Gurutvam of Arunachala

[Guest guest]

Dear spiritual brothers and sisters,

Arunachala has always been renowned as the

bestower of liberation, the destroyer of the ego, the remover of the

false notion 'I am the body' - as the jnana-Guru par excellence.

 

When Brahma and Vishnu began to quarrel, being deluded by pride

and egoism, Lord Arunachala Siva appeared before them in the form of

a column of fire, thereby vanquishing their egoism and teaching them

true knowledge. When Sakti, Goddess Parvati, wished to attain a

state in which she could do no wrong, Lord Siva sent her to

Arunachala, where she merged and became one with him. Thus, even to

Brahma and Vishnu, Arunachala was Guru, and to Parvati it was the

place where she lost her separate individuality.

 

Throughout the ages saints and sages have sung verses in

Sanskrit, Tamil and other Indian languages extolling the unique

power of Arunachala to root out the ego and to bestow Self-

knowledge. All the four great Saiva sages of Tamil Nadu,

Manikkavachagar, Sundaramurti, Appar and Jnanasambandhar, have sung

in praise of Arunachala. In one verse often pointed out by Sri

Bhagavan, Jnanasambandhar described this hill as being jnana-tiral,

a dense mass of jnana. And Sundaramurti, singing in Tiruvanaikka,

remembers Arunachala and sings, 'O Annamalai, you can be known only

to those who give up the attachment to the body'.

 

These puranic stories and songs of ancient sages all confirm

the fact that Arunachala is the supreme jnana-Guru. But this fact

has received its most striking confirmation from Sri Bhagavan. In

verse nineteen of Aksharamanamalai he explicitly states that

Arunachala shines as the form of his Guru; and in the same verse he

reveals the function of the real Guru, namely to destroy all our

defects, including the root-defect, the ego, to bestow all good

qualities upon us and to rule over us.

 

In many of his other verses Sri Bhagavan has clearly indicated

that the role of Arunachala is the role of the Sadguru. For example,

in Aksharamanamalai he sings that Arunachala roots out the ego of

those who think of it (verse 1), that it annihilates those who

approach it as God (verse 48) and that it destroys the attachment of

those who come to it with attachment (verse 77). He also reveals

that Arunachala instructs through silence (verse 36) and that it

teaches the path of self-enquiry (verse 44); and he shows us the way

of praying to Arunachala to bestow jnana (verse 40) to reveal Self

as the reality (verse 43) and to make us give up the attachment to

the body (verse 75). He has also confirmed from his own experience

the power of Arunachala as Guru. In verse eight of Sri Arunachala

Navamanimalai he sings that, in order to put an end to his

sufferings in the world, Arunachala 'gave me his own state'; and in

verse nine he describes the wonder of Arunachala's grace

saying, 'You entered my mind, drew me and established me in your own

state'.

 

All that Sri Bhagavan has said about the power of Arunachala

tallies exactly with what he has said about the power of the Guru.

In verse 268 of Guru Vachaka Kovai (The Garland of Guru's Sayings)

he says that the Guru is he who possesses the supreme power to make

any soul who comes to him merge into Self, the knowledge beyond all

speech. The Guru works in many ways to make the disciple merge into

Self. 'He gives a push from ''without'' and exerts a pull

from ''within'', so that you may be fixed in the Centre,' says Sri

Bhagavan in Maharshi's Gospel, p. 36. From 'without' the Guru gives

verbal instructions to turn the disciple's mind towards Self, and he

also enables the disciple to have association (satsang) with his

form, and thereby to gain the necessary strength and love to turn

within and attend to Self. To give verbal instructions it is

necessary for the Guru to be in human form, but to give satsang and

subtle inner guidance he may be in any form.

