JEEVAN MUKTI & BEYOND

It was a family home where I was carrying out Puja to the Siddhas without publicity. Anyone coming by would miss it. Yet they kept coming. Many came after Agathiyar sent them over after their Nadi readings. Others came when friends or relatives coaxed them to. Many came out of curiosity. Others came, sent by Agathiyar, who worked on them. My family and I accommodated them, as they wanted to see Agathiyar in the form of a bronze statue and worship. Others wanted to participate in the Full Moon Puja. Soon, some came regularly, and a friendship began. After eight years, Agathiyar had me bring the shutters down. I dissolved the group that came to be identified and known as Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM). This gave me space and time to begin my solo journey. It gave the others time to ponder where they were heading too. Agathiyar did not wish to throw the harness around them to restrain them, but instead, let them go their way. He says that they shall come around. It reminds me of Ramalinga Adigal, having sung that those who left the Sangam came around, standing at his door later, asking to be re-admitted.

P. Karthigayan, in his book "The History of Medical and Spiritual Sciences of Siddhas of Tamil Nadu", Notion Press, 2016, writes,

The Siddhas considered the body as a means to achieve exalted spiritual heights and immortalized their body by scientific means.... The Siddhas asserted that one needed to attain Atma Siddhi or spiritual immortality and Kaaya Siddhi or physical immortality... They preserved the body (Udal) and soul (and spirit). By eliminating the worldly substances, the Siddhas renewed their body and reincarnated their spirit or breath with the soul within it. The science of achieving death without dying, or Saagaamal Saagum Kalai, commonly spoken of as an achievement of the Siddhas, is the loss of substances related to the earth except for the form of their profile.

After having me understand and walk the talk, Agathiyar charted the journey and the travel towards attaining the state of a Jeeva Mukta in simple terms, and asks that I share it with others. In asking us, "Who is Agathiyan?" he begins to take our hands on a walk through the path.

You are. I am. True. We all are Agathiyan. The Jothi, or flame in us, is Agathiyan. He resides as the fire, flame, heat, and warmth in us. He is Esan. He is the Esan who resides within.

"Why is it that we do not realize nor feel him?"

It is because we have not attained the state of preparedness or readiness to realize him. Once our soul attains this state, we shall begin to realize him.

"How can we attain this state of preparedness?"

First, we have to travel this path. We need to travel to the places and abodes of the Siddhas, witness their miracles, enter the states of bliss, and bring back these feelings and work on them, nurturing them. The Siddha shall come down. When we follow their directives, they shall walk with us holding our hands. 

Agathiyar continued, 

This travel then shall not be that of an external but of an internal journey. Yoga is the key to this travel within. From Sariyai arriving at Kriyai, now they shall teach Yogam. The journey within shall begin. You shall witness happenings. You shall see many things. It would be puzzling to you. It would be new to you too. Continuing this internal journey, you shall arrive at each Chakra and eventually see the cosmic dance of Thillai in Sahasrara. A 1000-petaled flower will keep on opening up continuously. Arutjothi will come to reside here. Then its effulgence enters within, and just as the Kundalini, upon awakening, traverses each Chakra, purifying them, this effulgence brings on the shine and luminosity in them. Jothi Darisanam takes place where one sees the light or effulgence. The body takes on the same. Vibrations begin to emit within and around us and are felt by those tuned to receive and feel around you. They shall follow you. You become a Jeeva Mukta, having attained Mukti while living in the flesh. Henceforth you are no different from Agathiyan, and Agathiyan is no different from you. You are me, and I am you."

In asking me to even let go of him, Agathiyar justifies it by asking, how else can we become one? He was bringing me from Dvaita to Advaita. He asks that I know the soul, or Atma, and attain Jeevan Mukti. In "Pathway to God Trod by Saint Ramalingar, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, by G.Vanmikanathan, we come to know that,

The term ‘jeevanmukthi’ is used to describe this state of continued life in the body on the part of a knower of Brahman. A jeevanmuktha does not act on his own volition. God acts through him, speaks through him. The jeevanmuktha has imprisoned God in his heart, in every fibre of his body. Here ends our Swaamikal’s journey on the Pathway to God. He has arrived. He has become a Jeevan Muktha, a seeker who has gained what be sought, who has reached the end of his quest. Swaamikal had indeed arrived at his goal, at his journey’s end, and that he has nothing more to do on earth than to spend the remaining years prescribed for him by praarabdha-karma in adoring contemplation of the Godhead and in loving service to all creatures. The point of utmost importance in Advaita is that every seeker after deliverance may hopefully aim at the goal of jeevanmukthi …

From http://www.gurbani.org/articles/webart147.php we learn that,

When the Maya-stricken consciousness of man comes to rest in the Realm of Pure Divine Consciousness within, he becomes Jeevanmukta: remains dead while yet alive (The Gurbani - Sri Guru Granth Sahib, SGGS 1257).

