I was someone minding my business, being comfortable with temple visit and home puja to the deities, when Lord Siva came in a dream and had me bring an end to the questions that came within me, seeing others suffer and seeing God do nothing about it. 14 years later, Agathiyar in the Nadi addresses Karma that explains it all. Agathiyar tells me that I was a Namboothri priest in a past birth and had messed around with tradition, hence offending the elders and gaining their curses, thus I saw this birth. Asking me to come to the worship of the Siddhas, I learned to take things into my hands rather than depend on others. The Siddhas had me carry out everything. They made me bring radical change to rituals and tradition, which was what I guess I did in my past life, too, and earned the wrath of others. What was not an acceptable norm in tradition seems to be acceptable to the Siddhas. No wonder we are told that the Siddhas themselves brought radical changes to tradition and society in their times. These days, they come and hijack our home puja and conduct it, showing us how it was to be done. Sharing these changes with two heads of individual ashrams, they replied that they feared bringing about changes, as they had to comply with tradition and what their gurus had left behind.
I guess this is the reason for Lord Muruga asking me to build a temple for him. He told me that I shall do it differently. But society won't allow us to deviate from tradition. On the other hand, a colleague who was in the committee of a temple for Lord Muruga had brick bats thrown at him when he tried to revert back and conform to the Shilpa Shastras and make the necessary changes when the temple went through renovation. I always say to Mahindren that it only happens at AVM. We can bring the change for AVM is my home, and not a public place that comes under the management committee and trustees.
We are steeped in tradition. We fear what both the self-proclaimed and appointed guardians of our sacred texts would say. We fear what the learned would say. We fear what others in society would say. Others tend to instill their fears on us too. We then become victims and are trapped in time.
I chose to believe that we are given full freedom to explore, learn, and bring the necessary changes in accordance with the times we live in. The Siddhas are here to set us free from the grips of tradition. I guess that is the reason the Siddha path cannot make headway in mainstream religions. It is often held close to the hearts of individuals and centered around small groups of believers, seekers, and devotees. So how do we help spread its wings? Tavayogi was directed by Agathiyar to shelve his intention to go into Samadhi and instead reach out to us. What then would be my small contribution towards helping to sustain this path on our soil?