First of a two part account of a road ride through the hills of far south Karnataka down onto the plains of Tamil Nadu. We were heading for the city of Coimbatore and from there taking an excursion 30 km or so west of it to the ashram of an Indian spiritual teacher by the name of Sadhguru. Known as Isha Yoga Centre, it is a place some considerable size and a magnet for many thousands of visitors throughout the course of the year.
By 7.50 I was out of the guest house in the Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement of Kollegal, which is located in the far south of the state of Karnataka, and making my way to my brother in law Sonam Tashi’s quarters halfway up a nearby hill, at the gates of which his driver Ranga was cleaning the windscreen of the car which was going to take the three of us down to Coimbatore. There was a slight delay before we got under way due to the fact Sonam Tashi couldn’t find the keys to his motor, despite the fact all the doors were open because of Ranga’s cleaning and shining. Somehow in the process of the work the keys had got mislaid, but how and when that had happened was all a bit of a mystery. Eventually they turned up, but only after a whole load of searching, having escaped to a corner on the floor by the front passenger seat, but once retrieved we were soon on the road and out of the settlement, heading south to the border.
The last of a short series of pieces on a trip I made a couple of years ago to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India, 2019. The write ups are in dairy form, sometimes with double entries for a single date due to notes taken at the time either in my Yuva notebook or on the memo pad of my Samsung phone.
22/2
Got up today at 6.18 and by 6.45 I was enjoying a large glass of chai at the Ramana Maharshi Coffee & Fresh Fruit Juice Stand opposite to Ramanasramam on the main road. There were just a couple of other people there sitting on the plastic chairs by the side of the road, no doubt slowly getting themselves together for another day in India. For me there was no conversation because after I’d finished my chai I took a walk up the holy hill of Arunachala to Skandasramam where I arrived by 7.25 to find it pretty empty and that was probably because the gate was still closed. A lone attendant informed me that it would open at 8.15 which meant it was just a question of waiting if I wanted to go inside the cave. There were hazy views of the temple town below as I sat down and enjoyed the feeling of being in a relaxed state of mind, glad to have made the effort to walk up there.
Since there was just the two of us I had a conversation with the attendant about the Giri Pradakshina which he told me brings in 2 to 3 lakhs of people to Tiruvannamalai each month on full moon day, with a lakh being 100,000, meaning in other words that the town got pretty busy. The full moon in April this year would bring in even more people due to it being a bigger one than usual, bigger moon that is, which might mean up to a million pilgrims, quite a lot in anyone’s book. The most popular time for Giri Pradakshina is during Karthikai which falls in December when between 2-3 million people come to Tiruvannamalai for the 10 day festival. It culminates with a beacon being lit on top of Arunachala where 3500 kilos of ghee gets burnt in a huge cauldron, taken up the holy hill by priests and volunteers from the Arunachaleshwar Temple which lies at the bottom of it and in the centre of town. The other big occasion in the religious calendar of Tiruvannamalai is at the beginning of March and it is called Sivaratri, a festival which is popular throughout the whole of South India, marking as it does, among other things, the start of the hot season.
This is the third of a short series of pieces on a trip I made a couple of years ago to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India, 2019. The write ups are in dairy form, sometimes with double entries for a single date due to notes taken at the time either in my Yuva notebook or on the memo pad of my Samsung phone.
Breakfast this morning 21/2 was a coffee from the drinks stand opposite Ramanasramam plus a banana I had bought the day before and which I ate standing by the roadside with a glass of hot sweet coffee in my hand whilst watching life go by on the main road. When I’d finished I took a walk across it to the ashram where after a little while I ended up in the Ashram Book Depot and bought a few books. It was as if I suddenly realised it was going to be my only chance to buy some quality Ramana Maharshi reading material on this trip, so it was important for me to chose some titles from the selection on offer in the Depot, especially because in the wider world quality Ramana Maharshi books could be pretty hard to find. These are the ones I came away with –
This is the second of a short series of pieces on a trip I made a couple of years ago to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India, 2019. The write ups are in dairy form, sometimes with double entries for a single date due to notes taken at the time either in my Yuva notebook or on the memo pad of my Samsung phone.
