In wanting to learn astrology back then, I bought books and looked through them. In plotting my horoscope for a start, I found it to be a great science. The challenge is not in plotting it but in delivering the Gochara Palan or providing a reading of the circumstances that arise from and as a result of these planetary movements. Astrology cannot be said to be a hoax, for Thirugnana Sambandar himself had composed a hymn, "The Kolaru Pathigam", that acknowledges the planetary reality, as Siva Thondan wrote earlier.
In coming before Agathiyar and his Nadi reading for me, Agathiyar, besides mapping out my horoscope, spoke about karma and curses, and revealed mine too, and gave remedies to soften the effects of my past actions. Though initially the Siddhas tend to help us work out our karma, the ailments of the body, and address our needs towards our continued sustenance and survival, they later bring us to a state of acceptance. They then work on the soul, "orienting it toward Pati rather than contracted around its own Prarabdha." "The experience may still occur. Its binding power will not," says Siva Thondan. When the soul or Pasu deals directly with God, "Pati's Grace operates at a level that encompasses and transcends the Pasa order of which the planets are a part."
And so I have come to know why Tavayogi would call all those who came before him with problems and troubles, to worship the Siddhas.
Furthermore, it is said that the Siddhas had approached Lord Brahma and voiced a similar concern to him in the past. Velayutham Karthikeyan Aiya, the admin and author behind the blog "Siththan Arul", reveals in his blog entry, taking us back to a time immemorial, when the most compassionate and kind Siddhas presented their wishes for humanity to God or Erai. The Siddhas had wished that whoever seeks them out for solutions to their problems and surrenders to them, shall be pardoned for their past deeds. However bad and evil they may be, they shall not be put through the trial and tribulations and made to face the consequences, but instead be saved. When Erai granted the Siddhas this wish, the next instant the Siddhas wrote down in Tamil prose on dried palm leaves that came to be known as the Nadi, the reasons for each individual’s sufferings, listed out solutions and remedies, and showed ways and means to overcome or end the seeker's problems, sins, diseases, illnesses, and sufferings.
Karthikeyan Aiya adds that the Nadi has been written by Siddhas for us to know about our past, the present, and the future. The Siddhas are those who know the past, present, and the future. They were gnosis. The Siddhas were similar to a company’s secretary. The Siddhas were God’s messengers. When those who had prayed to God and had yet to receive God’s blessings approached the Siddhas instead, they immediately received God’s blessings.
If I understood that this one sage, the Almighty Agathiyar, was equivalent to all the gods when it was told that he was sent to the south to balance the world that had tilted due to the presence of the Gods and Goddesses gathered to witness Lord Siva and Pravathy's wedding in the north, Velayutham Karthikeyan Aiya's post on Thursday, 12 September 2013, sheds further truths. In Agathiyar's revelations in 2009 to Karthikeyan Aiya's friend, the famed Jeeva Nadi Guru of Chennai, through the Jeeva Nadi in his possession, Agathiyar says that,
"I had taken the Avatar Lord Murugan as my guru. Lord Shiva has handed over 75% of his authority to me. Lord Vishnu has given all of his authority, blessing me to conduct myself on his behalf. Thus, I have been given all the powers of Lord Vishnu. Lord Brahma, on his behalf, surrendered all the knowledge of his (Brahma's) creation to me. Lord Brahma granted that if I wished so, I could change the fate and destiny of all those who were dumb and not knowledgeable, of unsatisfactory health, mentally retarded, lame, paralyzed, deaf and dumb, and blind, all created by Lord Brahma for various reasons known only to him (Brahma)."
As Siva Thodan wrote: "the Siddhantam teaches: that Karma is real, that planetary influence is real, that they must be engaged and not bypassed — but that Arul operates from a level that neither Karma nor planets can constrain."
"The devotee in bringing the planetary situation into the field of Bhakti — into Shiva's presence — and there the cosmic arithmetic is reconstituted."
"The Kolaru Pathigam is not magic. It is sadhana — it reorients the soul's fundamental posture from anxiety about cosmic forces to trust in the sovereignty of Shiva. And in that reorientation, the planetary machinery — still running, still delivering its consequences — ceases to be the defining reality of the soul's experience."
"The deepest paradox of Saiva Siddhantam: the very Pasam — the bonds of Anavam, Karma, and Maya — that obscure the soul from Shiva are simultaneously the curriculum through which the soul grows capable of receiving Shiva's grace. The Pasam, in Saiva Siddhantam, is not ultimately opposed to Shiva. It is the very material through which Shiva works."