 

Sri Bhagavan has come as the Guru in human form to give us all

the necessary verbal instructions, and he has revealed that

Arunachala is the Guru in the form of a hill with which we can

always have satsang. Like any human body, the human form of the Guru

will inevitably pass away one day, whereas the form of Arunachala

will always remain. Thus, though Sri Bhagavan has left his human

form, he has provided us with all the requisite outward help: he has

left us with a permanent record of his verbal teachings, and he has

shown us a form with which we can always have satsang. Therefore,

for the devotees of Sri Bhagavan there will never be any need to

search for another outer Guru, because all the necessary help and

guidance is ever available for us in the form of the teachings of

Sri Bhagavan and the satsang of Arunachala.

 

The power of the satsang of Arunachala was often confirmed by

Sri Bhagavan. Dr. T. N. Krishnaswamy records in the Ramana Pictorial

Souvenir, p. 7 that Sri Bhagavan once said to him:

 

 

 

The whole hill is sacred. It is Siva himself. Just as we identify

ourselves with a body, so Siva has chosen to identify himself with

his hill. Arunachala is pure wisdom (jnana) in the form of a hill.

It is out of compassion to those who seek him that he has chosen to

reveal himself in the form of a hill visible to the eye. The seeker

will obtain guidance and solace by staying near this hill.

 

 

 

Arunachala-pradakshina

 

 

 

Arunachala is the physical embodiment of Sat, the reality, and hence

to have contact with it in any manner is satsang. To think of

Arunachala is satsang, to see Arunachala is satsang, and to live

near Arunachala is satsang. But one very special way of having

satsang with Arunachala is to do Arunagiri-pradakshina, that it is,

to walk barefoot round the hill keeping it to one's right-side.

 

The great importance that Sri Bhagavan attached to giri-

pradakshina is well known to all the devotees who lived with him. He

himself did pradakshina countless times, and he actively and

spontaneously encouraged devotees to follow his example.

 

'Bhagavan, who scarcely ever gave advice to devotees unless

asked, wholeheartedly encouraged their going round the hill as

conducive to progress in sadhana,' writes Lucia Osborne in The

Mountain Path, January 1974, p. 3.

 

Devaraja Mudaliar records that the importance of pradakshina

became evident to him 'from the frequent references by Bhagavan

himself to its great significance, and from the fact that thousands

of people do it, including almost all the close disciples of

Bhagavan, even those who may be considered the most advanced among

them.' (My Recollections of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, p. 64)

 

Though comparatively little has been recorded of what Sri

Bhagavan used to say about the power of pradakshina, there is no

doubt that he considered it to be an act having great spiritual

efficacy. In fact he used to say that the benefits which can be

gained by meditation and various other forms of mind-control only

after great struggle and effort, will be effortlessly gained by

those who go round the hill.

 

'Bhagavan often said that those unable to meditate would

succeed in their endeavour by circumambulating Arunachala,' writes

Suri Nagamma in My Life at Sri Ramanasramam, p. 144.

 

Kunju Swami records on p. 108 of Enadu Ninaivugal that Bhagavan

once told him. 'What is better than pradakshina? That alone is

sufficient.'

 

While extolling the spiritual efficacy of pradakshina, Sri

Bhagavan sometimes used to narrate the story of King Vajrangada

Pandya, which is told in the Arunachala Mahatmyam. Vajrangada Pandya

was a powerful monarch who ruled over most of South India, but one

day he was told by some celestial beings that in this previous birth

he had been Indra, the ruler of heaven, and that if he worshipped

Arunachala he could regain his former position. On hearing this, he

at once renounced his kingdom and, with the intense desire to become

Indra, he began to worship Arunachala by going around the hill three

times a day. After three years of such worship, Lord Siva appeared

before him and offered him any boon he wished to pray for. Though

his original ambition had been to become Indra, his mind had been

matured by doing so many pradakshinas, he now realized that it was

worthless to pray for such a transitory pleasure. He therefore

prayed to Lord Siva for the eternal happiness of Self-knowledge.

This story thus aptly illustrates that even if a person begins to do

pradakshina for the fulfillment of worldly desires, his mind will in

time be matured and he will gain proper discrimination (viveka),

desirelessness (vairagya) and love for Self (swatma-bhakti).

