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A seeker asked, “The ancients say that for a person who wants to know the real state, sadhana (spiritual practice), sravana (listening to the Truth), Manana (reflection on the Truth) and Nidhidhyasana (abidance in the Truth) are absolutely necessary till the very end. Is that so?”

Bhagavan replied: “They are necessary only to get rid of the various things that come from outside and that too for purposes of sadhana only, but not for realising the Self. One’s own self is there at all times and in all places. Sravana etc are to be resorted to only to get rid of external influences but if they are regarded as the most important things they will be the cause of the development of further ego such as ‘I am a learned man, I am a great man’ and the like. That is a big samsara. It is difficult to get rid of it later on. It is bigger than a wild elephant. It will not yield ordinarily.”

“For that wild elephant, it is said that Guru Kataksham (the Grace of the Guru) is like seeing a lion in its dream”, said the questioner.

“That is true. If an elephant sees a lion in its dream, it wakes up startled and will not sleep again that day for fear that the lion might appear again in a dream. In the same way in a man’s life which is also akin to a dream, it is not Guru Kataksham alone, but also sravana, manana, nidhidhyasana etc that are akin to the sight of a lion in a dream. As they go on getting these dreams they wake up, and again go to bed and by efflux of time they may some day get a lion’s dream called Guru Kataksham in an intense manner. They get startled and obtain jnana. Then there will be no more dreams and they will not only be wakeful at all times but will not give room for any dreams of life but will remain alert until that true and real knowledge is obtained. These lion’s dreams are unavoidable and must be experienced”, said Bhagavan.

With some surprise the questioner asked, “are Sravana etc and Guru Kataksham akin to dreams?”. “Yes, that is so. For those who realise the truth, everything is akin to a dream. That being so, what do you now say, is the truth? During sleep you have no control over this body. You wander about in various places with different bodies. You do all sorts of things. At that time everything appears real. You do everything as if you are the doer. It is only after you wake up that you feel that you are so and so, that what you experienced in the dream is unreal and that it was only a dream. …

…. When you are able to understand your state which had been existent all the time, you will then understand that all the rest is a dream. When that is known, the feeling that the Guru is different from you will disappear. But then, since this realisation must come about because of Guru Kataksham, that Guru Kataksham is likened to the dream of a lion. That dream must be intense and must imprint itself in one’s mind. It is only then that a proper wakefulness will come about…”

Courtesy: Letters from Ramanasramam by Suri Nagamma

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The birth anniversary of Lord Krishna is celebrated as Krishna Jayanthi. Krishna was born on the Rohini star on Ashtami day. The celebrations in the households consist mainly of ritual fasting during the day, spending the whole night in the worship of Krishna, chanting hymns in praise of Krishna and reciting prayers from the Bhagavatham. After the puja ceremony in which the idol of Krishna is venerated with flowers and lamps, sweets and butter are offered up as Prasad and then eaten by the whole family.

In the village of Adi Annamalai, Krishna Jayanthi is celebrated by the village people under the name of “Uri Yadi Vizha” literally meaning ‘Beating the pot festival’. A high pole is erected in the centre of the village square. On the high end of the pole hangs the booty, many earthenware pots with money and sweets stashed inside. The sides of the pole are rubbed down with butter making it difficult to climb. The celebration takes the form of a contest. All the able bodied young men of the village, especially those of the Yadava community, vie with each other to climb up the slippery pole and hit the pots with a stick and break them, thus winning the prize of money and sweets that is contained inside.

It is quite an entertaining spectacle. While each man tries with great hardship to climb up the butter smeared pole and hit the pots, his task is made even harder by the crowd who throw buckets of water at him during his arduous ascent. Many of them get deterred and slip down the pole without being able to hit the pots with the stick. Then another tries and yet another and it goes on. Finally towards nightfall, a tough, undaunted lad reaches the top in spite of the slippery slide and the water drenching him and manages to hit one of the pots with a resounding thwack. The pot breaks and sweets come cascading down on the crowd. Children laugh and rush gleefully to grab the sweets.  Loud cries of Govinda! Govinda! rent the air. The drummers play with frenzied energy. Then more men feel encouraged by this hit and are able to climb up and break other pots. In the end all the pots are broken. Three of four men have been declared winners and the prize money is equally distributed between them. The crowd disperses slowly. Later on, an abhishekam is done to a small idol of Krishna in the same place and the prasad is shared by all.

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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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Aadiperukku is a festival celebrated on the 18th day of the Tamil month of Aadi (Mid july -August). This year it happened on the third of August. This festival is also called as “Padinettam perukku” – Padinettu -means 18 and Perukku signifies a great rising. The Aadi month falls during the south-west monsoon period and during this month all the south Indian rivers would normally get flooded by the rains. Aadi Perukku is celebrated in Tamilnadu and it is a time of rejoicing for the farming community who live on the banks of the main rivers and their tributaries. People perform special pujas to the river on this day. Hundreds of devotees, especially newly married couples celebrate this festival and worship the Mother Goddess on the banks of the river.

In Tiruvannamalai, due to the absence of a river in the town, Aadi Perukku is celebrated within the precincts of the big Temple. The Mulaipari ritual in which 9 types of grain are sown in  earthenware pots and then brought as offering to the Goddess, takes place outside the Pidari Amman shrine. This ritual is performed as a prayer to the Goddess to provide a plentiful monsoon and for fertility of the land and to have a bountiful yield from the crops. Women also float clay lamps on the Brahma Theertham of the temple and this is quite a lovely sight at night.

Subsequently, there is also the Aadi Puram festival which is celebrated in the big temple. During the celebrations, the Goddess Parashakthi is brought to the ‘valaiyal kappu mandapam’ in the 5th courtyard. Here, first the Goddess is worshipped with a grand abhishekam. Then She is beautifully adorned in a silk sari and decked with golden ornaments and flowers. After this a long queue of women devotees offer bracelets and bangles (valaiyal) to the Goddess. The priest places the bracelets on Her arms and then returns them to the women as prasad. Rudram is chanted by the Vaidikas (brahmin vedic scholars) all the while. And thus the festive month of Aadi draws to a close and with these final two festivals it is believed the Mother Goddess to whom this month is consecrated, would have been ideally propitiated  and Her blessings would be abundantly showered.

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