An interesting topic cropped up in the hour-long talk with a friend, reader, and fellow devotee of Agathiyar a couple of days ago. If it is important to listen and follow what we are told by Agathiyar in private, should we follow what is said and given to others in their private moments with Agathiyar in a Nadi reading, in a public forum, or shared on websites and blogs? Should we hold on to everything said by Agathiyar in common forums and addressed to those gathered before Nadi readers, and in the Nadi readings, and readings for individuals? My friend tells me that he felt burdened at times with various pujas picked up from all these places. All these readings and knowing became a burden for him to follow and execute at the expense of leaving behind all the simple puja and practices he had been doing all this while which had brought him much joy. The joy is lost in trying desperately to live up to whatever is shared.
Generally, the Siddhas shall spell out the way and path to those keen to follow. These can be adopted by all. But once we begin traveling the way and the path, no two individuals shall encounter and experience this mystical journey alike. Both would have taken numerous numbers of births and traveled far in each birth only to come back to continue from where they left off or might even have to start from zero again. Each soul carries tons of unfulfilled desires and wants, accumulated from past births, and begins to develop new desires and wants, preferences, likes, dislikes, etc individually as he grows up and experiences the world around him. A country mouse and a city mouse can never be the same until either switches places and experiences each other's life. So even if both are in the same place and time, the vision, what he apparently sees and hears, his corresponding action or inaction and emotion, perspective, the opinion that surfaces, his experience, and finally the lesson he learns from them might vary extremely. One might just walk away from it unfazed and as if nothing took place while another would find himself touched and blown to pieces with what he saw and heard, changing his perspective, opinion, belief, and faith and his very life forever henceforth.
A general reading is as much as showing the way and the path. So too whenever Tavayogi took the stage and addressed the public, onlookers, seekers, followers, and devotees, he would speak about the way and the path. Though he gave us initiations, practices, and methods to adopt and put into practice, it is only during private moments that he brings home the message and pertinent points regarding these tools and only after we have diligently followed them and arrived at experiencing them. Agathiyar does the same too. Otherwise, it is merely a piece of paper of no value distributed to all as with pamphlets and leaflets. It is only in us adopting the way and the path, the practice and method that it gains added value and we gain its benefits.
After Agathiyar started me off on the journey upon me heeding the call to read the Nadi, arming me with his painting and a long list of Siddha names to recite, and after I had picked up several methods from the many centers I visited, the many works of literature I read, the many videos and audio I listened to, he sent me looking up Tavayogi who was in town after his name rang a bell as I had kept the pamphlet and leaflet of him sourcing funds to build a temple for Agathiyar in Kallar, passed on by the Nadi reader in 2002. Coming as a guru in the physical form, who initiated me into the way and the path officially, giving me Agathiyar's mantra, he later initiated me to carry out the Homam in my home in 2005 and came again to initiate me on certain Yoga practices in 2007. The activation and flow of the river of energy within initially took place after putting into practice the Yogic techniques and stagnated and ponded after 2010. Unknown to me at both times, then Agathiyar came in 2022 to give it the magic touch and thenceforth there was no stopping its rapid movement traversing numerous rapids and whirlpools.
Although Tavayogi like other gurus started us off on our journey with the basics laying the foundation stone as in Sariyai and Kriyai, since day one Tavayogi had told us to move on to the other phases of Yoga and Gnanam. Indeed he brought us to Yoga and Agathiyar took it up from there. The river of pain and joy finally reached the ocean of bliss and merged in the bliss of the Param. Though many came before Tavayogi and even those who stood in line with me to receive the method and practice, for lack of commitment, discipline, and practice they fell back and eventually fell out of the "race".
Just as a home is "alive" if there are people residing in it, and just as a theme park is lively with people patronizing it, a way and a path are there if people walk on it. Otherwise, just as the home becomes haunted, and the park is deserted, the path is overgrown with undergrowth and lost from sight. Hence the reason Agathiyar told me that we have to keep the way and the path alive, for it shall be lost in generations to come, he said.