The 13 years, between 1988 and 2001, were spent looking towards my needs and those of the family. In 2001, Agathiyar decided to knock on my door through my nephew Thayalan Arumugam, who came knocking on my door one Saturday afternoon with a message. Being a student at a university in Penang, he used to frequent a temple and took the priests as his guru. The message was from his Paramaguru, Gopal Pillai, who had gone into Samadhi. Was this a coincidence that my nephew should frequent the temple?
It was later that my nephew revealed that the Vasudeva mantra that was transmitted through him by the Paramaguru was indeed from Agathiyar. Agathiyar came into my life even before I read the Nadi the following year in 2002. Am I right? For Agathiyar, in the years to come, comes to tell me that we had known each other for crores of years, but I forgot him. So I am no stranger to him. Neither is he to me. He remembers. I forgot.
As my colleague Muralidaran Saminathan spoke about his experience in reading the Nadi two years back in 2000, I sat in awe and amazement. I immediately asked if he could fix me an appointment too. But has it had been two years now since he last saw his, he said he would try to get in touch with Sivabalan, who brought in the Nadi readers in the footsteps of his Maternal uncle. The day came as I sat before Sentilkumar, accompanied by Sivabalan. In patiently going through three stacks of Nadi with me, as none pertained to me, we gave it a break. He asked to come another day.
The Nadi, although it was mentioned to me in passing by Dr. Krishnan, astrologer, Siddha physician, and friend, when I used to frequent him in the nineties, as I did not know any Nadi reader, I did not pursue it. Dr.Krishnan had reason to believe that I was cursed in my past birth, leading to the predictions not materializing.
Then, going through the same phase and routine another day, there it was in the very first stack. It was truly magical. True enough, Agathiyar said the same, too. I was a Namboothiri priest who had swayed away from tradition and earned the wrath and curses of seniors and elders. I had also harmed many along the way. Hence this birth. No doubt all the previous predictions did not take off. Dr. Krishnan's intuition was right.
In speaking about my Karma, Agathiyar told me that our past curses would stand in our way of reaping the benefits of all our efforts, be it material or spiritual. He answered all my doubts and questions that troubled me 14 years back as to why God did not lift a finger to help his devotees and if he was punishing them. Was this a coincidence that my friend should bring up the subject of the Nadi back then?
Agathiyar then surprises me and Dr.Krishnan, to whom I showed the astrological chart and horoscope of mine, later that Agathiyar had Sentilkumar draw out, based on the planetary positions that Agathiyar walked him through. It contradicted with what I had held all these years. No doubt all the previous predictions did not take off. Dr.Krishnan told me to adhere to the Nadi and Agathiyar. I kept aside my astrological chart and never went back to it. Was this a coincidence, or was I to learn about the flaw or fault in the stars back then? I learned later, reading Velayutham Karthikeyan Aiya's blog Siddhan Arul, Agathiyar reveals a secret where certain planets tend to retrograde. Usually, astrologers are unaware of this and hence do not take it into account. Agathiyar said that only the Siddha knows.
This was Agathiyar's first move in moving the chest pieces. Now I was to make the next move. Was I going to take up his call to come to the worship of the Siddhas? Was I going to carry out the numerous remedies he gave to counterattack the missiles from my past? The choice was mine now.