On that first evening of my stay at the Arunachala Ramana Home I walked out mid-evening and did the Girivalapathai or Giri Pradikshina, the circumambulation of Arunachala, because it just so happened to be the night of a full moon. The Girivalapathai around the holy hill Arunachala was 14 km in length, taking 3 hours and clocking up a pretty impressive 21,000 steps on my mobile phone step counter, and which saw me setting off from the Arunachala Ramana Home at 8 pm before getting back by 11 pm or just after. It was simply something I had to do. In my projected plans for the trip to Tiruvannamalai it had always been in the back of my mind to do it this year and I guess it was one of the reasons why I’d arrived in town a few days before my booking at Ramanasramam begun. Just needed a kick start to get me out the door so to speak, because after the rigours of the day with all my shifting from place to place I was beginning to feel a little bit lazy, but when that kick start came along it meant I was soon up and running. Well, not exactly running but at least walking very fast.
Now it has to be said the vast majority of pilgrims on the circuit were walkin’ barefoot around the holy hill and if I had realised that was the way it was done before I began, I might well have joined them and not worn my pair of New Balance trainers. Instead of having to watch my step it felt like I was walking on air; so soft, so comfortable, so springy they were, those shoes, with it probably taking me a good hour to fully realise what was going on and that I was odd man out. By then it was too late for me to turn round and go back to the start again, and I also didn’t have a bag with me so I could hardly carry them, but that was OK, because after all wasn’t it a fact I odd man out anyway, considering that nearly everyone else doing the holy circuit were south Indians in the form of Tamils? Well yeah, on one level maybe I was, but on another, not really.
This is the first of a short series of pieces on a trip I made a couple of years ago to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India, 2019. The write ups are in dairy form, sometimes with double entries for a single date due to notes taken at the time either in my Yuva notebook or on the memo pad of my Samsung phone.
On one level this fourth visit of mine to Tiruvannamalai saw me miss my target in failing to stay in Ramanasramam despite the fact I’d booked a room there. Guess it was a case of arriving in town too early and then subsequently running out of steam, which I think was mainly down to the heat and a difficult first couple of days upon entry. On another level however it was a trip which was more than worthwhile by way of visiting Athithi Ashram for the first time, where I enjoyed sitting in the company of Swami Hamsananda for the duration of his daily satsangs which took place each morning from 9.30 onwards in the ashram meditation hall. A devotee of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi who had lived in Tiruvannamalai for over the last 40 years, Swami Hamsananda opened me up to bhakti – devotion and surrender – to that Other Power by way of having total faith in Bhagavan.
A week or so before I left for Tiruvannamalai I had a long conversation in the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe with my old friend Anita who had just returned after staying there for a couple of months. We had both made a trip to Tiruvannamalai together in 2017, when we had stayed for a few days in Ramanasramam before heading further down south to the ancient temple city of Madurai located in the heart of Tamil Nadu. This was in order to visit the birth place of Ramana Maharshi which was located in the village of Tiruchuzhi and to visit the place of his self-realisation which was in the city of Madurai itself. During the course of our talk Anita wrote down the following on a piece of paper and handed it to me –
Swami Hamsananda Athithi Ashram 11 G/1 Manakula Vinayagar Street Sri Ramanasramam PO Tiruvannamalai 606 603
Final part of a short series of pieces on a trip I made to the holy South Indian pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu where I stayed at the Athithi Ashram which is run by devotees of the great twentieth century spiritual master Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. The resident teacher of Athithi Ashram is Swami Hamsananda, with whom it is possible to sit and meditate each morning as well as engage in conversation about the life of Bhagavan, meditation, and the spiritual paths of bhakti (devotion) and Jnana (self-enquiry) in the form of asking the question – Who Am I?
