form and name of the One or Yegan that is both formless and nameless.
I have only walked you through some 84 minutes of the conversation my family had with Agathiyar over the two days of him walking in our midst recently. I needed a break to digest the many things he told us. There is more that I shall transcribe and post in days to come. Agathiyar did ask why we do not have saints among the many who devote their lives to temple service? It is a profession to them. It stops at that. To remain in Sariyai and Kriyai would not suffice. One has to take the plunge into Yogam and Gnanam. The Siddhas are desperately looking for souls to work through them. Hence that is what he is doing with the handful willing to listen at AVM. To those dragging their feet, he is using all means to have them take the plunge. Agathiyar spoke about another touchy subject - that of vegetarianism too. Ramalinga Adigal has laid too high a standard, that man now cannot possibly comply with, reach up to, or achieve. The divine is in negotiation to loosen the tight and rigid standards so that many among us can follow and abide. This is akin to how Agathiyar came to speak in the Tamil language of present-day use in the Nadi, coming down from his adoption of the Tamil language from the Tamil Sangam, for the sake of souls seeking the Nadi after Nadi reader Hanumathdasan Aiya placed the request before him.