On 24/07/2024, I received a message on Messenger from a reader of this blog.
Hari omm.. Athma vanakam sir. .... here from sitiawan Perak. I have following your youtube channeI and Blog website. My Athma learn allot from your sharing knowledge. Thank you very much sir.
I found through Sadhguru Tavayogi Thangarasu. My Assanji guru Cellapan have guide me on dhyanam and jaabam. He has share his experience with his guru, Sadhguru Tavayogi.
My Athma happy to get know you sir and your experience with Sadhguru Tavayogi and Sadhguru Agathiyan.
She spoke about her guru further.
Chellapan sir has his own Durga Center at Kluang. Sadhguru tavayogi have been there for few days with mataji. Chellapan sir is no more. Already 2 years. I have seen him in My dhynam. He is with his guru.
She came down with her family sometime back. Speaking about her yearning to do a Homam, I told her why wait for another day when she could do it then and there. The family sat down to light the Homam, sang the praises of God, and left.
Last Friday, she turned up with another three devotees at AVM after having conducted Siddha Puja at the newly opened Boutique of one of the devotees. When I asked if they had engaged a priests to carry out the puja, she surprised me that she and the other three devotees did it by themselves. Here was a devotee who learned and not only put it into practice but also taught another too.
My wife does the Abhisegam and Homam with my children at AVM from day one. Hence, seeing these devotees take up rituals and carrying it out in a male-dominated society made me happy and proud of them. I recall my earlier post on mothers gathered at the Assi Ghat of Kasi in March 2021 and later at Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu in April 2022, singing mantras that have been kept close to the bosom of men and temple priests in the past. We are told that it took as much as a year for them to rehearse online and in the confines of their homes and finally come together and perform in public. Nothing is impossible when men, and in this case, women, put their minds into it. This is proof of what men and women can achieve when they come together. The Siddhas never shun marriage. Although they were immersed in austerities and worship, meditation and solitude, and research and discovery, they took on a wife for their combined religious and spiritual accomplishments.
PV Jagadisa Ayyar, in his book "South Indian Customs", Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 1985, writes that, "A wife is said to be a Saha Dharma Charini, which means the lady who performs the duty enjoined in company with her husband."
In the book "Nayana, A Biography of Kavyakantha Vasistha Ganapati Muni (from the original Telugu texts by Gunturu Lakshmikantam), Dr. G Krishna mentions that Ganapati Muni had described his wife Visalakshi as a Tapa Sakhi, meaning comrade in Tapas, just as Arundhati was the Tapa Sakhi of Vasistha, and so were the wives of many of the Rishis. They never considered their wives as hindrances to their Tapas.
Ganapati did not share the belief that a woman was the source of sin and Maya. Women were not treated as objects of pleasure by our ancient rishis. They were as qualified as men to discharge spiritual responsibilities. The study of scriptures had convinced him that the ancient rishis had practiced austerity and attained self-realization without giving up family life and responsibilities. The ancient rishis by their exemplary behavior became spiritual preceptors to their wives and helped to establish a well ordered society.
Looking at Ramakrishna Paramahansa's life, we are shown that husband and wife can indeed live together as spiritual companions. Just like Ganapathi Muni and Ramakrishna, Lahari Mahasaya too was a householder.
When women were considered unfit to worship Agni, study the Vedas, and recite Vedic Mantra, and were denied the benefits of Upayana, Ganapati Muni himself used to initiate women into Mantra Japa. Many were the women who were initiated into Gayathri Vidhya, which was considered exclusive to men. Ganapati Muni held the view that women should not be barred from any spiritual or religious chores. Ganapati Muni's wife took to the worship of Agni whenever Ganapati Muni was out of station.
The Siddhas are known to be radical in outlook and broke the norms of the day. They re-ordered society by breaking the prevailing false beliefs, practices, customs, and traditions. Living in society, the Siddhas brought on these changes, for how else can you bring them out of ignorance without infiltrating the camp? When a colleague at my office back then stayed out of gatherings at the office for the mere reason that there would be no vegetarian food served, as he was a vegetarian, I would sit in on all these functions and eat what I could. Slowly, others took notice and would enquire why I didn't partake of the feast. Soon they understood, and eventually they catered vegetarian food too at all future functions. I brought a change. It would not have happened if I had stayed out.
The Siddhas are more concerned with freeing the soul from age-long shackles that kept man rooted in superstition and Maya. They were more concerned about the growth of souls and the objective of reaching their source. Gender, Age and diet were not an issue.