What is described below is intended to complement those themes found within Journey To Ramanasramam.
Gates to Virupaksha Cave
Yesterday 18/2 finally saw me make the climb up the hill to Virupaksha Cave. Been to Skandasramam Cave a couple of times before – more than a couple in fact – but so far never made it to Virupaksha. This was a trip I had been planning to do but I had been too locked into my daily morning routine at Athithi Ashram to so far make it happen. Yesterday was different however in that there was no 6.30 cup of sweet coffee in the ashram and no climb up the stairs to the meditation hall to join Swami Hamsananda for morning prayers. Instead I left the ashram at around 6.30 and headed for the Ramana Fresh Coffee & Juice Stand on the main road outside Ramanasramam where I had a glass of coffee for 40 rupees which was a little on the sweet side as they really ladled in the sugar, but I guess I was a bit slow off the mark in tellin’ them when to stop.
After I’d drunk my glass of coffee I was ready for the walk up Arunachala which meant first crossing the main road and walking through the grounds of Ramanasramam so as to go through the gate at the back of it and take the path to Skandasramam and Virupaksha Cave which lay beyond. I put my New Balance trainers on after I’d got to the other side of the ashram and immediately saw a couple with a child, Russians by the sound of them, who were walking barefoot and then seriously wondered if I shouldn’t also be doing the same. Something made me keep my shoes on – laziness, reluctance, ignorance, call it what you will – but as I passed them and began the initial steep ascent it bugged me that I wasn’t doing the walk quite right, because Arunachala to the faithful is a temple in itself and in a temple you always walk barefoot. It was not as if it was the first time I was going up the hill either, having done it in 2012, 2016 and 2019 when I went to Skandasramam, so I really should have known better.
So yes, there I was, feeling bad for not goin’ barefoot like a pilgrim would, but I guess my pair of New Balance trainers felt so damn comfy and gave me so much spring that I couldn’t take them off. Funny thing is they were the same pair of New Balances I had used last year when I did the Giri Pradikshina – the walk around the holy hill – where again the vast majority of people doing the circuit with me on that night of the full moon were walkin’ barefoot. Just like last year there was no intention on my part to cause offence, I’d just assumed it was done in shoes, simple ignorance more like, something which if truth be told, I have in abundance. Well anyway, soon I was poundin’ up the path with my New Balances on and leaving those barefoot possible Russians with their little kid standin’ in the dust trails behind me.
Part of a short series of pieces on a trip I made to the holy South Indian pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu where I stayed at the Athithi Ashram which is run by devotees of the great twentieth century spiritual master Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. The resident teacher of Athithi Ashram is Swami Hamsananda, with whom it is possible to sit and meditate each morning as well as engage in conversation about the life of Bhagavan, meditation, and the spiritual paths of bhakti (devotion) and Jnana (self-enquiry) in the form of asking the question – Who Am I?
What is described below is intended to complement those themes found within Journey To Ramanasramam.
Outside of Athithi Ashram
Today it was possible for me to have another morning conversation with swamiji and just like the day before it was just the two of us, one on one. I began by asking him whether it was correct to think that whatever happened in one’s life – positive or negative – was the grace of the guru and that if supposedly bad things came along you just had to accept them. His reply was something along the lines that I didn’t have to worry about all that. The main gist was just to be fully and firmly convinced that the power which was in Bhagavan is also inside each of us. It is very important to strongly believe this is so. If we do then there is no need for sadhana, the individual quest for enlightenment, as that is the responsibility of the guru. If the conviction that you and Ramana / Arunachala are one and the same is firmly embedded deep within the heart, there is nothing else you need to do. He will take care of it. It is beyond our control – way beyond – and lies within the remit of a higher power.