If Agathiyar had laid out the path to becoming a Jeevan Muktan, the journey does not end there, as I have come to know. One eventually becomes Sivam. The body, which was a Mud Vessel or Kumbam that became a Temple and residence of the divine Soul or Atma within, wherein travelled the Breath that is a Vehicle of God and Prapanjam, that was required and an asset that we were asked to care for to arrive at this state of a Jeevan Mukta, has now become a liability for Ramalinga Adigal. Ramalinga Adigal, having attained the state of Jeevan Mukthi, yearned for everlasting, evanescent bliss and eternal union. He yearned for Videha Mukthi.

G.Vanmikanathan writes further,

Liable as it is to disease and decay, to pain and putrefaction, the Jeevan-muktha now longs for release from the body, longs for death. The body which was an asset so long has become a liability as soon as the Jeevan-muktha state has been attained, as soon as the mystic union with God has been achieved. The mystic lives with a dread for his companion, the dread of losing the bliss, the ecstatic union with God. So the Jeevan-muktha now longs for death, for release from the human body, for eternal bliss and union everlasting. He has obtained, it is true, supreme bliss, but still not evanescent bliss; he has obtained union with God, but still not eternal union. On having these beatific visions, wisdom and peace descend on the mutinously impatient Jeevan-muktha, impatient for death, impatient to shed the human body, impatient to gain videha mukthi - disembodied release from the cycle of death and birth.

Ramalinga Adigal attained the spoken state of transformation towards Videha Mukthi, a "loss of substances related to the earth except for the form of their profile"; the state that was witnessed by Mother Mira Alfassa during her meditation on 14.1.1978.

When he was thus absorbed in deep concentration, an effulgent truth-light of grace broke out from his heart and with its unique heat began to burn his radiant physical body very slowly, as at a snail's speed, and that in an upward direction, from the heart towards the head. The burning of the body may be somewhat likened to that of an incense stick which, however, burns downwards by its inner heat of fire, forming ash covering but without the falling down of the ash-form. 

When the upper part of his radiant body was burnt completely from heart to head, there was left in its place a form of pure white substance, which also radiated its light of consciousness. The burnt part, however, showed all its features intact and clearly, and even the burnt hair of his head was seen distinctly as luminous white hair. 

Then the heat of the pure light of grace descended to burn the lower part.

After the whole body was thus burnt, Vallalar was seen as a bodily form of pure white substance from head to foot, radiating its light. The white form kept intact all the different kinds of cells of his body and all the distinctive features and formations of his interior and exterior body. His bodily form did not shrink in size after the burning. I saw no visible flame nor sensed its heat during the burning of his living body, nor smoke, nor any bad smell as of burnt tissues, nor heard any cracking noise as of burnt bones. Instead, there was a sweet fragrance since the time his body began to burn, and it spread everywhere. I sensed in my heart an ineffable calmness and silence, which gave me in turn a state of bliss.

Now a second stage of burning began. The unique heat of grace light began to burn slowly Valalalar's luminous form of white substance from head to foot downwards. When his white substance, full of its radiating light, was thus burnt completely, the white substance became very fine sub-atomic conscious particles, which permeated and pervaded the entire universe and the farther pure worlds of consciousness beyond. The fine, white, and conscious particles with their radiating light also entered into and got distributed everywhere on the earth and even in matter. After the universal pervasive distribution of the particles, they could be seen no more and disappeared from my sight. Now there pervaded everywhere the sweet, soft, and fine fragrance of camphor, which gave my body a blissful sensation and enraptured my heart as well.

Then I had the rare vision of Vallalar's universal luminous golden form. In fact, the immensity of his golden form is contained in the whole universe. This form too disappeared from my view and was replaced by another vision in which I saw the golden light of truth-knowledge and grace entering into all the directions more speedily than the lightning. It permeated and pervaded the whole universe and the farther pure worlds of consciousness. It entered into our earth and all its crores of the physical forms of beings and objects and in the apparently insensible matter and even in the very dark realm of the vast in conscience. All the forms that were permeated by the golden light of truth changed into golden forms of beings and objects. The golden light entered my whole Adhara, including the physical body. My body felt in all the cells vibrations of ease and pleasantness. Then I heard some words of grace. However, they were indistinctly heard and could not be deciphered, as I was absorbed in a rapture of bliss due to the sublime vision and experiences. Thus, the vision lasted an hour and ended.

We can only look up to Ramalinga Adigal in awe for such a tremendous achievement. We can only dream about it, write and talk about his achievements. Although we can never come close to it, we are grateful to him for documenting all his experiences. Though much of what was shared by these saints remained mere words in the beginning, they have become our experiences too with time and our travels. Hopefull some day, someone reading this blog too might experience the same.