Fetching my daughter from the monorail station we stopped over at the warehouse sale again in the afternoon and picked up several more books. There is something about books that one cannot describe. It is more of a bond and I guess that is why we are called bookworms.
Reading through William J Peters's book "At Heaven's Door", Simon & Schuster, 2022 where he explores those about to die, he says they are not alone on their journey back home. He calls it "shared crossings" He says each of us is "guided back on our journey."
A neighbor's father would share with me that he was seeing his departed relatives call out to him to join them. What surprised me was that the description of the scene was just like where we live now, with rows of linked houses and streets.
If those nearing their time or about to leave see relatives and friends calling out to them as I found out, for those remaining behind and sending them off it could happen in various ways says William J Peters. Some might see the departing soul. Others might "experience sensations or sense of the presence of other energy forces or loved ones previously departed", he says.
I sensed a strong presence of divine energies as my late brother-in-law who initiated and built a prayer hall for his guru Sri Raghavendra called the Sri Raghavendra Mritiga Brindavanam Kinta lay in his coffin.
Some simply know, says William J Peters "without knowing where the knowledge came from." I was surprised to watch a dog rush between my house and a neighbor's home yelping, barking, and crying during the last few moments of its companion dog's departure. It knew.
If departed relatives, friends, and soulmates are on hand to invite the dying commoner, the Gods are at hand to receive the saints and gurus in their last moment before withdrawing from this body. After Tavayogi's demise, a devotee was shown in her dream Lord Siva ferrying Tavayogi on a boat across an ocean of water. In the distance was a hill where Siddhas, Rishis, and Munis went about their daily chores. It is interesting to note that departed souls were waited upon by boatmen according to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, as pointed out by William J Peters.
We were honored to know that they came for my late mother too. When my mother lying on the hospital bed told all those gathered that she wanted to sleep we knew what she meant. Agathiyar coming through me asked that we do not delay her departure by holding on to her any longer. His reason was that another birth was waiting for her. She passed away shortly after that. Later during the funeral Agathiyar announced himself and told all those gathered that Lord Siva was with us at that moment too. We were blessed.
We were blessed in many other ways and moments too. Yogi Ramsuratkumar came on a Sivarathri night two years back without our knowledge and listened intently to Sadhu Om's songs rendered by Sriram Parthasarathy, which I played on my home theatre system. After he revealed his presence to my wife, he announced to us that my guru and his disciple Supramania Swami was with him too. When Tavayogi and Mataji were at AVM conducting the homam Mataji felt the ground shaking below her feet, but could not comprehend it. Two days later Agathiyar in a Jeeva Nadi reading for a devotee read by Tavayogi revealed that the Siddhas were present that night and only Mataji sensed it. Agathiyar once summoned Tirumular to his left and Bhogar to his right asking them to take their place as I stood bewildered and in awe. As I took a step backward for they had then formed a ring, Agathiyar asked me to stand amidst them completing the circle.
An architect who went into a state of coma after a second bout of severe dengue was met by Lord Yama. As he began chanting Lord Siva's name, Lord Siva appeared with his long tresses flowing over his shoulders and back, and with a blue-hued body, huge and way much bigger and majestic in comparison with Yama who was a midget in size. Lord Siva placed his hand on Yama's chest and shoved him away, driving him towards the direction from whence he came, and sending him out of sight. Siva led my friend by his hand and showed him all the worlds. The devotee came out of that state of coma. He surprised us by saying that Lord Yama was not as what was depicted in paintings and movies. He was not darkly tanned, huge, ferocious-looking, and menacing, and did not mount a Buffalo but was instead of a gold complexion and seated on a golden lion. But he had an attitude though. He indicated that the devotee followed him.