Going by the various stories about Agathiyar shared on the net, it makes us wonder and ask if Agathiyar was their cousin. I came to him through a Nadi reading in 2002 and have yet to know that man. He or is it she, is truly mysterious in all manner. Does God have a gender? No one has lived long enough to know him and share about him. What is available is the written word. But then we are told that the written form of the Tamil language was pretty different in the days of these Siddhas. What compounds it is the narrative and translation that followed, as well as the many possible additions and omissions to these texts and the written word. So is it with stories by way of mouth. It is unlikely that we shall come to know the truth. Could this be the reason Buddha avoided answering questions about God? Could this be why Agathiyar avoided answering questions about him and his origin?
After staying faithful to him and his cause, and refusing all the offers and gifts, Agathiyar tried to entice me with a further gift, what every student would fall for - to fill the shoes of his guru, to become a clone of his guru, carrying out the tradition and repeating the gurus words. But as I stood firm on my resolution, just as masters in the past are known to send away their students when they lose a certain amount of ignorance and attain a certain amount of Gnanam, he finally set me free and never to live under the shadow of the guru. He gave me my freedom.
For one who has traveled the beaten track, nothing surprises him. That was Tavayogi and Supramania Swami. The latter, during my very first meeting with him in 2003, sitting before him on the pretext of charting the horoscope of my second daughter, instead of doing so, he revealed my future. He spoke about the Siddhas and Rishis going about their chores on the Holy hill Arunachala. He surprised me by saying that he saw me there too. On my second visit in 2005, asking the reason he had hung up a gunny sack across the window from where he could have sight of the Holy hill 24/7, he replied that the hill was fiery and that he could not see it. If we need to be physically present to connect with another, or connect through the phone or social media, the saints and gurus connect with us through thoughts and messages that come to them, and through them.
Agathiyar finally told me that he would make me a Siddha. But between now and the day that happens, so many things can happen or go wrong. I could rock the boat and mess up my life. I could do damage to my reputation and his, too. I could end up in a scandal. I could fall into disgrace for Mara, or Maya is known to lure even Buddha and the Rishis. As such, what are we but weaklings? Can his grace protect me from all the dangers that lurk out there, or rather has taken abode within? Ego and arrogance, dishonesty and lies, sexual urges that peak, and scandals are but some of the dangers that lurk by. We have seen many a holy man fall from grace at the peak of their "professional career". The gods test us, and even the gods are tested. One has to stay vigilant and pray that he does not slip. We tend to miss the boat most of the time. If we are lucky and if the boat comes along again, we might get another chance. But as they say, opportunity knocks only once; we might never board the boat.