So, our weekend driving destination for this weekend was a place wevisited earlier but could not stop going back again – Thiruvannamalai.Located 200kms from Bangalore, it’s a good weekend drive into spirituality andreligion, if you are feeling like that. It is the place of the sacredArunachaleswara temple – a temple where Lord Shiva is representative of the‘Fire’ element. The place is named after the great hill – Arunachala – which isconsidered Lord Shiva in his physical form. And the temple of Arunachaleswarais among the best architectures that you see in the South Indian temples –probably closer on the lines of Madurai, Sri Kalahasti etc.
The temple is huge, occupies an area of about 25 acres with fourlarge ‘Gopurams‘ on each side. The largest ‘Gopuram‘ is above theeastern entrance which is the main entrance. There are five ‘Prakaram‘or corridors around the central structure with a high wall running on all foursides at the edge of the outer ‘Prakaram‘. There are numerous shrinesfor other deities in the temple complex and Goddess Parvathi has a separateshrine on the third ‘Prakaram‘. She is worshipped as ‘Unnamulai Ambal’.The view of the temple from the Arunachala hill is a must-see.
The place was worshipped from a long time by various saints and waswritten about at length in the form of songs of paeans for the lord. But theplace was made popular and known to the western world and so to the westernized(Confused!) Indians like us through the great Indian master Sri RamanaMaharshi. While Ramana Maharshi himself never moved out of Thiruvanmalaithroughout his life, the world came searching for him in the form of PaulBrunton - the great English spiritual traveler of his times. In his book “InSearch of Secret India”, Paul Brunton wrote in detail about various Yogishe met in India and described Ramana Maharshi and his path of simple selfenquiry into ‘Who am I?’ in detail. Sothrough the lengthy route of Paul Brunton –> Ramana Maharshi –>Thiruvannamalai, do you think we came to know of this place and by chancerealized that it is a place pretty close to Bangalore? No I have done my BEfrom this very same place. So do a whole lot of Europeans that you see aroundin the place. So much so that most of them live here for 6 months + even buyinghouses and bikes.
Our Trip and Giri Valam
Anyway,Ramana Maharshi used to say that ‘Giri Valam’ or Giri Pradakshina of Arunachalais very powerful form of meditation. To do Giri Pradakshina on a full moon dayis supposed to give a whole lot of spiritual and physical benefits. Having readso much about it, to walk the 17+ kms stretch around the Arunachala hill wasthe objective of our trip this time. Bare-footed and willing to challengeourselves physically, Kalyan, me and Mani started driving to Arunachalam on themorning of 17th of Jan 2008 around 6AM. Driving towards Krishnagiri fromBangalore, we could not stop appreciating the changing face of India as shownon its new highways and the slick Petrol Stations to the side, with allfacilities to allow for a great stop-over.
While it was raining in Bangalore, we were notsure what the weather would be like in Arunachalam. If it was very sunny, wecannot do Giri Pradakshina, the chief objective of the trip. By the time wewere 10kms away from Arunachalam, thick clouds descended on the town as if toscare us away and it started to pour, pouring water on our hopes and the newfound spiritual enthusiasm. We drove straight into Seshadri Swamigal Ashram,an Ashram accommodation right next to Sri Ramana Ashram. Finding adecent place to park our car and a nice place to get ready, we thought ofchanging the planned time of Giri Pradakshina. Initially we planned to do it inthe evening in the moon but sceptisim about whimsical weather made us start itby 230PM after a light lunch (Kaju Fried Rice) in Ramakrishna Hotel.
