Michael James - The Power of Arunachala, #2

January 4, 2004

The Power of Arunachala

(First published in The Mountain Path, 1982, pp. 75-84.)

By Michael James

The Form of Arunachala

Sri Bhagavan has said that Arunachala is the supreme Self that shines as 'I' in the hearts of all living beings. In other words, Arunachala is truly the non-dual reality that transcends time, space, name and form. Hence, many of the verses in The Five Hymns to Arunachala, being very mystic in nature, can well be interpreted as applying to the nameless and formless Self, rather than to the name and form of Arunachala. For this reason, some devotees tend to view Sri Bhagavan's revelation about the power of Arunachala as being purely allegorical, and a few even ask, 'When Arunachala is the Self, why should we attach any particular importance to this hill'.

[ In Talks, talk no. 273, it is recorded that Dr Syed once asked a similar question to Sri Bhagavan, who in reply pointed out that the hill had attracted to itself all the assembled devotees, including Sri Bhagavan himself, and that the power of the hill therefore could not be denied. ]

In order to understand more fully the importance that Sri Bhagavan attached to the name and form of this hill, it is necessary for us to take a broad view of his teachings. In verse four of Ulladu Narpadu (The Forty Verses on Reality) Sri Bhagavan says, 'If oneself is a form, the world and God will also be likewise'. That is, they will also be forms. In the first line of the third verse of Sri Arunachala Ashtakam he addresses Arunachala and sings, 'When I approach you, regarding you as having form, you stand here as a hill on earth'.

That is, so long as we identify the body as 'I', it is equally true that this hill is God. Indeed, Sri Bhagavan used to say that because we identify the body as 'I', Lord Siva, the Supreme Reality, out of his immense compassion for us, identifies this hill as 'I', so that we may see him, think of him and thereby receive his grace and guidance. 'Only to reveal your [transcendent] state without speech [i.e. through silence], you stand as a hill shining from earth to sky,' sings Sri Bhagavan in the last line of the second verse of Sri Arunachala Ashtakam.

So long as we feel the name and form of our body to be 'I', we cannot conceive God as being anything but a name and form. Even if we think that God is formless, that very thought about God itself is a form - a mere mental conception. This is why Sri Bhagavan says in the second line of the third verse of Ashtakam, 'If one tries to think of your nature as formless, he is like one who wanders throughout the world to see the sky'.

[ The futility of trying to conceive God as being formless when we are unable to know ourself as the formless Self, is well illustrated by a dialogue that Sri Bhagavan once had with some Muslims, which is recorded on p. 28 of Maha Yoga and in Talks, talk no. 121. ]

Being the perfect spiritual Master that he was, Sri Bhagavan knew well how important and necessary is the form of God for the human mind, which is ever attached to forms. And from his own personal experience he knew the unique power of the form of Arunachala, a power that cannot be found in such abundance in any other form of God, namely the power to turn the mind towards Self and thereby to root out the ego.

In verse eleven of Sri Arunachala Patikam Sri Bhagavan exclaims with joy and wonder, 'Lo! How many are there like me who have been destroyed by thinking this hill to be the Supreme… ,' thereby assuring us that if we regard this hill as God, our egos will surely be destroyed. Though Arunachala appears outwardly as a hill of mere insentient rock, the true devotee understands it to be the all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful Supreme Lord, who is guiding him both from within and without at every step and turn of life, leading him steadily and surely towards the goal of egolessness. 'What a wonder! It stands as if an insentient hill [yet] its action is mysterious - impossible for anyone to understand,' sings Sri Bhagavan in the first line of Sri Arunachala Ashtakam.

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