Monday, February 12, 2007

Tiruvannamalai- and my confusions!!

There are some things in life which are unexplainable / inexplicable. I'm not talking here about the the Stone Henge or how Roger Bannister ran the first sub-minute mile.

Tiruvannamalai- Abode of Arunachala Shiva and Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi- is one of those things for me!
As a young boy of 16, Sri Ramana attained Self realisation in an instant and left his home town to reach Arunachalam (and he never again left the town). After some time spent in the temple, he went up the Arunachala Hill- to Virupaksha Cave, where he spent 17 silent years meditating and contemplating on "Who am I" and later, he moved further up the hill to Skandashram and spent another 7 years, again mostly in silence. The last years of his incarnation were spent at the ashram at the foot of the hill and he left his body there in 1950 (more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi )
Now, for a life mostly spent in silence, there is hardly reason for other people to get attracted around him. There were hardly any instances where he gave discourses to devotees or ordained them onto a spiritual path. As said earlier, that is why, it is inexplicable (in terms of logic), the reason why millions and millions of people flock to Tiruvannamalai. Even more confusing is the aspect that the majority of the visitors are foreigners (mostly Europeans), but are so at peace in the surroundings and stay on for months and years! Now, Bhagavan never spoke a word of English- nor was it the era of recordings, broadcasts and translations. All the books on the library (with the exception of a few verses in tamil) were written by devotees and not by the master.
In fact, most of the people in the place were not even born by the time Maharishi left his body in 1950!!
Now, i've decided to give up Logic here (as it seems to be serving no purpose). This is something we can't understand at a physical level!
It is something else that is bringing people in from far-flung corners of the globe to this place.

There is an abundance of Positive Energy in Tiruvannamalai and on Arunachala Hill. It is this energy that brings together people irrespective of Religion, Age, Background, Upbringing and even Language.
There cannot be a person who steps into this place and comes back exactly as the same person who went there!
Something inside us (which we never knew existed) will awaken!

1 comment:

ambika said...

Seems like your search has begun. All the best!!