"What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."
(Carl Sagan, Excerpt from the 11th episode of his legendary 1980s Cosmos series, titled “The Persistence of Memory”)
Just as Carl Sagan says, during those moments of engagement with the words in a book, we are walking in the shoes of the author, and "Walk Thru" the mind of the person who wrote it, Agathiyar has told us to read the songs of the saints and we shall bring ourselves to experience the same. He asks us to read Ramalinga Adigal's "Thiruarutpa". He tells us that we cannot possibly understand the works of the Siddhas because of the language used in their era. Furthermore, it is cloth in Paripasai. He tells us that Ramalinga Adigal came to simplify and put it into simple terms so that we can understand. Thavathiru Rengaraja Desigar has compiled a selection of songs towards bringing these mystical pieces to the fold of commoners like us in his "Gnanigal Aruliya Thinasari Parayana Nool."
As Carl Sagan says of the book, we can infer that when we sing the songs of these saints, just one glance at it, and we’re inside the mind of the saint, maybe somebody "dead" or in our case gone into samadhi or merged with the light or attained nirvana or mukti, for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the saint is speaking clearly and silently inside our head, directly to us." Indeed as he says, "Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time."
When we sing their songs we bring them into our time and space momentarily. They exist with us. We can bring back these saints. When we recite the names of the Siddhas they come and sit with us in our puja. Agathiyar told a devotee in her Nadi reading read by Tavayogi that only Mataji was witness to the earth-shaking phenomena as she led us on reciting the names of the Siddhas when we conducted the puja at AVM.
When we rush to do our thing, Ramalinga Adigal stands before his God and Guru asking what he is to do each day.
Ramalinga Adigal sees everything as the grace of God. Whenever they come these days they lead us into reciting the Arutperunjothi mantra. Here Ramalinga Adigal completes the mantra with some fresh verses. He stands in awe as he witnesses the divine play of God.
We see his joy in holding on to his God.
Ramalinga Adigal pleads to Lord Muruga to remove his suffering as a result of being deprived of his grace.
He sings of the last moments of life asking who comes with us if not the Lord. He laments that we never seek Shiva Gathi but run after our worldly desires. He is deeply distressed that he has not come to gain the highly evolved body. Of what use is this body if it does not serve his purpose?
He pours his love on Lord Murugan.
He moves up to the worship of Jothi.
