Agamas is said to be in 3 levels. In the form of Tandirams or mantras or divine instructions. Tandiram is a wide field in which mantras are encompassed. And finally, divine instructions are encompassed within the mantras. The soul’s conscience is the reason why Sivam encompasses the soul within Himself. If the soul was inanimate, then there would be no need to do the same.
Our understanding of God
In our daily life, we have so many problems. And many of them continue for days altogether without any respite in sight. Amidst all this, the soul subconsciously searches for The Ultimate for realization. There is a fundamental difference between how we have understood God and how the canonical scriptures explain the understanding of God.
When Saints talk about the body, they are talking about the astral body and not the physical body.
When someone saves us from trouble, we tell that god came in the form of that person and saved us. Hence our definition is that God is someone who saves us from our troubles. All our troubles manifest in the form of physical or mental harm. God gives us this body and then He says that realization is only if we let go of the same. This is confusing. How many hues or shades of a color, the eye can distinguish. That much finesse has been given to us through these physical senses. But why did He give all this if He meant us to give up this body? The physical body is a shirt that one changes often and is given by our parents.
Physical and astral body
How often do we even know what we have seen? how often do we often realize whether we have seen anything at all? Even though two persons see a tree, one does not remember whereas the other does. Why? Because one saw only with the physical body whereas the other saw with the astral body. The astral body is where the Manas resides and hence the second person registers the same at the Manas level. This means that the physical body and the underlying body must be in sync for the experience to register. The astral body is the one given by God whereas the physical body is the one given by parents. We discard and wear new shirts on every death and rebirth.
When Saints talk about discarding the body, they are talking about the astral body.
Those who commit suicide are only removing their physical body, but their astral body remains. That is a far worse scenario because our desires can be satisfied only with the physical body. Hence, they roam around without being able to satisfy their desires.
Traversing from the world, to Siva
We are doing yogam when we are with this physical body. Yogam means union. This type of yogam is called avayogam meaning union with worldly or transient pleasures. The other is Sivayogam which is union with Siva. When we are in avayogam, we are blind to Siva and we are blind to the world when in Sivayogam. One cannot directly jump from avayogam to Sivayogam because the gap is vast. It is difficult and the one that bridges the gap is called tavayogam. So, one goes from avayogam to Sivayogam via the bridge called tavayogam. Tavayogam consists of Sariyai, Kriyai and yogam.
Sariyai is doing temple worship, cleaning, lighting lamps, doing service to followers of Siva and other related activities. The simple truth is that doing service to Saints or followers of Siva bridges the gap much more easily. The yogam we get in Sariyai and Kriyai is different from the Sivayogam. It is not mandatory that the heart should be in sync with actions in Sariyai. Sariyai is worship at the external(puram) level.
In kriyai, worship is at the (agam)internal and (puram)external level and should unite in every activity. Worship in the form of reciting mantras, reciting the names of the lord etc.
The next is Yogam in which there are 8 different steps called Ashtanga yoga. Yogam is doing worship only internally.
Just as a mother will check the taste of the food before feeding her child but will not think about it for herself, the compassion increases when one rises through the steps.
But in simpler terms, Sariyai, kriyai and yogam are just indicators for the percentage of Love/compassion for God at each step. The higher one goes; the compassion increases exponentially.
Why the physical body?
He has given us this physical body to the astral body so that we can walk around this earth and satisfy our desires and then at least realize the transient nature of things.
Once the soul understands the compassion of the Lord, then the soul cannot be separated from God. We still think of Sivam like a supermarket where we can go and buy what we want. When we are linked with the body, we are haughty and all our lifestyles. When we fall unconsciously, we do not even remember or feel anything. Do we ask for a comfortable bed when unconscious? If we think deeply, all our experiences come from using this physical body. This is the gift of compassion that He has given us.
What is correct age for Temple worship?
One should go at the earliest when all the senses are fully functional and in good health.
Nearing death, the senses start failing one by one. Those who surrender to Siva wholeheartedly, will neither be afraid of death nor the suffering of death. We must warn Him that He bought us here and He must take us back without any suffering. Most people think that one should go to temples only when 2 or 3 of the 5 senses start malfunctioning. They think that old age is the ripe age to go to temples and do the yogams.
Having and experiencing are two different things
One can obtain everything from Siva at the physical level and that Is called Bhogam. But only when one experiences it with astral body that realization occurs and is called Yogam. Most people ask for wealth and other worldly pleasures. Even though they might get it, there is no guarantee that they will experience those pleasures. A person would have saved a lot of wealth but would not be able to experience it due to various circumstances. Do your duty with respect to family and society but always have Siva in the back of the mind.
A ship can be in the sea, but the sea should not be in the ship. Similarly, we can be in the world, but the world should not be in us.
A child going to the fair will look wide eyed at all the attractions but never let goes of her mother’s hand even for an instant. Similarly look at the world but never let go of Siva.
Opening one’s eyes
Just as we do not see a child growing everyday until he becomes an adult, listen to Tirumandiram so that the soul’s consciousness grows without us realizing it.
When people say that someone opened their eyes, what does it mean? It certainly does not mean the physical eyes but rather the realization which was until then not known to us even though it was in plain sight. This is because the soul cannot function by itself without the help of Siva. He dances in us so that we dance in this world. Due to ego, we can neither see nor realize the same. This ego can be removed only with the experiences in this world and hence, He has given us this body for the same.