My experience in Tirruvannamalai.

July 5, 2006

Dear Sai Family,

My experience in Tirruvanamalai, though brief has deeply captivated my heart and imprinted in my thoughts. I knew nothing at all about this Hill, I was only going there with the intention of visiting one of the great Maharishi's ashram, Ramana Maharishi.

I will narrate about him briefly the next time.

And because I knew a little about, I was keen to visit his ashram. I had no interest or attraction at all with regards to the Hill. Little did I know the divine history of the temples or the Hill or the symbol of the Hill.

It was only when the priest in the temple narrated to us briefly about the significance of the temple that I realised how fortunate were the people who lived here. My family and myself were led around the Ganesha shrine and then to Lord Arunachala's shrine. I had never been in the inner shrine of a temple and this really elevated me. We sat down before the deity while the priest did the archanas. The Lord's image was simply captivating. There's no room for mind distaction or losing concentration. So powerful,so much vibrations. The surrounding being so pure,calm and cool can easily lead one to slip into meditation.Merely gazing into His form,His Linga has us made feel so special, so wanted as His children who had come to see Him from a long way.

After quite a detailed prayer, we were led around to pay our obeisances to other devotees and lingas. As the temple had a link to the entrance that took us to the shrine of Goddess Gauri, we proceeded eagerly to have her darshan. I didn't know its immeasurable power until I experienced it myself.

Just before I entered the entrance, I realised I missed my husband, my little boy and my elder brother somewhere in the temple. My parents and my younger brother looked everywhere in the temple housing the Arunachala deity. We couldn't believe that we lost them as there was not much crowd in the temple and we were all sticking together all this while. The rest of my family members decided to join in the worship of Goddess Gauri in her shrine which was about to start. I was still hoping my husband and my son wld appear. But they didn't. I told my family members and the priest to carry on. I thought that if I were to go into the shrine, how would my husband and brother know that we were in that shrine. They wld just pass us without even participating in the pooja. I was so desperate and just refused to join them. Deep in my heart, I knew that Amma ( Goddess Gauri) was calling me and telling me,'It's okay child, your husband will join you soon. Just come here..' I was simply

fighting with my ego of adamance and told amma that participating in her prayer without my husband would be incomplete.

In the end when the priest looked at me and waved to me, I just felt Amma was waving to me. I turned towards Her and ran into the shrine, like any child would when it sees its mother.

When I sat down in her shrine, tears were simply rolling uncontrollably down my cheeks. I gazed into her eyes thoughtlessly . Then came these words ," you will meet your husband outside the shrine". I didn't realise that this was just one of her leelas. After the pooja, as I was leaving her shrine I was relieved to meet my husband and brother standing face to face just in the entrance of the shrine. I turned around and looked at amma thanking her for the leela to convince me that no matter how ancient a temple can be,God's existence,ever flowing grace and power can never fade or be erased from it's originality.

With that we visited other deities and got ready to circumbulate the Hill. We had a car accompanying us behind just incase the children or even the adults couldn't continue. We kept chanting Om Nama Shivaaya from the start till then end. It was amazing that during the 5'1/2 hrs of walking, we didn't in the least have the urge to stop or even run to a restroom (where there was none actually, only the forest). It was really fun,untiring and walking in the late evening was really an advantage as it cld really burn our feet walking in the sunlight in the morning or day. Along the way, we paid our obeisances to 8 Linga temples where in each temple, a priest would be there to do a simple arathi for people like us who are circumbulating the Hill.

Walking on the streets, one had to be careful too, to avoid oncoming vehicles,bullock-carts and even the stones . I had many times hurt myself on the stones but amazingly, there were no bleeding even with intense pain. I even thought that I would not be able to put my feet down the next day. But surprisingly, although there were some blisters on the soles of my feet, the next day it appeared like they were gone and my whole feet looked like they had undergone some kind of feet theraphy. The underside of my feet were so smooth. The same with all the other members.

Talking about the 8 Linga temples that I visited along the way, one of them really stunned me. This temple, there was no priest.It was really small, like the height of a 1 yr old toddler. The passageway was so narrow and it looked as if to remind us of the birthcanal that we humans had to be squeezed out through to be born into this world. What shocked me was, it is a must that one had to squeeze our way through the passageway before continuing our circumbulation. God! How could anyone possible come out of it? Well, we did squeeze ourselves out of it by twisting and turning our bodies one by one. Not forgetting to chant ofcourse. All of us were given some help of pulling as we exit to the front entrance. It was quite fun and amusing trying to figure out a way to come out as each of us had different body structures. The skiny ones were able to do it so easily and without help while the big ones, had a quite a time with it. Finally we came to the last Linga temple next to

the graveyard and the crematorium.

We ended the circumbulation back to the temple where we started and offerred our prayers to the deities.

We really felt blessed,anointed and a feeling of deliverance was also felt within us. The urge to go back is even stronger now and by Baba's grace He'll take us there when the time comes. It was indeed fortunate of us to have the opprtunity to circumbulate not just the Hill, but the Lord Arunachala in the form of the Hill.

Om Arunachala namahe!

Anita Sakthi