"The Pasu struggles within Prakriti Maya."
When we surrender looking out to the basic needs and the struggles in our daily life to the divine, we have more time to look within - at our soul or Pasu.
While Nadi and horoscope readings reveal the person that we are and the reasons for taking birth, helping us to understand our Prarabdha karma, the soul can only be known by the guru pointing it out. Sivam is then known by the grace of the divine.
Surrendering self-willed action by Karma Marga, going beyond feeling by Bhakti, and eventually going beyond thoughts by Gnana, thence we come to the threshold of Gnana Marga for good.
When the vessel is ready for the divine energy to traverse within and along its network of nerves, the Siddhas take control of the breath and deliver the much-anticipated and awaited Kundalini energy, breaking through all the blockages inherent in the body, consuming the poison, opening up the chakras, and delivering ambrosia that reverses the aging process of the blessed devotee. When I surrendered to Agathiyar in 2002, took heed of his words, did his will, carried out the given practices, the Kundalini arose and made its way to the higher reaches. My effort was only in faithfully and diligently carrying out the Yoga Asanas and Pranayama practices that Tavayogi showed me in 2007. It opened the Muladhara without my knowledge, bringing on intense pain in my lower back, down to my right foot, which I had to bear for some 2 1/2 years. In 2022, Agathiyar opened the gates to the dam at Svadishtana, which withheld and forced this force to pond and stagnate, allowing it to flow swiftly in a couple of days to the Sahasrara, where the 1000-petaled lotus blossomed in all its glory and majesty. When I asked him if there were any further practices, he replied that there were none and that she would do her work. If Tavayogi told me the same too, that "Our effort is only till Svathisthana. The Siddhas shall lead us on beyond that", Lucy Cornelssen, in her book "Hunting The 'I' ", Sri Ramanashramam, 2005, quotes Ramana as saying, "Your efforts can extend only thus far. Then the Beyond (Sakti) will take care of itself. You are helpless there. No effort can reach it......He knows what is best and when and how to do it. Leave everything entirely to him. His is the burden; you have no longer any cares. All your cares are his. Such is surrender. This is bhakti."
Lucy writes, "Henceforth his karma is his guru's, his desire conforms to his guru's, his possessions are those of his guru's, his responsibilities become those of his guru's, his body, mind, and soul are that of his guru's."
The self, soul, or JeevAtma that designed and engineered this body for its purpose in coming here, which eventually turned out to be to do Agathiyar's tasks, went into hiding and later returned to take up the calling to read the Nadi, whence a beautiful journey began that has now come to a closure, revealing the Bigger Self or Soul, Param or ParamAtma.
Agathiyar says that we are all one Atma, one energy that has taken various forms, and that we are here to do God's work. He adds that,
"The 'I' has to be erased. Only then shall the Atma surface. That is my Atma too. All is God's Atma (ParamAtma). We are all part of God. We have come to do his work. We have taken many births. But then we only attended to our work. At least begin to do God's work now. Ask Agathiyan what your purpose is in coming here. He shall make you realize. He shall guide you on what to do and what to let go. Your Atma shall speak to you. Only when you drop your work shall your Atma arise. It will begin to do its work. Agathiyan shall drive your Atma and bring it with him. It shall not be after death but right now in the here. It is not death. Do not waste precious time by stalling. Everything should happen now in the present. It should all take place while you are alive. Once life leaves you, you are just a corpse. It serves no purpose. Achieve it while alive. Lord Murugan had come earlier and reminded you of the need to surrender. This is the reason. Surrender unto me. Surrender when you are still alive. There is nothing to achieve after death. Karma shall follow the dead. If you achieve it while still alive, there is no death. Neither is there karma."
அனைத்தும் ஒரே ஆத்மா. ஒரே சக்தி கூடி செயற்படுகின்றோம். அவ்வளவுதான். இறைவனின் செயலைச் செலுத்துகிறோம்.
உங்கள் வடிவம் நாமம் மறைய வேண்டும். அந்த நான் மறைய வேண்டும். அப்போது மிஞ்சி இருப்பது பரிசுத்த ஆத்மா. அது என் ஆன்மா. அகத்தியனின் ஆத்மா. ஈசனின் ஆத்மா. சுப்பிரமணியனின் ஆத்மா. தவயோகியின் ஆத்மா. முருகனின் ஆத்மா. அன்னையின் ஆத்மா. விஷ்ணுவின் ஆத்மா.
