Many years ago, a reader who followed my blog traced me to a temple puja for Agathiyar. He seemed to have spotted me from afar and, after a brief homage to Agathiyar, walked up to me and introduced himself to me, saying he was a psychologist. He then referred to the blog about the conversations with Agathiyar and asked how he came, and put forth the question whether it was a hallucination. I told him to travel the path I did, and then he too shall learn how Agathiyar comes. He never came back, as I supposed he thought I was another case study for him.
Walking abreast with Tavayogi the morning after I arrived at his Kallar Ashram for the very first time, as we continued our walk down the small hill where his Ashram was located, onto the railway line that connects Methupalayam and Conoor, and onto the road that led through the small village of Kallar, made famous by Thuri Palam or the bridge built in 1925, Tavayogi told me that Agathiyar had come the night before. I was dumbfounded, baffled, and surprised. After taking a moment to digest what he had just said, I asked him the obvious question as to how he came. Tavayogi replied as Light. Fine. There was another moment of silence where I was trying to envision and comprehend this. Then I asked him what he said. He replied that Agathiyar asked him what he was going to give me. Well, that was interesting. After another moment of silence, I asked him, "What did you say?" He had asked Agathiyar what to give, and Agathiyar replied that he would let him know later. The conversation ended again in silence, for I needed time to digest all this, asking myself if all this was possible, if Siddhas do appear and speak, etc. By this time, we had passed the small township and arrived at the Kallar river where we took a dip.
Traveling with him to the caves and abodes of the Siddhas and temples, I encounter further mind-boggling encounters with the Siddhas performing miracles. Then they began to perform these miracles in my home, too, till this day. This journey of some 24 years walking on their path and traveling with them has shown me that they can choose to come in many forms and through many people, too. As I had written earlier,
Agathiyar came in 2001, as the Vasudeva Mantra, in a mysterious way and manner to me, who had taken a break of some 14 years from visiting temples, praying at home, and reading, after Lord Siva came in a dream in 1988 and had me put it all off to another date.
Agathiyar came as the Written Word in the Nadi readings that I went for. From 2002 to 2019, he was the Word that came through these Nadi readings. From 2020 till now, he continues to come as the Spoken Word coming through his devotees. He came a couple of days ago to check on my family and their health concerns.
After addressing my past Karma through the Nadi, he called me to the worship of the Siddhas. To start me off on the worship of the Siddhas, Nadi reader Sentilkumar conducted a Siddha Puja called Nadiku Dhanam, stipulated by Agathiyar as an appreciation to the Siddhas for recording and documenting my life's story, past, present, and future in the palm leaves. I was given a booklet of the names of the Siddhas from Sentil and a painting of Agathiyar that I received from Sivabalan, who brought the reader in from India. Agathiyar now had a Form and Name.
Knocking on the doors of numerous centers, movements, and societies associated with Agathiyar, I only faced disappointment as no one could appease my hunger to know more about the Siddhas and their worship. Speaking to Dr. Krishnan, astrologer, Siddha physician, and friend, about my dispointment he gave me a Yantra on a copper foil that he prepared, and surprisingly, passed me Agathiyar's Mantra over the phone as I sat in Puja at my home in 2003. Agathiyar was the Yantra and Mantra.
Agathiyar came through my Gurus in physical form, first in 2003, as Supramania Swami of Tiruvannamalai, who showed me how a disciple should conduct himself in the presence of his guru, and as Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal of Kallar Ashram later in 2005, who guided me on the Siddha path. While Supramania Swami initiated me into the Siva Mantra, Tavayogi officially gave my wife, me, and others the Agathiyar Mantra to recite in 2005. Agathiyar was both the Guru and the Mantra.
Days later, Agathiyar officially accepted me into the fold, having me get another initiation from Tavayogi the same night he came in the Nadi reading. Tavayogi just touched my shoulders, which I came to know later was Parisa Teechai or Diksha or initiation through touch, and sent me off. Agathiyar came as the Touch.
Taking me into the jungles, Tavayogi pointed me to the gentle breeze that was blowing, the aroma of wild flowers and sandalwood in the air, telling me that the Siddhas were ushering us. He came as the Breeze and Aroma. He was the Nature or Prapanjam around us.
