I had a wonderful childhood, a good career, a good family life, and a religious upbringing that brought on a smooth transition into the spiritual world, too. Whatever obstacles and knots were cleared with the coming of Agathiyar into my life, or rather with his calling me back to the path that he says I was on, having known each other for crores of years. So why is it that I cannot remember the good times we had earlier in my past lives? Why have I forgotten him, only to have him come by again to remind me through a Nadi reading that came quite late in life, when I was 43 years of age?
Swami Muktananda mentions in his book SECRET OF THE SIDDHAS, Siddha Yoga Publication, 1980, "Forgetfulness of one’s true nature is the moss of ignorance that muddies the experience of the self" and that "The Guru is the means of removing it."
Why did he wait that long to bring me back home?
Ramakrishna is said to have lamented that Naren, who came to be known as Swami Vivekananda later had come late. Richard Schiffman in ‘SRI RAMAKRISHNA – A PROPHET FOR THE NEW AGE’, Paragon House, 1989, shares Naren’s own account of his first meeting with the master.
To my great surprise, he (Ramakrishna) began to weep with joy. He held me by the hand and addressed me very tenderly, as if I were long familiar to him. He said, “You’ve come so late! Was that right? Couldn’t you have guessed how I’ve been waiting for you? My ears are nearly burnt off listening to the talk of these worldly people. I thought I would burst not having anyone to tell how I really felt!”
I guess, as Mahindren told me yesterday, just as a child is attracted and explores life before settling into a comfort zone and a rhythm and pattern, comfortably, we had to explore life for ourselves.
But I am saddened by the many who have yet to settle down, be it in a good job, a good and trouble-free life. However, I still continue to help them in whatever little way I can. But besides living as a family, in the community and society, there seems to be a greater purpose in us coming down. This is only made known when the Siddhas begin to stir the soul in us to rethink our purpose. The soul then becomes the guru that shows us the way. If initially, the Siddhas bring us to a guru in the physical form to have us start questioning ourselves, soon the soul fills the void that is left behind with the passing of the guru. The soul takes the place of our previous guru, as we take his form, image, ideology, etc. A couple who came by to my home after reading my blog, and who were initially saddened to read that Tavayogi had passed away, rejoiced in telling me later that Tavayogi still lives, after seeing me. I was brought to tears by this observation and acknowledgement of theirs. Lately, Agathiyar told me that I should live as him and not Shanmugam Avadaiyappa. When he asked me if he should make me a guru, after I had dismissed all the offerings and gifts he had laid before me to take up, feeling guilty for refusing him all these years, I finally submitted to accept this wish of his. But surprisingly, he immediately retracted it, saying that he would make me a Siddha instead. That is the magic of these gurus. Blessed are those who come close to these amazing souls that uplift us to become on par with them.
Srinath Raghavan had posted a beautiful piece many years back, mentioning that "Freedom is breaking the bubble and seeing and feeling the reality beyond your own," which "We can very well break its brittle wall from inside, But we choose not to, for the fear of being exposed to uncertainty," and happens "When, with the touch of the Master from outside, the bubble breaks, That's when we will finally realize, how foolish and limited we were, To have accepted the truth that's known to us, as the Final Truth..."
If Swami Muktananda says that, "all scriptures and Sadhana are simply means of washing away the filth of ignorance." and that "They have no ability of their own to reveal the wisdom of the self because that principle is self-existent, perfect, and always manifest", Ramana Maharishi says that the master comes to transform us, "... the spiritual energy of a master transforms the consciousness of men." Ramana Maharishi strongly believed that the spiritual energy of a master could transform man’s consciousness, as Truman Caylor Wadlington writes in his book YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR - THE GODCHILD OF TIRUVANNAMALAI.
Ramana Maharishi seldom wrote, but in his prose and verse, he laid great emphasis upon the age-old verity which asserts that the spiritual energy of a master transforms the consciousness of men. He claimed that nothing was equivalent to association with adepts as a means to attaining the supreme state.
Swami Muktananda says, "Just as the wind disperses the clouds but does not create another blazing sun, so the grace of a Siddha simply removes the veil of ignorance so that one realizes that one is already perfect." He is said to have mentioned that the moment he met his guru Bhagawan Nithyananda, "In a flash of self-understanding, he knew that he had found his other half; that now he was whole again." (Source: Paul Zweig in the introduction to Swami Muktananda’s ‘THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP’, SYDA Foundation, 1985)
Ramalinga Adigal sang that, "Only the guru can know that delight and taste the elixir that arises in every pore of the body."
ஆணிப்பொன் னம்பலத் தேகண்ட காட்சிகள்அற்புதக் காட்சிய டி - அம்மா
அற்புதக் காட்சிய டி.
சந்நிதி யில்சென்று நான்பெற்ற பேறது
சாமி அறிவார டி - அம்மா
சாமி அறிவார டி.
Swami Muktananda echoes the above phrase of Ramalinga Adigal, too.