 

Generally, whenever sages or scriptures prescribe any form of

dualistic worship, whether for the fulfillment of worldly desires or

for the attainment of Self-knowledge, they always say that it must

be done with faith. But Sri Bhagavan used to say that the power of

Arunachala is such that even if one does pradakshina with no faith,

it will still have its effect and will surely purify the mind.

Devaraja Mudaliar records on p. 64 of My Recollections that Sri

Bhagavan told him, 'For everybody it is good to make circuit of the

hill. It does not even matter whether one has faith in this

pradakshina or not; just as fire will burn all who touch it whether

they believe in it or not, so the hill will do good to all those who

go round it.'

 

Because Arunachala is the 'fire of knowledge' (jnanagni) in the

form of a hill, the outgoing tendencies (vasanas) of the mind are

automatically scorched when one goes round it. When damp wood is

brought close to a fire, it will gradually be dried, and at a

certain point it will itself catch fire. Similarly, when the mind

which is soaked with worldly tendencies goes round the hill, the

tendencies will gradually dry up and at a certain point the mind

will become fit to be burnt by the fire of jnana. That is why Sri

Bhagavan said to Kunju Swami, 'This hill is the storehouse of all

spiritual power. Going round It benefits you in all ways'. (The

Mountain Path, April 1979, p. 75)

 

The spiritual benefits of pradakshina have been described by

Sri Sadhu Om in one of his Tamil poems, Sri Arunachala Pradakshina

Manbu. In verses six and seven he says, 'A cow grazing round and

round its peg, does not know that the length of its rope is thereby

decreasing. Similarly, when you go round and round Arunachala, how

can your mind know that it is thereby subsiding? When the cow goes

round more and more, at one point it will be bound tightly to its

peg. Similarly when the mind lovingly goes more and more round

Annamalai [Arunachala], which is Self, it will finally stand still

in Self-abidance, having lost all it movements [vrittis].'

 

In verse eight he says, 'It is a well-proven truth that the

minds of those devotees who ever go round Annamalai achieve great

love to turn within towards Self. Annamalai is the blazing, wild

hill of fire [the fire of Jnana] that burns all our worldly desires

into ashes.' And in verse nine he gives the simile of a piece of

iron being rubbed against a magnet; just as the scattered atoms of

iron are all aligned by the magnet to face in one uniform direction,

thereby transforming the iron into a magnet, so when a person goes

round Arunachala, the divine magnet, his scattered mind, is turned

towards Self and is thereby transformed into Self.

 

Sri Muruganar, who was a great sage and one of the foremost

disciples of Sri Bhagavan, was noted as a staunch lover of

pradakshina. In the days of Sri Bhagavan he used to write to any

friends who were coming to see him, 'You will find me either in

Bhagavan's hall or on the giri-pradakshina road,' and it is said

that at one time he even used to go round the hill daily. How he

first came to know about the greatness of giri-pradakshina is

related by Kunju Swami in The Mountain Path, April 1979, p. 83, as

follows:

 

 

 

Sometime after he came here, Sri Muruganar asked Bhagavan about the

spiritual benefit of going round the hill (giri-pradakshina).

Bhagavan asked him to go round it first and them come to him. Sri

Muruganar followed his advice and told Bhagavan that he lost his

dehatma buddhi [sense of identification with the body] after a while

and regained it only after reaching Adi-Annamalai [a village on the

way]. He reported to Sri Bhagavan that the experience was unexpected

and unique. Sri Bhagavan smiled and said, 'Do you now understand?'

 

 

 

This incident proves very clearly the power of pradakshina, and

it shows that mature souls can even lose their sense of

identification with the body by going round the hill. It also

illustrates what Sri Bhagavan meant when he used to say that while

going round the hill one can experience sanchara-samadhi, a thought-

free state of bliss while walking.