What we have to do is cultivate inner satsang, to commune with the Self which lies at the very core of our being. Pray to Bhagavan. Prayer is very important. Both on a spiritual and mundane level he will take care of our needs and as the relationship is very open he will take you exactly as you are, so that you only need to be yourself. Pray to him for the solution to problems, leave it aside in terms of trying to fix the problem yourself as you will only make things worse, so let go, it is not your job. You have gone as far as you can with it and if you persist in trying to find a solution it will only be the ego seeking to gratify its own needs. Leave it, pray to Bhagavan and let him sort it out. Firmly believe that Arunachala is within you. It is not necessary to visualize it, although that might be OK, but it is more a belief, a force, a feeling, a conviction which you must not under any circumstances let go of. There is absolutely no difference between us and Bhagavan, we are one and the same, we come from a single source and we are parts of the One Self which is everything.
These were some of the things which swamiji was saying to me.
Part of a short series of pieces on a trip I made to the holy South Indian pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu where I stayed at the Athithi Ashram which is run by devotees of the great twentieth century spiritual master Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. The resident teacher of Athithi Ashram is Swami Hamsananda, with whom it is possible to sit and meditate each morning as well as engage in conversation about the life of Bhagavan, meditation, and the spiritual paths of bhakti (devotion) and Jnana (self-enquiry) in the form of asking the question – Who Am I?
What is described below is intended to complement those themes found within Journey To Ramanasramam.
Gates to Athithi Ashram
Flaked out last night after writing those notes above, being as it was the first night for me in Athithi Ashram. Noisy fan, too noisy for me to have it on during the night, too much damn rattlin’ in its fittin’ for me to rest easy, better to switch it off and lie back in the heat, lie there on my hard mattress with just a pair of boxer shorts on. Makes me think I’m gonna have to buy a desk fan if I want to keep cool, maybe an Usha, oldest makers of fans in India, and where a trip down the Big Bazaar Road in a rickshaw to splash out a couple of thousand rupees will do the trick for me. Just about got away with it last night but today already seems hotter so we’re just gonna have to see how it all pans out, I’ll make a decision after lunch time I think, as that is usually the crunchiest time of day as far as the heat goes. So what happened last night? Well I guess it must have been around 10 or so when I lay on my bed to listen to Blue Eyed Soul by Simply Red on Spotify and then the next thing I knew it was just gone 10.30. Crashed out in other words!
Think the first thing to say as I come to the end of my first full day in Tiruvannamalai this time around in the year 2020 is that it is all a bit lonely. Guess it sometimes feels like I am surrounded by people who all know each other whilst I don’t know anyone, solo traveller on the edges of whatever room he is in before disappearing again into the here an’ there. Got to keep my eye on the target in that regard, remember that the reason for my coming here was to strengthen my meditation and connection with Bhagavan. Nothing else! To get deflected from that intention is to miss the point somewhat, as the purpose of the trip was not to come to sit down and have fantastic conversations or make friends, but to deepen my meditation practice in regard to the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, simple as that and I would be wise not to forget it, otherwise things get diluted and the mind goes astray, then all I’ll do is end up wandering around like another lost soul out in India.
End part of a trip I made to the holy South Indian pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu where I stayed at the Athithi Ashram which is run by devotees of the great twentieth century spiritual master Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Once my time at the ashram was done it was just a question of taking a taxi ride back to the city of Bengaluru in the state of Karnataka.
So my interstate swing back from 19/2 went something like this. First of all I knew that was it, my week in Tiruvannamalai at the Athithi Ashram was over and now there was to be no lookin’ back. I had done all that I could do and really in all honesty it had gone better than I could have ever expected – the meditation, the talks with Swami Hamsananda, the mesmeric shrine times at the end of the day in the dual temples, both the Old Temple and Main Temple, of Ramanasramam, keeping fit, staying healthy, no bad stomachs or stuff like that – which had meant that I was happy, more than happy as a matter of fact. Turned out to be a bit of a rush after my parting talk with swamiji as my taxi was already waiting outside the ashram gates and I still had a little bit of this and that to do with regards to packing my case and clearing up, which meant I would have to get my skates on. Before going back up to my room I told my driver who was sitting in the car on the other side of the gates that I would be about 10 minutes or so, then bounded back up the stairs to my room in order to get my stuff together.
