We have been conditioned right from the beginning. It begins at home with our grandparents and parents, continues with teachers in school, and later with presiding priests and religious heads in temples and places of worship. Finally, it culminates with gurus and spiritual masters in ashrams and gurukulams, respectively. Many cannot bring themselves to accept whatever differs and is different later on.
Agathiyar came into my life in 2002 as words in the Nadi. Taking up the call to come to the path I saw many argue whether Agathiyar was a dwarf or a six-footer, bringing up stories from the Puranas and other texts to support their respective claims.
Coming to meet Tavayogi, he introduced me to Agathiyar as a name and initiated me to chant his name as a mantra on our first meeting in 2005 in Malaysia. Agathiyar now had a name and a calling card and number.
Just before he left for India, Agathiyar had Tavayogi give me another initiation through touch. He was then the touch.
Later, as I left for his ashram, the same year, he revealed that Agathiyar came as light to him the night I was with him at his ashram. He was light.
As I prepared to leave his ashram for home, Tavayogi initiated me with another mantra and a practice, telling me that he was Vaasi, or the very breath in us. He was the breath now.
In 2007, he gave me Asanas and Pranayama techniques that unknown to me brought Agathiyar within tagging on with my breath and opening the Muladhara. I knew him as the Prana and breath.
If Tavayogi had a granite statue installed in the hills of Kallar, at the spot of his sighting in the hills, which he had his devotees bring my family and me over to worship on our visit in 2013, he installed Agathiyar in fibre at his ashram as a 6-footer in 2010. At the same time, Agathiyar had me commission his statue in bronze in a replica of his granite statue at Agasthiyampalli and worship him in my home. He was given a form.
Bringing us to Nattatreeswarar temple, Tavayogi told me that Agathiyar and Siva were one.
Then the deity Karupanasamy, in asking us to look out for Agathiyar at the very first temple we step into on our pilgrimage to India in 2016, after returning home, surprised us in addressing us again, confirming the lady whom we met at Sri Rangam and subsequently in all the other holy spots and wherever we went as Agathiyar. He showed us that Agathiyar was a woman.
Agathiyar then took up from there. In 2022, he opened the gates to the Kundalini energy that had been ponding at Svadishtana after, in 2007, he activated the dormant and sleeping creative energy that once saw to my birth and that had gone into hibernation, awakening her through the practice that Tavayogi gave me. He released her to flow in a couple of days, reaching the Sahasrara and bringing on the blooming of the 1000-petaled chakra. Now he was pure energy.
Telling me that he was the Prapanjam, now he was all of creation.
The divine expresses itself in multiple ways and a multitude of ways. We should not confine it to only one aspect. The Siddhas are known to break every belief and tradition, and our hold on things, including them. Tavayogi, knowing pretty well that I would hold on to his physical form and offer obeisance and worship his image, stopped me in my tracks the day I showed outright joy and happiness in having him visit my family home back in 2005. I am glad he did that, although it hurt so much then. He showed me instead to Agathiyar and asked me to hold on to him tight. Agathiyar, on his part, had me let go of him too recently, telling me that it was time I knew Sivam.
Those who rigidly keep to form and name, kept at doing the rituals and practices, even those given by the Siddhas, become stuck in the spot or quicksand or sink into it further. One has to learn to let go after taking on the experiences from all the practices given, and lessons learned, remaining unattached to form and names, rituals, and practices.
When Supramania Swami passed away in 2006, Agathiyar told me to bring him to mind each Thursday during Puja. Thursdays are auspicious to the Gurus too. Agathiyar has asked to reflect on the guru and his words or teachings. That was sufficient, he said. Tavayogi too told me to pray that Swami's soul is placed with the divine. That was sufficient, he said.
As Guru Purnima approaches, falling on the day after tomorrow, on Wednesday, 29 July 2026, I recall that much had taken place on this auspicious day, in previous years, when we honored our gurus.
If every other event revolves around temple celebrations for deities, gods, and goddesses, this day is specifically dedicated to paying homage to one's guru, if one is already on the path of their guru. Guru Purnima is to commemorate all masters and gurus for their role in guiding souls to realize God. "It is a festival celebrated by Hindus and Buddhist where they pay respect and show their gratitude to their spiritual and academic teachers", as reported at https://www.firstpost.com
"Many Hindus celebrate the day in honor of the great sage Vyasa, who is seen as one of the greatest gurus in ancient Hindu traditions and a symbol of the Guru-shishya tradition. Vyasa was not only believed to have been born on this day, but also to have started writing the Brahma Sutras on Ashadha Sudha Padyami, which ends on this day, which is also known as Vyasa Purnima. Vyasa also wrote the Mahabharatam, Shrimad Bhagwatam, and the 18 Puranas. Veda Vyasa did yeoman service to the cause of Vedic studies by gathering all the Vedic hymns extant during his time, dividing them into four parts, namely Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva, based on their use in the sacrificial rites, and teaching them to his four chief disciples – Paila, Vaisampayana, Jaimini, and Sumantu."
