Posts from Arunachala-live

Talk 212.    Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Maharshi observed: Pradakshina (the Hindu rite of going round the object of  worship) is “All is within me.” The true significance of the act of going round  Arunachala is said to be as effective as circuit round the world. That means that  the whole world is condensed into this Hill. The circuit round the temple of  Arunachala is equally good; and self-circuit (i.e., turning round and round) is as  good as the last. So all are contained in the Self. Says the Ribhu Gita: “I remain  fixed, whereas innumerable universes becoming concepts within my mind, rotate  within me. This meditation is the highest circuit (pradakshina).’”

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Aradhana is the Samadhi day of  Sri Ramana Maharshi, the day on which he left the human body and attained Brahma Nirvana. Sri Bhagavan Himself considered both life and death in this body as mere thought forms. In this regard, an old devotee S.S. Cohen recalls this from the master’s teaching in his book Guru Ramana: “Life is miserable because it consists of nothing but thoughts. When death strikes down the body, the dreamless, thought-free state prevails for a brief period, but soon thinking starts again in the dream – ‘astral’ – world, and continues till a full ‘waking’ takes place in a new body, after another dreamless lull. This daily cycle of waking and sleeping is a miniature of the cycle of life and death in man and the universe, of alternation of activity and rest. The substance of the former is thoughts and sensations, and of the latter the peaceful being from which these arise. To transcend birth and death we have, therefore, to transcend the processes of thought and abide in the Eternal Being… But the Jnani, the Self-Realised man, whose mind has already ceased to act, remains unaffected by death; it has dropped never to rise again to cause births and deaths. The chain of illusion has snapped forever for him… It is now clear that there is neither real birth nor real death. It is the mind which creates and maintains the illusion of reality in this process, till it is destroyed by Self-Realisation.”

Sri Ramana attained Maha Nirvana on April 14th 1950 and some people may wonder why Aradhana was celebrated on the 18th of April this year. This is because, in India, religious and spiritual anniversaries are usually observed according to the astrological constellation and so the day of commemoration may vary from year to year in lieu of the appearance of the constellation.

This year too, in the Ashram,  the usual Aradhana programme was observed. The morning began with special chanting of Ramana sthuthi panchagam and Aksharamanamalai after which the Brahmin priests commenced the Rudra japam in preparation for the grand Ekadasa Mahanyasa Rudra abhishekam in the shrine of Ramana’s samadhi, which was the main event of the day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served to one and all and devotees partook enthusiastically in all the meals.

In the evening there was a music concert rendered by the troupe from Ramana Maharshi centre for learning in Bangalore. They sang songs in praise of Ramana in Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit, covering both ancient and contemporary compositions. May the truth of Ramana’s who am I shine in all our hearts on this Aradhana !

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Correcting oneself is correcting the whole world.
The Sun is simply bright. It does not correct anyone.
Because it shines, the whole world is full of light.
Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world.

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Long long ago there lived a demon (Asura) named Mahisha. He wanted to become invincible and so he prayed to Lord Brahma for the boon of invincibility. With this aim he performed severe penances and austerities.  All the three worlds trembled under the strength of his penance. This impressed Lord Brahma who then came down to grant him a boon. Mahisha asked for immortality, which the Lord said he could not have as every creature that was born had to die. Mahisha decided that he would cunningly ask for a boon that would make him as good as immortal. He asked that no man should be able to kill and if he had to die, it should only be at the hands of a woman. He was sure that no woman could ever fight against him however strong she would be.

Now that Mahisha was invincible, he started doing evil deeds and terrorising the people on earth and boldly tried to conquer the gods in heaven. His attack was so powerful that even Indra’s mighty thunderbolt could not drive him away. Mahisha drove out the Gods and took over Indra’s throne and  started harassing all the pious people who continued praying to Vishnu or Shiva. Unable to tolerate his tyranny, the gods pleaded with Vishnu to put an end to the demon. The Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara (Shiva) joined together to create an all powerful female form with ten arms – Goddess Durga or ‘Mahamaya’, the Mother of the Universe who embodies the primeval source of all power. The gods then bestowed upon this Supreme creation their individual blessings and weapons. Armed like a warrior, the goddess appeared on the back of a fierce lion to battle with the Mahisasura. After a fierce combat the ‘Durgatinashini’ was able to slay the ‘Asura’ king with her trident. She thus earned the title of Mahishasura Mardhini – the destroyer of Mahishasura.  Heaven and earth rejoiced over her victory and everyone, gods and humans alike chanted loudly the  refrain of  supplication before this Supreme Power:

“Ya devi sarbabhuteshshu, sakti rupena sanksthita Namasteshwai Namasteshwai Namasteshwai namo namaha.”

Vijaya Dasami is the day on which this event happened. It is the tenth day after the nine nights of Navaratri and signifies the victory of the Goddess Durga over the powers of darkness. It is believed that the famous battle between Durga and Mahishasura took place right here on the slopes of Arunachala. Thus the brave Parvathi took the form of Durga, the fierce Shakthi and screamed at Mahishasura, “This is a sacred place where only sages and devotees of Arunachala can reside, therefore do not incur the wrath of my Lord and be burnt by Him. It is ordained that I should fight and kill you.” Hence She took him outside the borders of Tiruvannamalai. After a nine day battle She slayed him and returned to Tiruvannamalai truimphantly, where She continued her tapas on the slopes of the holy mountain. Thus the Navaratri festival although celebrated all over India, has the greatest significance in Tiruvannamalai.

