Trips to Arunachala

The Trips to Arunachala

K S Kanakasabapathi

My first experience of Ramana Maharshi was on the day he left this material world back in 1950. I was

a boy of about 12 walking on the road to meet my brother who was running a small restaurant. The

time was in the early part of the night on April 14. I suddenly noticed a “Jothi” rising in the sky. It was

very much different from an aircraft or a meteorite. I got the immediate feeling that a great soul had left

this world.

The next day's newspapers carried the news of Maharshi shedding his material body and of the “Jothi”

rising up in the sky, witnessed by many all over the country. I was then too young to realize the greatness of the man fully and the incident only just remained in the back of my mind. Years later, I happened to read Somerset Maugham's book “The Razor's Edge” which was partly influenced by the author's stay in Ramanashram. Later, a friend of mine loaned me a book by Paul Brunton “A Search in Secret India”, which I found very interesting. Later I was presented the same book by the management of Shanthi Malai Trust.

A couple of trips to Tiruvannamalai and a visit to Ramanashram later brought me closer to the Ashram

and a latent desire to spend time at the Ashram was developing. I was able to get permission to stay in

the Ashram last September and we all (I, my wife, son daughter-in-law and grandchildren) went over to

Tiruvannamalai, spending time on the way at Senji Fort. We had the darshan of Arunachaleswara and

other deities in the temple. My daughter-in-law Vidya and grandson Skandan sang Thiruppugazh in the

Sannidhi of Murugan and also sang devotional songs in the main Sannadhi.

We all then moved to the Ashram, where I was provided a room to stay for three days.All of us had

dinner at the Ashram and leaving me, the rest returned to Chennai.

During dinner, I made acquaintance with another visitor from Chennai, who was interested in doing the

“Girivalam” next morning. Balaji gave me company to do the fourteen kilometres starting at 4 Am next

morning. I was a bit diffident about doing such a long stretch in one shot at my age, but found it possible without too much strain. We could complete the walk around in about four hours, taking rest

whenever required. Balaji, a few years younger than me said he had done it quite a few times. I had a number of opportunities to meditate in the Meditation Hall and I used them in full. I had bought some books in the book shop and started reading one of them.

When I was meditating on the second day. I suddenly received a flash; an answer to the question”Who

am I?” (I was not contemplating on this during the meditation.) I was somewhat taken aback when I

went back to my room and read the next chapter which had elaborated the same.

Balaji and I made a bus trip to Thirukovilur the next day to have darshan of Ulagalanda Perumal or

Trivikramaswamy. The temple is huge with gopurams on four sides covering an area approximately 800 metres x 800 metres. However, the area between the outer gopurams and the inner ones is completely covered by

commercial establishments with the result the temple has shrunk to about 10% of the original intended

area. The temple premises were extremely dirty and totally uncared for. The main deity is a huge one with one leg on the ground and the other pointing to the sky. This temple is one of the Vaishnavaite “Padal Petra Sthalams”

The afternoons were reserved for the library which has a good collection of books, pertaining to

Ramana, Arunachala as well as others. The evenings were spent in meditation, listening to discourses

and veda recital as well as prayer.

We decided to climb up to Skandashram and Virupakshi cave where Maharshi had meditated for years.

I had done this climb once but I had forgotten how steep it was. When we started, Balaji, who is

younger than me, suddenly lost confidence and opted out. He told me not to proceed to Virupakshi

Cave as the climb down is very steep and at my age it is risky. I went up to Skandashram, meditated for

some time and on the spur of a moment, decided to go down to the cave.

The climb down was extremely steep and I had to take support of tree branches or rocks on the side to

maintain my balance. I reached the cave without any mishap. The effort was well worth the risk. This is

one place not to be missed by any visitor.

The cave is small and one has to bow down to enter. The inside is dark and the eyes take some time to

adjust the very low level of light. Meditating here is highly rewarding and I made a decision to visit

again in future.

My second visit to Tiruvannamalai was in February last with my wife. We had again been permitted to

stay in the Ashram for three days. The routines of meditation, Girivalam and temple visit were part of

the stay. My wife particularly enjoyed the Girivalam which we did starting at 4:45 am culminating with

darshan at the temple. Somehow we could not go up the hills and visit Skandashram and Virupakshi

Cave and I felt sad about the omission.

We took a car to visit Thirukkovilur and Thiruvennainallur. This small town is about 25 kilometres

from Thirukkovilur and the road was passing just along the river Pennayaru. We had some difficulty

locating the temple. The road was extremely bumpy. Approaching Thiruvennainallur from Villupuram

would be more comfortable.

This temple has the legend of the Lord enlightening Nambi Arooran also known as Sundaramurthy

Nayanar. The presiding deity is Kripapuriswarar or Thaduthatkondanathar or Arulkondanathar. His

consort takes the name Mangalambikai.

The temple is fairly big but in a state of semi-neglect. When we went for Darshan of the Lord, there

was no archaka even though it was just around 9:30 am. The archaka was sitting in the outer prakara

idling his time. We were the only visitors to the temple. In front of the temple on the side, is the

“Vazhakkuraitha Mandapam” where according to the legend, Lord Siva claimed that Nambi Arrooran

was his slave and proved it with palm leaf scripts. The famous song “Piththa Piraisudi” was sung at the

Sanctum sanctorum here by Sundaramurthy Nayanar. The lord is supposed to be “Swayambu”. I only wish more people come to know of the heritage of these ancient temples and visit them.

Please see below for pictures of this temple.

Thiruvennainallur Temple

Vazhakuraitha Mandapam