நாம் அனைவரும் கடவுளின் அம்சம். அவரின் வேலையைப் பார்ப்பத்திற்கு வந்திருக்கின்றோம். பல பிறப்பு எடுத்து விட்டோம். அப்போது நாம் காரியத்தைப் பார்த்துக் கொண்டிருந்தோம். இனியாவது இறைவனின் காரியத்தைப் பார்ப்போம்.
அகத்தியனிடம் கேளுங்கள் "நான் எதற்கு வந்தேன்?" அவன் உணர்த்துவான். எதனை நீங்கள் செய்யணும் என்று, எதனை நீங்கள் செய்யலாகாது என்று, அவன் உணர்த்துவான்.
உங்களுடைய ஆத்மா உங்களிடம் பேசும். எப்போது உங்களுடைய காரியத்தை விட்டு விடுகிறீர்கள் அன்றுதான் உங்களுடைய ஆத்மா வெளிவரும். அது தன்காரியத்தைப் பார்க்கும்.
அகத்தியன் உங்கள் ஆத்மாவிற்குள் செலுத்துவான். உங்கள் ஆத்மாவை தன்னுடன் கூட்டிச் செல்வான். அது இறப்புக்கு பின்னர் இல்லை இப்போதே இத்தருணமே கூட்டிச் செல்வான். அது இறப்புக்கு சமம் இல்லை. இறப்புக்கு பின்னர்தான் அனைத்தும் நடக்கின்றது என்று எண்ணிக்கொண்டு பொன்னான காலங்களைப் போக்கி விடுகின்றனர். அனைத்துமே இப்போதே நடக்க வேண்டும். அனைவரும் என்னுடன் இப்போதே வந்து சேர வேண்டும். உங்களின் ஆத்மா என்னோடு இணைய வேண்டும். அனைத்தும் உயிருடன் இருக்கும் போதே நடந்தேற வேண்டும். உயிர் பிரிந்தபின் அது வெறும் சவம். யாருக்கும் பயன் அற்று அழுகி போகும். உயிர் இருக்கும் போதே அனைத்தையும் சாதித்து விடுங்கள்.
அமைதியாக அகத்தியன் செயல் படுவான். முதலில் உங்களை என்னிடம் ஒப்படையுங்கள். அன்றே என் குருநாதன் பலமுறை உங்களிடம் வந்து அமர்ந்து உங்களிடம் பலமுறை கேட்டான் சரணம் அடைந்து விட்டீர்களா? அதற்கு இதுதான் அர்த்தம். உயிர் இருக்கும் போதே சரண் அடைந்து விடுங்கள். இறப்புக்கு பின்னர் ஏதும் இல்லை. இறந்தவனுக்குத்தான் மறுபிறப்பு. இறந்தவனுக்குத்தான் கர்மா தொடரும். இருக்கும் போதே சாதித்து விட்டால் மரணமும் இல்லை கர்மாவும் இல்லை.
As we recall all the above that Agathiyar told us in January of 2022, Agathiyar reminds us why Lord Murugan came to ask us to surrender. It is only when we surrender that the divine can work on us. It is only when the "I" that is thought to be the doer submits to the holy feet of the divine that the Atma that resides within us and has been watching silently can arise to lead us to greater heights, not to achieve more monetary gains, but to show the way to God. This JeevAtma shall lead us to the ParamAtma.
Having got the greatest boon from Agathiyar, this is where I have to tread with caution, for this last phase is akin to walking on the razor's edge. I have to keep reminding myself of all the teachings of my gurus, especially on humbleness, and not slip into arrogance that destroyed King Ravana of the past and many gurus in present times too, for history stands witness to how arrogance, the ego, destroys man. In witnessing others' flaws and their downfall, it serves as a lesson for us to take charge of our lives the way the Siddhas intended and desired. This is where I have to be continuously aware of my consciousness and senses, and keep watch. This could yet be another test for me, probably my final, after having tested me several times earlier to see if I was a viable candidate for the post that the Siddhas have reserved for me. I am glad and grateful that I have made it this far to qualify to be a candidate to join their ranks. In holding to Agathiyar's feet, we can be assured that we will be delivered safe and sound to the holy land.