From Mallikarjuna

[Guest guest]

This is a response to an earlier message asking details about travel to

Arunachal to visit the places associated with Ramana Maharashi.

 

We had to edit this message as it contained the tail end of an earlier long message.

Can all members make sure that they delete the previous messages when they

respond to any message?..............jay

 

 

 

 

"Mallikarjuna Konduri" <mallikonduri@ Fri Dec 12, 2003 4:37am Re: [sri Ramakrishna] Arunachala!

 

 

 

 

Namaste Mr.Santhosh,There is a lot of information available on the net on traveling to Tiruvannamalai. To begin with, you could check out http://www.geocities.com/tiruvannamalainet/tourtvc.htmAnd if you intend to stay at Sri Ramanasramam, you could get in touch with them at http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/Apart from that, let me give you my two-bits! Tiruvannamalai is a small town which might have been described as 'sleepy' perhaps 10 years ago. Not any more! It is still a small town but is as crowded and loud as they get. It really owes its 'loud awakening' to the life and legend of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramanasramam and the multitudes that throng there everyday. Sri Ramanasramam, with its ever-growing traffic of seekers-of-Self, is really the heart of its growth. Then there is, of course, the holy hill Arunachala - as silent and as magnetic as ever. The third is the temple of Sri Arunachalewara - a huge, ancient, sprawling temple complex which is said to be the abode of Shiva as Jyotir Linga (Shiva as light).There are any number of other Asrams to stay at, apart from Sri Ramanasramam itself. When my freinds and I visited, we stayed at the small and charmimg Atithi Asram, just 5 minutes from the Ramanasramam. Stay and food are free, but can one always makes a small donation (to one's capacity). As with any holy town in India, T'malai has a booming and loud commerce. The town has suffered from an increase in population, ad-hoc development, unchecked encroachment and all the other consequences of unplanned development. That is sad, especially when you see that the local bodies and the government seem to have done very little in response to it being a major spiritual center. Like we say in India, we are like that only!If you go there as a piligrim, you go despite and inspite of all this infernal noise around you. Perhaps this is the God's way of challenging the faithful :-). Perhaps all this surrounding noise of commercialization makes the heart of Tiruvannamalai, the Silent center, more profound. Because, mark my words, if we have the ability to tune our ears and hearts to listen below the noise, that Silence and that Call are still there to be heard!Hope this helps.Loving regards,Mallikarjuna