The ride from Tiruvannamalai to Bangalore turned out to be a bit of a fast one because once we got to the town of Krishnagiri we joined the main highway which more or less runs the length of the country, with more than one or two pinch points in between, and where signs to Varanasi indicate it is over 1700 km away in a direction which was pretty much due north. So it was speedy, a Grand Prix shakedown on a four lane highway with weaving in and out of the traffic in front of you whilst travelling at high velocity being very much the order of the day. It was one of those rides where I sat in the car with the back windows wide open instead of in a nicely chilled a/c bubble, and the reason for this was that my driver had a stinkin’ cold which I most definitely wouldn’t have minded not picking up in any way whatsoever. In fact, although I’m somewhat ashamed to admit it, paranoid thoughts that he might have had Coronavirus passed through my mind, making me wonder if it was worth asking him if he’d driven any or many people from the Chinese part of the world recently. Glad to say I managed to resist the temptation, mainly because I knew that with his very limited English and my non-existent Tamil, it would have been too damn complicated for me to break on through and get him to understand just what the fuck I was talking about. Probably a bit beyond the pale as well. So anyway, we rocked on through the Tamil countryside with the warm air blasting through the open windows of the car from any direction you might care to choose. No problem with that really, sure the air was warm but it wasn’t hot, and within that lies a very big difference.
Memories of a trip I made to the holy South Indian pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in the state of Tamil Nadu where I stayed at the Athithi Ashram which is run by devotees of the great twentieth century spiritual master Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. The resident teacher of Athithi Ashram is Swami Hamsananda, with whom it is possible to sit and meditate with each morning as well as engage in conversation about the life of Bhagavan, the practice of meditation, and the spiritual paths of bhakti (devotion) and Jnana (self-enquiry) in the form of asking the question – Who Am I?
What is described below is intended to complement those themes found within Journey To Ramanasramam.
Entrance gate to Athithi Ashram
When I arrived at the Athithi Ashram after my taxi ride from Chennai I opened the gates, took off my shoes and put them on the shoe stand because no footwear was allowed to be worn in the ashram grounds. Then I went to the small ashram office on the left hand side within the ashram compound and which had a couple of desks and computers in it, as well as some chairs for people to sit on. A gentle, mild mannered man dressed in white cotton clothes checked me in after I’d filled out all the necessary forms, given him my passport details and taken a photograph of myself with my mobile phone which I then emailed to him on the spot. The room I was given was in the block above the office and I guess that the block must have had nine or ten rooms which were spread over three floors. Mine was on the top floor where there were three other rooms, all of which seemed to be occupied.
Stepping inside my room for the first time I saw it had a single bed with a very firm mattress and a pillow with a thin sheet on top of it, so I guess it was just as well the weather was hot and that I would not be needing a blanket. There was a table and chair in the corner of the room next to the window and some shelves built into the wall, upon which I could put my clothes once I’d unpacked my case and stashed it under my bed. On the wall opposite to the side of the room my bed was on there was a framed and mounted colour portrait of Ramana Maharshi and also one of the holy hill Arunachala. There was a door at the end of my bed which opened up into a bathroom where there was a toilet and shower along with a small basin and mirror. The window in my room had shutters rather than glass with a wire mesh tightly strung across it so as to keep the mosquitoes out, although with the room being on the top floor, hopefully their presence would be minimal. I opened the shutters for some airflow and soon realised the street outside was quite noisy with plenty of sounds rising up from it, primarily sounds of auto rickshaws and honking motorbikes. Later on I was to discover the block my room was in overlooked the entrance to a much larger ashram close by, that of Yogi Ramsuratkumar, which attracted large numbers of people each day from the early morning onwards.
TracelessTrails 