Picking up Anita Moorjani's book "What If This Is Heaven?", published by Hay House UK, 2016, just moments ago, in speaking about traditional healers who keep us going back to them, and stay dependent on them, she writes that, "a great healer guides you back to your own innate ability to heal." She adds that a great healer's goal is to empower you by creating a channel for you to tap into your own natural healing abilities." Similarly, she says that "a really great teacher or guru knows that their true purpose is not winning popularity contests by accumulating more and more disciples who are dependent on them for answers. Their true purpose is to awaken the inner guru or wisdom within each of their students, thereby freeing them from the need to have a teacher." Nothing could be closer to this truth.
When Anita says that "a great healer's goal is to empower you by creating a channel for you to tap into your own natural healing abilities," it echoes what the late Siddha physician, astrologer, and friend Dr.Krishnan said, that the body can heal itself. Agathiyar and Ramalinga Adigal often did the same, having us tap into the Prapanjam.
Tavayogi, who showed me to Agathiyar, instead of having me hold to him, Agathiyar, on his part, instead of having me hold to him, had me let go of him. He asked me to connect with the Prapanjam. Soon, he had me look within at the Atma. Finally, he tells me to know Sivam. There was always a transition to another. It was a game of passing the baton. No guru actually owns us. Neither should we become attached to one for life. Only then can one evolve.
In a world of manipulation, the spiritual path too has to be tread carefully. When a seeker sought permission from the guru and head of an ashram to visit Kallar ashram to deliver some goods that he had brought with him from Malaysia, the guru objected to his leaving, asking him to instead courier the goods. When I was told this later, I began to compare my guru, Supramania Swami. When I told Swami that Agathiyar had mentioned Tavayogi as my guru and wanted me to stay a few days at his ashram, Swami packed a thick blanket and personally carried it to the car, telling me that it would be cold in the Ooty hills. He told me to pass his regards to "my guru". As I stepped out of the car upon returning to his Kudil after I traveled with Tavayogi, he asked, "How is your guru?" I broke down seeing his humility, love, and graciousness.
Just as one needs to explore the world, one needs to knock on several doors before figuring out what is best for them. This is exactly what Agathiyar told a seeker who came knocking on AVM. He sent him away, telling him literally to go knock on four more doors before coming back. I, too, at the beginning of my search in 2002 to know more about the worship of the Siddhas, knocked on several doors of Peedhams and centers carrying Agathiyar's name. I came back disappointed. But that failure drove me to lay the stones one at a time before me as I took small baby steps to discover more on my own. Today, Agathiyar acknowledges the same, telling me that there is no path to follow, but it is we who lay the slabs and create our own path.
Isaikavi Ramanan, in a recent interview, mentions that his father did not impose his ideas and beliefs on him, nor did he insist that he follow and uphold what he practiced, but instead allowed him to flower into the man he is today, humble and respected by all.
When Mahindren asked me the question, "Does suffering bring on spiritual growth, or is it the side effect of resistance? How do we see this happening through the eyes of the Siddha path?" I told him that one has to come to an acceptance that it is all his doing. That is all to it. It shall all end that very minute. Both the sufferings and our resisting them. This is what Bhagawan Ramana preached too. Lao Tzu, too, says to Go With The Flow.
This journey is a long one where we learn from our experiences, our mistakes, and make good of our flaws. We then shine as beacons to others coming along the way. Many are the men and women and children who have taught me many a thing. I picked up many good things from my gurus. I learned from other gurus by reading about them in books. Many movies have delivered wonderful messages. Learning comes in many ways, provided we are willing to learn a lesson. The Siddha path is one such path where we are given the tools, too, and the method, too, initially, that act as oars so that we can sail the waters and arrive at the destination.
In answering Mahindren's other question, "When mention is made of the Kundalini, there is either fear or fantasy. What is kundalini in your experience? What is most misunderstood about the Kundalini?", I told him that there is nothing to fear, for it is the very energy that created us and everything else. So why fear our mother?
This question ties up with another question of his, "How are we to know the shift from the outer guru's guidance to the inner guru's shift? Do we need an outer guru? How are we to trust our inner guru?" The outer guru or the guru in physical form initiates us to move, take the first step. That is all. Effort on our part then brings us places. It is vital to have the inner guru in us take off from where the outer guru left us.
I am glad that Tavayogi on the onset, had brushed me away, asking me to hold the hand of Agathiyar instead. I wonder what would have become of my state if I had not taken the hand of Agathiyar but depended solely on my gurus in physical form? Who would have guided me through the trying times after I took up the practice that Tavayogi gave, which activated my Muladhara and caused intense recurring pain in my lower back, over some 2 1/2 years between 2010 and mid 2012, and again in 2016 and later in 2018, after the demise of my gurus? Agathiyar was there to comfort and explain what was taking place within me in those years of internal transformation, and give me magic portions to ease the pain. Dhanvanthri came in 2016 to treat me. Lord Muruga came to treat me, too, in 2018. Agathiyar helped break the bund and had the energy that had stagnated at Svadishtana move within days to the higher reaches of the chakras and settle in the Sahasrara, bringing on the flowering and bliss in the crown in 2022. So it is of utmost importance to take the hand of the Siddhas who have been there and back in our attempt to journey back to our home. When the creative force or Shakti, Kundalini, awakens again, to journey upwards towards the higher regions of the chakras, rest assured that we are in safe hands, having the Siddhas monitor her flow. Please do not attempt to awaken her without their blessings. As such, one has to come to the worship of the Siddhas who ensure us a safe journey.
If initially and generally the call to come to worship the Siddhas is to tear and bring down the wall that our past Karma had built around us, entrapping us, it now dawns on me that we need the Siddhas not to fulfill our earthly wishes and desires but to watch over the advancement of our individual being or JeevAtma and the eventual merger with the Param or ParamAtma or source.
