When I went to Konganars cave in Uthiyur with Tavayogi in 2005 there was only an empty cave but when I returned there with the AVM family in 2016 there were remnants of lamps lit up and left behind, an oil spill, and a painting of Konganar. Similarly, when I went to the Sri Shiva Shanmugar Cave Temple or Gua Kelawar in Sungai Siput the first time around there were already buntings with paintings of Siddhas left hanging around. Later, when I and the AVM family and others chartered a bus to visit the cave temple en route to several other religious destinations, statues made of cement lined up the corridors of this cave. There was more when I went over with my daughter and her children later. I understand now that the granite statues of the 18 Siddhas are to be placed here. Maybe I made a mistake too in promoting the place after my visits. The moment we learn of the sacredness of a place people throng to it. The next instant someone takes the initiative to place statues or paintings of deities and gurus. I guess this is how the temples came to evolve. Rituals then begin to take precedence and are given priority. Money has to be sourced to pay the priests, hold events, and upkeep of these temples. There then comes all the other problems related to administering these places efficiently. With man invading these places he would begin to litter them too.
I am glad that I did not fall for the game one of many Agathiyar threw on my path. He asked that I build him a temple when I read my very first Nadi reading in 2002. I became excited thinking that I was the special one. But the very next moment the 24-year-old Sivabalan told this 43-year-old not to become elated. He dropped the bombshell. He told me Agathiyar had requested fifty others too. But since none did it he told me to pursue it. I began to look around for existing temples to allow me to erect his shrine but none allowed. I dropped my venture. Later when my first guru Supramania Swami of Tiruvannamalai initiated the idea to build a temple for Lord Murugan I went out to help him. But just after we acquired the land and put up his kudil, a stranger came along and confronted him asking why he was taking a step back into Bhakti when he was a Gnani. He dropped the whole project. Later when Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal of Kallar Agathiyar Gnana Peedham came along wanting to rebuild his temple and ashram that was falling apart, I volunteered to join many in helping him fulfill Agathiyar's dream too. But as he always spoke about moving into Gnanam from Bakti I asked him why he wanted to pursue this mission. He told me it was for the people. Fine. Then in 2018 Lord Murugan in a Nadi reading asked me for a temple. I questioned the need for it since there were so many for him silently within me. But almost immediately as if he read my mind, he spoke in the Nadi telling me that I shall show him differently. How was I to portray him differently I asked myself. As I did not move he drove Agathiyar to ask me, coming through a devotee at a temple festivity. As I remained silent, Agathiyar told me he would do it then. After the stipulated 18 months that he gave himself, he came in the Nadi telling me that they were only testing me. I apparently had passed the test.
Mans's desire knows no boundary. He keeps adding on thinking he is doing God a favor and doing us good. But he never for once consults the divine. We might not know, that the moment man enters His premises, god and the gurus in Samadhi might choose to leave the place and their abodes, what with the ruckus that some bring along not considering the other devotees. Agathiyar told us through a Nadi reading some time back to sit in silence and take in the existing prevalent energies that have evolved over time in these sacred spaces due to the presence and austerities of these past saints who chose these places to go into Samadhi. The divine too might not wish to be praised as Agathiyar told me to stop praising him and stop writing about him but to share my experiences with readers thenceforth. He would rejoice if we can attain his state rather than remain a devotee lifelong. But we seem to have missed the message. For that purpose he has me do nothing, nothing at all now.