Agathiyar had stopped Tavayogi just as he was about to jump onto the railway tracks as a lad after being blind for a year. A voice stopped him from taking his life telling him that Agathiyar was there for him. Soon he regained his eyesight and returned to his garment business in Tiruppur promising to leave everything behind voluntarily when he was 50 years of age. He did as promised and traveled the length and breadth of India, when while in Sathuragiri Agathiyar told him to look for a place known as Agathiyar Vanam and set up his kudil and the Agathiyar Gnana Peedham. He soon found it to be close to the Turi Bridge in Kallar. Then in 2004, Agathiyar told him to go to Malaysia and preach the Siddha path. If there were many who brought the Siddha path to our shores in the past and established a following here, it was Tavayogi who captivated our attention for his humbleness and honesty. He was both humble and honest to the core. He never put anyone down and claimed his superiority. He would admit that he did not know certain things too. I met him in 2005 when he came to officiate a local affiliate of his ashram. Since then he has come regularly, his last in 2016 for my daughter's wedding. He was extremely happy to see the growth of Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM), a small and loose group of seekers and devotees who gathered at my home. What held us together was the rituals during Pornami or full moon nights and the many charitable acts we carried out. But Agathiyar wanted to test our hold on the gross and its extent and wanted to break it. He had me wrap up this group in 2019 in the wake of the pandemic. We were distanced for that period. All went silent. Everyone went their way. But this was merely an intermission as in the movies. But no one knew it. As for me, he had me go within giving me specific instructions and practice. In 2023, he revived the puja traveling to the homes of those who eagerly wanted him and his bronze statue to come over. Early this year he returned home to AVM. It was all part of his divine play or game or Lila. In playing his game he showed me the heart and the soul of many who claim to be on his path.
When all the texts, books, speeches, and talks, speak of the Siddhas as having gained the Siddhis and detail their powers, Agathiyar showed us that the Siddha path was all about living a life fully each moment with the family and in society, upholding the noble virtues. The Siddha path is one of honesty or Satyam. Everything the Siddha has us do leads to it. We shall be forced to drop the false. The fire of honesty will burn us down whether we like it or not. The soul that is released from the dungeon where our Ego threw it, comes as the guru and the judge. One cannot escape from its sight henceforth. Once the soul awakens there is no looking back. Our life changes. It brings change. All vices and weaknesses that were difficult to drop earlier now are burned in the inner sacrificial fire. The soul refurbishes the home that was burnt down and rebuilds it. The soul that designed and built this home and went into hibernation forcefully held under the Ego's custody with the grace of the guru, once released, revamps the organization of thoughts and things. What we once did thinking nobody noticed is no more possible for the soul now knows our every thought and apprehends it even before we begin to act. Though we might tend to fall back into the previous mold momentarily, the soul that is now ever present having come out of exile, comes to monitor the thoughts and actions of us. This soul upholds justice and honesty. If the ego drove us and kept us captive earlier the soul now moves us in the opposite direction.
One just cannot be a Siddha without going through the rituals of life. Yes, as a child you have to go through the stress that modern education has come to place on children. You have to go through the stress of working life on young adults and the multiple stresses that come with relationships. Having gone through these trying moments one finally picks up the rituals in worship, to tone these down. What we have done is take snapshots of the timeline from the age of the Puranas and freeze it in stones, granite, and metal statues and began to worship these images and personifications as Avatars and forms taken by the divine forces as in Sariyai and Kriyai. So we see instances of fearful gods and goddesses in the Hindu pantheon carried through the ages and upheld as worship. Coming to the Siddhas and Yogam, it helps to spend some time diverting one's attention from the regimes of life to a moment of quietitude and peace where the soul within and the Siddhas begin to speak. Then when we pass on others shall do these rituals to send us off. The Malays and Muslims have a wonderful saying that denotes this, "Sembahyanglah anda sebelum anda disembahyangkan". These are rituals for the afterlife. Man's life is kept active by these rituals but when one reaches the state of a Siddha he drops all these and frees himself from being tied down, only after he has eaten the fruits of his labor and seen its benefits.