 

Though such a thought-free state is not experienced by all

devotees when they go round the Hill, that does not mean that their

pradakshina is not yielding fruit. The main benefit of pradakshina

is that the tendencies (vasanas) are slowly made to lose their grip

over the mind, but just as a child cannot easily perceive its own

growth, so the mind cannot easily perceive the weakening of its own

vasanas.

 

However, one very notable feature about pradakshina that can be

perceived by anyone and which clearly indicates its spiritual

efficacy is the extraordinary power of attraction it exerts over the

minds of devotees. For no special reason one feels attracted to go

round Arunachala again and again.

 

'Go round the hill once. You will see that it will attract

you,' said Sri Bhagavan to Devaraja Mudaliar (My Recollections,

p.65).

 

'Bhagavan used to say that if one went round the hill once or

twice, the hill itself would draw one to go round it again. I have

found it true. Now this is happening to Dr. Syed,' writes Devaraja

Mudaliar in Day by Day with Bhagavan, 19th December, 1945.

 

In Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, volume 2, letter 98, Suri

Nagamma records Sri Bhagavan as saying, 'The dhyana [meditation]

that you cannot get into while sitting, you get into automatically

if you go for pradakshina. The place and atmosphere here are like

that. However unable a person is to walk, if he once goes round the

hill he will feel like going again and again. The more you go, the

more the enthusiasm for it. It never decreases. Once a person is

accustomed to the happiness of pradakshina, he can never give it

up.'

 

Just as the mind is automatically attracted to the Guru,

knowing intuitively that he can bestow eternal bliss, for the same

reason the mind feels automatically attracted to giri pradakshina.

 

 

 

Arunachala-Ramana

 

 

 

To understand the power of Arunachala, it is first necessary to

understand the relationship that existed between Arunachala and

Bhagavan. To Bhagavan, Arunachala was Mother, Father, Guru and God -

it was his all in all, his own Self.

 

Sri Bhagavan often said, 'God, Guru and Self are one and the

same,' and to him Arunachala was all three of these. In verse forty-

eight of Aksharamanamalai he refers to Arunachala as his God, in

verse nineteen as his Guru, and in verse five of Atma Vidya Kirtanam

(The Song on the Science of Self) as 'Annamalai, my Self'.

 

Truly, Arunachala is Ramana and Ramana is Arunachala. The two

are inseparable. Arunachala is Ramana in the form of a hill, and

Ramana is Arunachala in human form. The oneness that Sri Bhagavan

felt with Arunachala is disclosed in many of his verses.

 

When a devotee enquired about his true nature, he

replied, 'Arunachala-Ramana is the Supreme Self who blissfully

abides as consciousness in the heart-cave of all souls beginning

with Hari (Lord Vishnu)….'

 

The same name, 'Arunachala-Ramana', which he used while

referring to himself, he also uses while addressing the hill in the

last verse of Aksharamanamalai, and in verse ninety he calls the

hill 'Ramana'. When Sri Bhagavan composed Sri Arunachala

Pancharatnam (The Five Gems) in Sansksrit, a devotee composed a

concluding verse in which he said that these five verses were an

Upanishad revealed by Srimad Ramana Maharshi. Later, when Sri

Bhagavan translated this hymn into Tamil, he adapted this concluding

verse and substituted the name 'Arunagiri-Ramana' for the

name 'Srimad Ramana Maharshi', thereby indicating that it was

Arunagiri (Arunachala) itself in the form of Ramana who sang this

hymn. From all this, it is clear that Sri Bhagavan experienced no

individuality or existence of his own separate from Arunachala.

 

Though Bhagavan Ramana has left his human form, he will always

remain shining here in the form of Arunachala, giving guidance and

solace to his devotees. Therefore, the power of Arunachala is the

power of Ramana - the power of the Sadguru's grace.

 

 

 

O Arunachala, ocean of grace in the form of a hill, bestow grace

upon me!

 

(Sri Arunachala Aksharamanamalai, verse 17)

 

Let all the cells in my body say OM ARUNACHALESWRAYA NAMAH

Yours yogically,

Dattu