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According to a geological study of the Continents, it seemed that the continents were once a huge mass of land, part of an ancient super continent Pangea. In course of time this huge mass of land broke up into fragments which began to drift, forming the present continents. Certain continents (S.America and Africa, Africa and India with Madagascar in between; India and Australia; and Antartica) now far apart seem to fit together if joined. A study of positions of magnetic poles measured from rocks in two of the continents likewise indicated relative movement between the two continents. Also the geological structures and formation of rocks particularly charnockite seem to perfectly fit as one single mass when these continents are put together. The distribution of certain flora and fauna belonging to Gondwana Land – supercontinent Pangaea, which is the convergence of the movements of continents about 350 million years ago.

The section of land from Tiruvannamalai towards Villupuram contains various stages of migmatisation of charnockite (of Tiruvannamalai it is 2.55 billion years) and the associated members culminating in the formation of Gingee pluton (2.5 billion years). The evidence gathered from geological studies made in Tiruvannamalai during the 1970′s throws light on the formation of the charnockite and related assemblages of rocks older than 3000-3500 million years. The rock formation in this section as explained in the process of migmatisation of charnockite and associated rocks in phases culminated in the evolvement of Gingee Pluton consisting of granite composition.

A detailed study of the world mountains, with particular reference to India, reveals the following features : The world’s famous mountain ranges like the Alps, the Rockies, the Andes, the Himalayan and Applatian ranges contain high peaks at very high altitudes, but geo-chronologically they do not come under the Archaeon period and belong to younger ages. The upheaval of the Himalayas was not a continuous process but took place in four phases. Himalayan ranges are less than 50 million years old, whereas the upheaval was in one single phase for the holy hill of Arunachala.

The Tiruvannamalai hill is an imposing landmark with an elevation of 2634 feet and is the highest peak in the hill ranges found conspicuously in the western and southwestern directions of Tiruvannamalai; the eastern and southeastern parts of Tiruvannamalai on the other hand are gently undulating plains dotted with few knolls and mounds. Also it would appear that among other mounainous belts, the Deccan plateau in Southern India including Tiruvannamalai is one of the areas of little or no tectonic activity i.e. seismologically these belts have not changed their characterisitics drastically over a long period of time. In recorded history the origin and flow of rivers, homosapiens, flora and fauna are geo-chronologically far later developments.

From the above inferences, it is clear that the holy hill of Arunachala is older than the Himalayas (mount Everest or Kailash) and hence the oldest natural shrine in the world. And so, Manickavasagar, one of the ancient 63 Tamil saivaite saints hails Lord Arunachala as ‘older than the oldest’ and ‘later than the latest’.

(courtesy: French Institute Research studies on Tiruvannamalai and Ramana’s Arunachala by Devotees)

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Arunachala-live has now been configured for the iphone and ipad for the benefit of those wishing to see Arunachala on apple mobile devices.  Previously this was not possible but our technical support staff has solved this problem in a very elegant manner.  We are very grateful for their diligent efforts.  The main page functionality has also been improved and you can notice some slight differences, especially when resizing your browser.  Previously the camera image was a fixed size even if the rest of the browser was resized.  It now resizes with the rest of the page allowing viewers to adjust the main page to their screen size.  We hope our mobile users enjoy the possibility to view Arunachala on their devices

The Arunachala-live team

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Due to the recent tropical cyclone we have disconnected the live video to Arunachala to avoid storm damage. It will be reconnected as soon as the weather permits. Lightening is especially dangerous as at can destroy our equipment. Both the adsl and power lines are a danger from severe power surges.

A-L team

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Due to technical problems, we have recently changed the wide angle camera.  The previous camera developed problems with time sequencing which made control of image uploads difficult.

Through the contributions of devotees we were able to purchase the new camera and now it is installed. You will notice an increase in clarity as well as the correct time. The previous camera will need to be returned to the USA for repair and when it returns will be used as a spare in case of future trouble.

These cameras are remarkable for their endurance. They are exposed to rain, sun, and weather of all types, which we know can be harsh and unforgiving here in South India, but they still are able to upload an image every minute, day after day.

Maintenance is involved, as well as regular costs and we are fortunate that devotees, appreciating the value of our service, have contributed what they could. We give our heartfelt thanks to those who have helped us make Arunachala-Live possible.

We welcome any assistence devotees can provide. The long term existence of Arunachala-Live requires regular financial support.

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Welcome to the events and information page of Arunanchala-live.

The web site is dedicated to the service of devotees and followers of Arunachala.  On the main camera page we hope to provide the opportunity, wherever one lives, to experience the  presence  of the hill.

There are many moods of Arunachala, we hope to show you some of them.  The two cameras provide a wide angle and a telephoto view, and due to the camera quality we can often get excellent images.

Several new features have been added recently.  The daily chanting of the Tamil Parayana from Sri Ramanashram and a new photo gallery to display our collection of photographs and contributions from other devotees.

We have also started a new sister site,  www.spiritualwebshots.com  where devotees can upload their own photos to share with others.  Unlike other social networking and photo websites we intend to keep the focus on the spiritual aspect.

The events and information page has been started in response to Devotees who have requested photo coverage of other events relating to Arunachala and its surroundings.  This is a new area for Arunachala-live but in a way it is a natural extension of our mission and we have engaged someone to under take this work.   We hope you enjoy it.

The events and information page, which you are seeing here with this first post, will be developed  with the help of devotees and the A-L team who will  bring you scenes of Spiritual events from around Arunachala.  This will include the Main and other temples,  Sri Ramanashram, the Girivalam path and other places of Interest.  The photos will be accompanied by a commentary and explanation.  We will focus on the spiritual, leaving the social, political, economic, enviornmental and humanitarian issues to other websites.

We will also use these pages for announcements  regarding the operation of our cameras and any difficulties we encounter with our hardware or network problems in Tiruvannamalai that interrupt our service.

Thank you and we hope you enjoy all the features of Arunachala-Live

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