After showing me his presence in nature, he then showed himself in a granite statue of himself at Agasthiyampalli, where he opened his left eye to see Tavayogi and me. Later, he showed the same at Papanasam, where he opened both his eyes in his granite statue before Tavayogi, my brother, and me. He was the Rock.
Reciting the Pranava Mantra in his chambers, he came as the Sound and the Vibration that resonated, bouncing off the granite walls.
Just before leaving his ashram and him, Tavayogi gave me a Vaasi Mantra telling me that Agathiyar was Vaasi, or the Breath.
Coming into my family home in 2010 as a bronze statue or as a Uru or Form, an exact replica of his granite statue at Agasthiyampalli, he has me give the piece of metal Life and Breath (Uyir). He was Uru and Uyir, Form and Breath.
Coming down the steps of the Nattadreswar temple in Erode with my family in 2013, Tavayogi turned to me, saying that Agathiyar and Siva were One. He was Siva.
When my family and I were brought to the spot in Kallar hills where Agathiyar had appeared to Tavayogi as Light, a domestic Dog ran up to us to greet us and disappear shortly after. Later in 2016, as the entourage from Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM) prepared to board the flight home from Trichy airport, a Dog appeared and prostrated before us as if thanking and bidding us farewell at the carpark.
In 2013, he opened both his eyes in his bronze statue at AVM just as he did at Agasthiyampalli and Papanasam in 2005, to see us. He was the Metal.
In 2016, just before our entourage from AVM left for the Kumbha Abhisegam or inauguration of Tavayogi's new Ashram, the deity Karupanasamy, coming through a devotee at a temple, blessed us, saying that we shall meet Agathiyar and that we should be aware of his presence. True to what he said, we saw Agathiyar at the very first temple we stepped into upon our arrival. It was in Sri Rangam. Previously, in 2003, he came as an old but vibrant man in white and spoke English, blessing me before I boarded the car. But what came as a surprise now in 2016 was that Agathiyar came as an elderly woman wrapped in a saree that had all the hues and colors of a peacock. We saw him again at Adhi Kumbeswar temple in Kumbakonam, Palamutircholai, and at the Nattradeshwar temple, again as a woman dressed in the same colors. Returning home, Karupanasamy candidly asked us, "What! Did you think Agathiyar was a male? He is a female!" Agathiyar came as a Woman.
This took me back to the day we held the groundbreaking ceremony for the new yet-to-be-built Sri Raghavendra Swamigal Mritiga Brindavanam Kinta in Ipoh in 2013. A lady dressed the same walked into the grounds and right up to me as everyone else was leaving the grounds, telling me that she wanted to donate towards the cost of a brick to build the temple. She circumambulated the spot where the ritual was done and left, accepting the parcel of food that I had packed for her. Was this Agathiyar too?
When a couple questioned Agathiyar about his true form, having heard so many stories, he asked what they felt in conducting Puja and Charity. They replied that they had an Unarvu or Feeling. That is me, he replied, saying that he was the Joy, Happiness, and Bliss, and Fulfilment and Contentment that they felt during these moments. He was the Unarvu or Feelings we have in doing good.
In testing me to gauge if I had dropped my attachment, Agathiyar asked me to send him away to another devotee's home, which I readily followed and did. In his place, he brought down the Prapanjam, telling us that she was him too. He was then the Space in my tiny, humble home AVM.
If I had only come to know him in the past 24 years, he tells me that he has known me for crores of years. He remembers me, but I forgot him. He is beyond Time.
If one has to be there to experience and to believe, be it God or the Siddhas, Agathiyar tells us that if man only chooses to believe after it has happened, saying let it happen and I shall believe, the Siddhas ask us to believe, and it shall happen. With the Siddhas everthing is possible. This blog is full of surprises and miracles. Read from the beginning.
Browsing through YouTube, I came across Devi Amma in Whitefield, Bangalore, being interviewed. I came to know about her from a friend and devotee who came by to AVM and engaged in Puja and Charity in the past. He took her as his guru and drops in on her frequently.
Her experiences, too, are pretty amazing.