If "According to Hinduism, Guru Purnima celebrates the birth of Veda Vyasa, the famous sage who is said to have edited the Vedas, dividing them into four; he also wrote the Puranas, which are considered the 'fifth Veda' and the Mahabharata", ....
..."according to Buddhism, on this day, Gautam Buddha delivered his first sermon or teaching to his first five disciples after he migrated from Bodhgaya to Sarnath. Thereafter, the 'Sangha' or the community of His disciples was formed."
(Source: https://www.prokerala.com/festivals/guru-purnima.html)
According to Wikipedia, it is "a Hindu festival dedicated to spiritual and academic teachers ... marked by ritualistic respect to the Guru, Guru Puja."
"In the yogic tradition, the day is celebrated as the occasion when Shiva became the first guru, as he began the transmission of yoga to the Saptarishis. The story goes that over 15,000 years ago, a yogi appeared in the upper regions of the Himalayas. Nobody knew what his origins were. But his presence was extraordinary, and people gathered. However, he exhibited no signs of life, but for the occasional tears of ecstasy that rolled down his face. People began to drift away, but seven men stayed on. When he opened his eyes, they pleaded with him, wanting to experience whatever was happening to him. He dismissed them, but they persevered. Finally, he gave them a simple preparatory step and closed his eyes again. The seven men began to prepare.
Days rolled into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, but the yogi’s attention did not fall upon them again.
After 84 years of sadhana, on the summer solstice that marks the advent of Dakshinayana, the earth’s southern run, the yogi looked at them again. They had become shining receptacles, wonderfully receptive. He could not ignore them anymore.
On the very next full moon day, the yogi turned south and sat as a guru to these seven men. The Adiyogi (the first yogi) thus became the Adi Guru. Adiyogi expounded these mechanics of life for many years. The seven disciples became celebrated as the Saptarishis and took this knowledge across the world.
Guru Purnima is held sacred in the yogic tradition because the Adiyogi opened up the possibility for a human being to evolve consciously. The seven different aspects of yoga that were put in these seven individuals became the foundation for the seven basic forms of yoga, something that has still endured."
Ram Dass explains the coming of the guru and his role at http://www.ramdass.org/the-consciousness-of-saints/
"All beings are involved in an evolutionary journey. In the course of history, and far into pre-recorded history, beings have been getting lost in the illusion and awakening out of it. Some beings have finished their work and have awakened out of illusion, the illusion that is involved in birth after birth, not only on the physical plane, but on every other plane as well. When these free beings finally emerge from the illusion through grace, through the help of other beings who have escaped, they are faced with a choice. That choice is whether to merge back into God, or to resist that merging and remain in form on one plane or another; either to take birth again on the physical plane or to make their substance condense on a lower astral plane to do ‘work’ for the relief of suffering of other beings."
"Many of the beings that are free in this way, and who have remained in form on one plane or another, work across planes and remain primarily on other lokas, in more subtle bodies, and they work not only with beings on those planes, but also with us on the physical plane."
Ram Dass quotes from an excerpt from "The Near and the Dear" by Dada Mukerjee at http://www.ramdass.org/work-saints/
"Saints are one in their work as divine channels. They link us up with the source from which all bliss flows: love. They bake the unbaked pots and make them fit to receive the divine bliss. They illuminate the path by removing all the darkness that holds us back. Their work does not end with the energizing or enlightening of some select few here and there. They also serve as the unflickering flame, helping to light other candles."
Tavayogi too had to take a physical form to carry out his mission here, representing what Agathiyar stood for and preaching the Siddha ways. Now that it is done, he has merged with Agathiyar. We need not start the worship of him in the form he took in this birth. Now that he has merged with Agathiyar, Tavayogi is with us in the subtle form, guiding us on. We do not worship his form. We see him in the bronze statue of Agathiyar at Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM). He is light said Dhanvantri to us after his demise. Agathiyar said he was doing their work in their realm. Supramania Swami told me he had seen the light days before his demise.
All the saints come to dispel the darkness, ignorance, and the veil that prevents us from knowing our true selves. They work to bring us back on track to return to the source, starting us with external worship of the divine and slowly bringing us within. Sadly, we chose to worship the guru in physical form instead of forgetting his message to go beyond form and reach out to the source that is within the Guru and all of us. I am glad that Tavayogi, Ramalinga Adigal and Agathiyar pointed me to the source.
